Asbjørn Aarnes (20 December 1923 – 8 January 2013) was a Norwegian professor and literary historian.

Biography

He was born at Vågbø in

Tingvoll Municipality Tingvoll is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Nordmøre region. The administrative centre is the village of Tingvollvågen. Other villages include Meisingset, Kvisvik, Grimstad, and Torjulvågen. The munici ...

, Norway. He studied from 1951-52 at

École Normale Supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

in Paris. In 1957, Aarnes became Dr. Philos. at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

. He was appointed professor at the

from 1964. He was professor of European literary history from 1964 to 1993, as well as head of literature department from 1966 to 1970. He was co-editor of the book series ''Idé og tanke'', jointly with Egil A. Wyller, and principal editor of the book series ''Thorleif Dahls Kulturbibliotek'' from 1978 to 2001. He has also written several works on French literature and on Norwegian poets. In 1963 he was admitted to the

Norwegian Academy The Norwegian Academy for Language and Literature (), commonly known as the Norwegian Academy, is a Norwegian learned body on matters pertaining to the modern Norwegian language in its Dano-Norwegian variety, now commonly known as Riksmål and Bok ...

and presided over from 1967-82. From 2005, he wrote a column for ''

Dag og Tid ''Dag og Tid'' () is a national weekly newspaper in Norway that uses the Nynorsk standard of the Norwegian language. ''Dag og Tid'' was founded in 1962. Contrary to most other Norwegian newspapers, its circulation has recently increased signific ...

''.

Awards

Aarnes became a member of the

Norwegian Academy of Sciences The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick University in Christiania was establis ...

in 1983. He received several French honorary decorations, including l'

Ordre national du Mérite The (; ) is a French order of merit with membership awarded by the President of the French Republic, founded on 3 December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle. The reason for the order's establishment was twofold: to replace the large number of ...

in 1970, the

Légion d'Honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

in 1979 and l'

Ordre des Palmes Académiques A suite, in Western classical music, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes; and grew in scope so that by the early 17th century it comprised up to ...

in 1984. He was the first recipient of the Anders Jahre cultural prize (''Anders Jahres kulturpris'') which he received jointly with sculptor Nils Aas in 1990.

Personal life

In 1950, he married the actress

Berit Alten Berit Alten (May 2, 1915 – December 18, 2002) was a Norwegians, Norwegian actress. Family Alten was born in Oslo, Kristiania (now Oslo), the daughter of the judge Edvin Alten (1876–1967) and Ragna Aass (1880–1975). Her half-sister was the ...

(1915–2002), the daughter of Edvin Alten (1876–1967) and Ragna Aass (1880–1975). She was the younger sister of actress Rønnaug Alten (1910– 2001).

References

1923 births 2013 deaths People from Møre og Romsdal University of Oslo alumni Academic staff of the University of Oslo Norwegian literary historians Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Recipients of the Legion of Honour Recipients of the Ordre national du Mérite Recipients of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques Norwegian columnists École Normale Supérieure alumni Norwegian expatriates in France {{norway-historian-stub