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Eivind Tjønneland

Historian of ideas and author. Regular critic in MODERN TIMES. (Former professor of literature at the University of Bergen.)

Wilhelm Reichs updated

MONOGRAPH: Reich had considerable influence on Norwegian intellectuals. But he was thrown out of both the Communist Party and the International Psychoanalytical Association – and died in an American prison aged just 60.

Munch, decadence – and Jæger

PHOTO ART: Edvard Munch described man's basic existential conditions: loneliness, fusion fantasies and an ecstasy that ends in vampirism and screams. But was Hans Jæger the source of inspiration for "Scream"? This essay looks at both love entanglements, naturalism and decadence – from Kristiania and Berlin.

How the majority's opinions are created by the media

PUBLIC: Precht and Welzer want more "well-intentioned disputes" about views – not social media's definition, personorientering and arousal production. Their book has been met with everything from total rejection and hesitant acceptance to detailed criticism.

Ideology critical spinal reflex

Literature: Criticism in literary studies is only a special case of criticism in society in general.

Rabulist, literary researcher, politician and poet

Biography: "He who is not mad in his own way must participate in the collective madness." This is one of Georg Johannesen's (1931–2005) most apt self-characteristics, writes Alfred Fidjestøl in a new biography of the poet, politician and professor of rhetoric.

Ibsen's "abnormal" female figures

WOMEN: On the occasion of Women's Day on March 8, MODERN TIMES prints here, in reflection on the changing times, an excerpt from Eivind Tjønneland's new book «Abnormal» women – Henrik Ibsen and the decadence. Ibsen's dramas were described in 1893 as written for hysterical women, male masochists and the mentally retarded.

Creativity, openness, style consciousness, entrepreneurial spirit, empathy and cosmopolitanism

MIDDLE CLASS: Current in these corona times is whether Reckwitz's analysis opens up a restructuring of the economy back to a "real economy" – from the cultural capitalism in which the goods promise consumers symbolic, narrative, aesthetic and ethical experiences.

The love that conquered social democracy

INTERVIEW: German author Renate Feyl uses a historical, noble divorce case in her latest novel.

The wonderboy of German journalism tricked readers

FAKE NEWS: Claas Relotius tricked Der Spiegel's readers into fictional stories for years. Currently a self-examination and debate is underway in the German press.