Neo-romantic hero: Vital characters in Holger Drachmann’s short stories

Abstract

The article focuses on the specific type of literary hero that is common in the short stories of Holger Drachmann, who was considered the most prominent Danish writer in the early 20th century. His first books, “Poems” and a collection of short stories, “With Charcoal and Chalk”, were published in 1872. At the time, Drachmann belonged to the modernist movement and was one of Georg Brandes’ students, but later he changed his political and aesthetic preferences and moved away from the group of Brandes’ followers. Drachman’s artistic style is very special because it has features of Naturalism, Romanticism, Impressionism and Symbolism. But it is possible to conclude that his artistic manner can be called “neo-romantic” according to the contemporary terminology. The characters in his early collections of short stories are vivid, honest, and strong, and they represent the common type of neo-romantic hero that is inherent in other texts related to Neo-Romanticism. Very often Neo-Romanticism is seen as a “reaction” to Naturalism and a return to the principles of Romanticism, but it seems that Neo-Romanticism is much more like Naturalism than Romanticism. The type of neo-romantic hero is closer to naturalistic characters than to romantic characters, because it is a courageous and extraordinary person, an outsider and a rebel, his life is full of desire, risk and adventure, and it looks like a romantic hero, but a neo-romantic hero is a physically and mentally healthy person, and this character is determined by nature and genesis, which is the main feature of Naturalism. Drachman creates a new type of hero in Danish literature: the vital, strong character who struggles with nature and circumstances. His characters have the healthy genetics of ordinary people. Neo-Romanticism in Danish literature was strongly influenced by Naturalism and was the original phenomenon of national literature.