History Revisited

Study of historical narratives of 20th-century Danish writer Thorkild Hansen.

History Revisited is an introduction to the historical narratives of Thorkild Hansen (1927-1989), Scandinavia's most influential writer in the documentary genre. The book offers valuable insights into the boundaries betweenhistory and literature, placing Hansen's oeuvre in the context of discussions by such canonical scholars as Collingwood, Croce, Dilthey, Foucault, and Hayden White. The book takes up in particular the question of Hansen's historical inquiries into Denmark's past and analyses how he shifts the focus from that of traditional historiography to obscure figures and failed ventures in the nation's past. Of special interest to American and English readers is thediscussion of Hansen's monumental Slave Trilogy which offers a revisionist view of Denmark's role in the African slave trade. Finally, History Revisited demonstrates how the problematics of Hansen's historical worksextend into his controversial trilogy on the trial of Knut Hamsun and into the postwar history of Norway.