Janteloven

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Law of Jante ( Dan. / Norw. : Janteloven , Swed. : Jantelagen ) is a standard term which on Aksel sands Moses (1899-1965) novel A refugee crosses his tracks ( En flyktning krysser sitt spor , 1933) back. In it, Sandemose describes the small-minded milieu of a small Danish town called Jante and the pressure to adapt that family and social environment exert on the growing boy Espen Arnakke.

Jante's law has been understood as a code of conduct for social rules in the Scandinavian cultural area. Although originally intended as a criticism of social constraints, the meaning of Jante has changed in such a way that it can also criticize people who want to put themselves above their social group or who “consider something better”. The codex presumably owes its lasting anchoring in the public to this ambivalence : by some it is viewed positively as a - essentially justified - limitation of egotistical striving for success; others see the suppression of individuality and personal development enshrined in Jante's law.

From an anthropological perspective, Janteloven could point to a possible typically Scandinavian self-restraint in social interaction: Modesty displayed avoids envy and ensures the success of the collective .

Ten Commandments

Jante's Ten Commandments on a plaque in Aksel Sandemose's birthplace Nykøbing / Mors.

The law of Jante is modeled after Moses' Ten Commandments ; As a sarcastic intensification of the Decalogue, the individual commandments only express variations of the same message:

“This is Jante's law

  1. You shouldn't believe that you are special.
  2. You shouldn't believe that you are our equal.
  3. You shouldn't believe that you are smarter than us.
  4. You shouldn't pretend that you are better than us.
  5. You shouldn't believe that you know more than we do.
  6. You shouldn't believe that you are worth more than us.
  7. You shouldn't believe that you are good for anything.
  8. You shouldn't laugh at us.
  9. You shouldn't believe that anyone cares about you.
  10. You shouldn't believe that you can teach us anything. "

In the second, revised edition from 1955, Aksel Sandemose commented, as a narrative author, practically undisguised:

“Deviation was never tolerated. It caused an unbearable pressure. (...) Jante's law and religion show us that if people have been oppressed for a reasonable amount of time, they themselves take over the oppression. Jante has given himself the law and is suppressing himself without anyone having to worry about it. (...) With the law of Jante people kill their chances, that means every possibility for love and peace. "

And he added an eleventh commandment, the form of which is an expression of general suspicion and "strikes the unconscious like lightning":

“Do you think I don't know anything about you? (...) Jante's law was Jante's constitution. The "eleventh commandment" was the criminal law . "

Suggestions from the author

Aksel Sandemose grew up in Nykøbing / Mors , Denmark , after whose model the author designed the fictional town of Jante . He said in an interview in 1949: "Jante and Nykøbing are one and the same town as long as it is about the cityscape, nature, things without life. But people just as easily refer to Ribe or Arendal ." In the foreword to the 1955 edition, Sandemose wrote mischievously: "Many people (in Jante) recognized their hometown - people from Arendal, Tromsø and Viborg routinely experienced this".

"Jante" is a small piece of money in Danish, comparable to red heller or penny in German. In the “Law of Jante” there is a hint of what is “only right and just” for everyone.

reception

The Jantelov has been taken up many times by Scandinavian writers and sociologists alike since the 1930s and applied from different perspectives.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andersen, Steen: Den løbske Jantelov . In: Morsø Folkeblad . July 6, 1992 ( sandemose.dk ).
  2. ↑ Aksel Sandemose: En flyktning krysser sitt spor. Espen Arnakke's commentary to Janteloven , Oslo 1999, p. 82.
  3. ↑ Quoted from the German edition (?)
  4. ↑ Own transfer from the Norwegian edition (1999), p. 80 f.
  5. ^ Own transfer from the Norwegian edition (1999), p. 132 f.
  6. ↑ Own transfer from the Norwegian edition (1999), p. 14.

literature

  • Aksel Sandemose: En flyktning krysser sitt spor. Fortelling om en morders barndom , Aschehoug, Oslo 2005. ISBN 82-03-18914-8 . (Edition from 1933)
  • ders .: En flyktning krysser sitt spor. Espen Arnakke's commentary to Janteloven , Aschehoug, Oslo 1999. ISBN 82-03-18123-6 . (Second, heavily revised edition from 1955)
  • Carsten Levisen: Cultural Semantics and Social Cognition. A Case Study on the Danish Universe of Meaning , Berlin 2012. ISBN 978-3-11-029460-6 . Pp. 145-164.