English abstracts #82:

SIGRID WEIGEL: ACTING AND MEMORY, HOPE AND GUILT: HERITAGE AS THE BOND OF GENERATIONS IN ARENDT, BENJAMIN, HEINE, AND FREUD

The article discusses different but related figures of trans-generational heritage in the writings of Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, Heinrich Heine, and Sigmund Freud. The common ground of these German-Jewish authors is an interpretative pattern within the theory of history/memory based in the idea of a strong bond of subsequent generations and their interrelation, which refers back to the biblical origins of the idea of ‘heritage’. Both Heine and Benjamin hypothesize a secret agreement between the generations, which might be read as the origin of the idea of solidarity. In Freud’s psychoanalysis we find a complementary concept in the figure of ‘archaic heritage’ elaborated in Monotheism, namely a trans-generational transferal of repressed memories of the ancestors to their offspring. While Freud, not coincidentally after the First World War and during the rise of Nazism, discovers the unconscious transfer of guilt, Arendt seeks – after the Second World War – to regain, in the space between human beings, action as the space of the political. By emphasizing ‘natality’ as a basic human condition she invests policy in the acting of men in history with the condition of the possibility of a new beginning. The future, according to the insight of these authors, will not be created in abstract images or produced by means of a program, but will come into being by the treatment of the past and the heritage of those who lived before us and by the way in which we act in the present.

Keywords: Heritage, bond of generations, afterlife, memory, action

ANDREAS BECK HOLM: THE ACCURSED HERITAGE: ROUSSEAU, MARX, AND THE QUESTION OF TRADITION

This paper examines how first Rousseau and later Marx both try to tackle heritage as tradition. Following Althusser’s analysis, it is argued that Rousseau’s attempt at solving the problem fails, and that Marx, although his initial approach to the problem resembles that of Rousseau, in his mature writings finds a more constructive way to deal with tradition as ideology. Finally, it is suggested that the failure of Rousseau’s approach may be due to his way of framing the question.

Keywords: Rousseau, Marx, Althusser, tradition, ideology

MARTIN DACKLING: THE STATE AS HEIR: INHERITANCE TAXATION IN PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE IN SCANDINAVIA, 1890-1935

Inheritance is normally distributed to the heirs, but during the 20th century the state claimed a share of the estate through inheritance taxation. The purpose of this article is to examine how the successively increased importance of inheritance taxation in Scandinavia was justified in political debate between 1890 and 1935. The results shows that the tax was mainly motivated by the state’s increased revenue needs. The tax was not controversial in Denmark or Sweden, but caused strong conflicts in the Norwegian debate.

Keywords: inheritance, inheritance taxation, Scandinavia, family, political debate

RUNAR DØVING & JON SCHACKT: THE JUBILEE AND ALLODIAL RIGHTS: CONCERNING THE NATURALISATION OF THE RIGHTS TO PROPERTY AND INHERITANCE

The rights concerning ownership to, and inheritance of, property are generally looked to as natural and taken for granted. In this article we ask why the rights of inheritance usually priorities consanguine bonds and how this arrangement originated. As rights to property and inheritance was non-existent or only of minor importance in ancient hunter and gathering societies, we assume that these phenomena arose or became socially significant only with the development of agriculture and livestock breeding. In different agricultural societies the institutionalisation (and naturalisation) of inheritance rights took form in accordance with the kinship and symbolic systems of each. Here we take a closer look at two legal institutions in two different societies: the Jubilee of the Ancient Israelites (as accounted for in the Book of Leviticus) and the allodial rights of early mediaeval Norway (as represented in the Gulathing Law). We interpret these two institutions in terms of local kinship and symbolic systems and compare them to the ideas on natural law forwarded by John Locke, which in modern times has served as the foundation on which laws on property and inheritance are legitimised.

Keywords: Inheritance, property rights, kinship, naturalisation

JAKOB LADEGAARD: THE END OF A NEW BEGINNING: INHERITANCE IN CONTEMPORARY DANISH FILM AND TELEVISION DRAMA

Inheritance is about cold cash and warm emotions. On a macroeconomic level, inherited wealth is a source of inequality, but on a personal level it is a gift between relatives that can involve gratitude, but also a sense of obligation and duty; continuity, but also conflicts. These perspectives often clash in public discussions about inheritance law and taxation. This article discusses the implicit notions about inheritance and their relationship to positions in the public debate in three Danish filmic works: Per Fly’s Inheritance (2003), first season of the TV-series The Heirs (2014) and Christian Sønderby Jepsen’s The Will (2011).

Keywords: Inheritance debate, estate tax, The Legacy, Inheritance, The Will

JULIE HASTRUP-MARKUSSEN: HOWARDS ENDS SPIRITUAL HEIR: INHERITANCE AND INALIENABLE WEALTH IN E. M. FORSTERS HOWARDS END (1910)

When E. M. Forster published the novel Howards End in 1910, it was at the height of ‘the inheritance society’, and the gulf between rich and poor was great and problematic; a fact that Forster was very well aware of. Yet in spite of this, the main character in Howards End, Margaret Schlegel, is a financially independent rentier living off of the wealth of her ancestors, and her wealth increases when she is named the ‘spiritual heir’ of Ruth Wilcox and thus inherits the house of Howards End. In this study, I argue that Forster shifts the focus from inherited money to inherited values in order to pardon a society of great inequality. Drawing on an aristocratic principle, Forster thus deals with inheritance as an inalienable and spiritual subject rather than as a legal and economic one.

Keywords: Howards End, inheritance, inalienable wealth, inequality, objects

MARCUS LEE NALDAL: “THE COMMEMORATIVE YEAR WHICH WAS BESTOWED UPON NO OTHER DANISH SCIENTIST” – THE LEGACY OF H.C. ØRSTED AND ELECTROMAGNETISM IN 1920

This article shows how the legacy of Hans Christian Ørsted (1777-1851), and his discovery of electromagnetism in 1820, was reconfigured and used by the H.C.  Ørsted Committee from 1914 before and during the centenary of 1920. Combining Somsen’s (2008) concept of olympic internationalism with uses of the past, I suggest understanding the 1920-centenary as an instance of olympic commemoration [olympisk historiebrug]. I argue that central actors from the committee, e.g. Martin Knudsen (1871-1949) and Kirstine Meyer, née Bjerrum (1861-1941), used Ørsted’s nationality to substantiate Denmark’s cultural and scientific achievements. By comparison to pre-twentieth century biographies, I show how the committee re-described Ørsted, i.e. from a scientist [Naturforsker] to being a Danish scientist [dansk Naturforsker]. The committee was deeply concerned with proving the big  contributions by the small nation of Denmark, and I show how this relates to cultural politics of the early twentieth century Denmark.

Keywords:  Olympic Internationalism, Commemorations, Ørsted, nationalism