Artikkelen diskuterer to hovedmodeller for forståelsen av norsk litteraturhistorie i det 19. århundre; naermere bestemt for tolkningen av relasjonen mellom romantikken og realismen. Ved å bruke resepsjonshistorien til Bjørnsons Synnøve Solbakken (1857) som hovedeksempel, argumenterer artikkelen i favør av en realistisk lesning av 1850-årene, slik denne kan gjenfinnes i verk av litteraturhistorikere som Christen Collin, Ernst Sars og Gerhard Gran.
The article argues that literary history and historiography ought to be revitalized as central concerns for literary studies. A critical discussion of the arguments raised against literary historiography in the early 1980s serves as the article's point of departure, while the main section analyzes the concept of Romanticism as it has been used in various historical classifications of Norwegian literature. The link between Romanticism and Realism is seen as a possible clue to a creative renewal of the entire historiographical tradition.
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