Johnny Kondrup

CV

Education

• DPhil (dr.phil.), Faculty of Humanities, University of Odense 1994.
• PhD (lic.phil.) in Scandivian Philology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen 1985.
• Teaching Credential (pædagogikum) at Haderslev Cathedral School 1982.
• Awarded the university’s academic gold medal 1981.
• MA (mag.art.) in Scandinavian Languages and Literatures, Faculty of Humanities, University of Odense 1981.

Positions Held

• Full Professor of Scandinavian Literatures, Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen since 2012.
• Head of the digital edition of N.F.S. Grundtvig’s Complete Works, Faculty of Theology, University of Aarhus, 2010-13.
• Associate Professor of Danish Literature, Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen, 1998-2012.
• Associate Research Professor and head of the critical work on Søren Kierkegaard’s Skrifter, The Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre, Faculty of Theology, University of Copenhagen, 1993-98.
• Research Council Fellow at Nordic Institute, University of Odense, 1989-91 and 1993.
• Research Council Fellow at Nordic Institute, University of Odense, 1989-91 and 1993.
  Research Fellow at the Department of Nordic Philology, University of Copenhagen, 1982-85.

Other

• Member of the Society for Norwegian Language and Literature since 2016.
• Member of the editorial board of Samlaren (journal issued by The Swedish Society for Literature) since 2013.
• Member of the Norwegian Academy for Science and Letters since 2005.
• Member of Arbeitsgemeinschaft germanistische Edition since 2005.
• Member of the European Society for Textual Scholarship 2002-2008.
• Member of the governing body of Henrik Ibsens Skrifter, The Norwegian Research Council and The University of Oslo, 1998-2009.
• Member of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft philosophischer Editionen since 1998.
• Founder of the Nordic Network for Textual Scholarship (Nordisk Netværk for Editionsfilologer, www.nnedit.org) and member of the governing body 1995-2015.
• Member of the Society for Danish Language and Literature since 1990.

Primary fields of research

• Danish literature from circa 1800 to 1960.
• Biography as a genre and biographical methods. Autobiography and memoirs.
• Textual Scholarship (textual criticism, variants, commentary, digital editing etc.).
• The History of Editing.
• Co-editor of Søren Kierkegaard’s Writings (Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter), see: http://sks.dk/forside/skr.asp
• Co-editor of N.F.S. Grundtvig’s Works (N.F.S. Grundtvigs Værker), see: http://www.grundtvigsværker.dk

Current research

My current research runs along three lines:
One is the history of editing, i.e., the history of scholarly editions. Financially supported by the Velux Foundation, I manage the interdisciplinary research project The History of Editing in Denmark (Dansk Editionshistorie), which will map out Denmark’s contribution to the scholarly editing of Greek and Latin classics, Old Norse and Old Danish medieval literature and Danish literature after 1500. See: http://danskeditionshistorie.ku.dk/ 

As a result of my previous research in textual scholarship, I have become increasingly interested in the most elementary questions, not only of this discipline, but of literary studies and many of the other humanities fields as well: What is a text? What makes a text (or a cluster of texts) into a work? Driven by a theoretical urge to understand the ontology of the concepts ‘text’ and ‘work’, which we all use, but seldom define, I explore different usages of these terms in literary theory and textual scholarship, and try to judge them critically by their merits.

A third line of research concerns the concepts of illusion and seduction in Scandinavian literature from Søren Kierkegaard to Karen Blixen. These concepts develop particularly rapidly after Romanticism, where poetry becomes subservient to the cosmic spirit and takes on a responsibility for describing the inner coherence of existence. From this point on, reality is no longer dogmatically restrained, and the seducer is no longer just a rogue, but a demonic figure, who threatens the order of the world. That creates fascinating literature.

Teaching

• Danish and Scandinavian literary history
• Textual Scholarship and History of Editing
• Thematic readings of selected oeuvres and works

Introductory remarks on publicationslist

Listen omfatter ikke publikationer fra tiden 1979-1997.