Facing Asymmetry: Nordic Intellectuals and Center-Periphery Dynamics in European Cultural Space

This article addresses the role of asymmetry in the interaction between intellectual fields in Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By focusing on the spatial and temporal hierarchies implicit in the ways intellectuals from the Nordic countries perceived and made use of marginality and backwardness, the article brings a peripheral perspective to the discussion of transnational intellectual history. This is important as the discussion on transnational history tends to stress notions like reciprocity and hybridity, which reproduce the ideal of a borderless and equal republic of letters, and paints a too harmonious picture of global cultural space.