European Languages and Societies Commons^™

To Have Revenge On The Self-Righteous University: Pietism And Religious Doubt In Sophus Keith Winther's Beyond The Garden State, John M. Nielsen

The Bridge

In the spring of 1978, Arizona Quarterly published what

was to be the last of Sophus Keith Winther's scholarly

articles. Entitled, "The Emigrant Theme," this essay in many

ways was a summation of Winther's thoughts, not only regarding

the experience of Scandinavian-Americans as told in

literature, but more importantly of his reflections regarding

the whole of human experience. For him, emigration was the

great human story, stretching from the dawn of humankind

in the Olduvai Gorge to a foreboding present. It was the

story of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness; it was the

myth of the American westward movement. …