Johan Ludvig Heiberg (poet)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the Danish philologist, see Johan Ludvig Heiberg (historian).
Johan Ludvig Heiberg

Johan Ludvig Heiberg (14 December 1791 – 25 August 1860),

literary historian son of the political writer Peter Andreas Heiberg (1758–1841), and of the novelist, afterwards the Baroness Gyllembourg-Ehrensvärd, was born in Copenhagen. He promoted Hegelian philosophy and introduced vaudeville to Denmark.[1]

Biography

In 1800 his father was exiled and settled in

Oehlenschläger and Ingemann
possessed the popular ear, and were understood at once to be the opening of a great career.

In 1817 Heiberg took his degree, and in 1819 went abroad with a grant from government. He proceeded to Paris, and spent the next three years there with his father. In 1822 he published his drama Nina and was made professor of the

University of Kiel, where he delivered a course of lectures, comparing the Scandinavian mythology as found in the Edda
with the poems of Oehlenschläger. These lectures were published in German in 1827.

In 1825 Heiberg came back to Copenhagen for the purpose of introducing the vaudeville on the Danish stage. He composed a great number of these vaudevilles, of which the best known are King Solomon and George the Hatmaker (1825); April Fools (1826); A Story in Rosenborg Garden (1827); Kjøge Huskors (1831); The Danes in Paris (1833); No (1836); and Yes (1839). He took his models from the French theatre, but showed extraordinary skill in blending the words and the music; but the subjects and the humour were essentially Danish and even topical.


Meanwhile he was producing dramatic work of a more serious kind; in 1828 he brought out the national drama of

Tieck
's Elfin; and in 1838 Fata Morgana. In 1841 Heiberg published a volume of New Poems containing A Soul after Death, a comedy which is perhaps his masterpiece, The Newly Wedded Pair, and other pieces.

He edited from 1827 to 1830 the famous weekly, the Flyvende Post (The Flying Post), and subsequently the Interimsblade (1834–1837) and the Intelligensblade (1842–1843). In his journalism he carried on his warfare against the excessive pretensions of the

which?
] popular vaudevilles.

Heiberg's scathing satires, however, made him very unpopular; and this antagonism reached its height when, in 1845, he published his malicious little drama of The Nut Crackers. Nevertheless he became in 1849 director of the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen. He filled the post for seven years, working with great zeal and conscientiousness, but was forced by intrigues from without to resign it in 1856.

Heiberg died at Bonderup Manor, near Ringsted, on 25 August 1860.

Philosophy

Heiberg's speculative philosophy had relation to

Kierkegaard, and dealt a lot with the perception of God.[2] His work Om Vaudevillen (1826) has been described as an attack to Dilettantism, "a curse on the age's materialism or atheism in art, a critical attack on the prevailing aesthethics of content," as well as "a strong defense of true science," lifelong study, free laughter, satire and comedy.[3] Heiberg tried to reconcile Hegel's philosophy with Christianity, for instance, equating Hegel's concept of Spirit, with the view of the Christian God; at other times he seems to prefer the Christian doctrine.[4]

Legacy

His influence upon taste and critical opinion was greater than that of any writer of his time, and can only be compared with that of

elitist by posterity and the reaction against his line was already started by Georg Brandes
who was, however, affected by his school too. At any rate most of later Danish critics had to make up their mind about his ideas.

The poetical works of Heiberg were collected, in 11 vols, in 1861–1862, and his prose writings (11 vols) in the same year. The last volume of his works contains fragments of autobiography. See also Georg Brandes, Essays (1889). For the elder Heiberg see monographs by Thaarup (1883) and by Schwanenflügel (1891).

References

  1. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica. Johan Ludvig Heiberg.
  2. ^ See: Jon Bartley Stewart. 2008. Johan Ludvig Heiberg: Philosopher, Littérateur, Dramaturge, and Political Thinker. Museum Tusculanum Press. Especially page 78
  3. ^ Stewart. 2008. p. 229
  4. ^ Stewart. 2008. p. 128-138
  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Heiberg, Johan Ludvig". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Further reading

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Johan_Ludvig_Heiberg_(poet)&oldid=1159550754"