Varsleren Vinje

Abstract In 1868, Aasmund Olavsson Vinje was dismissed from his position in the Department of Justice. The minister dismissed him on the grounds of the criticism of the government Vinje had expressed in his newspaper, Dølen . Vinje also reported the dismissal conversation in his newspaper. He defended himself by referring to the right to freedom of speech. This article analyses Vinje’s texts in the “Vaar Politik” column in Dølen on February 9 and March 1, 1868. My reading aims to examine the texts as political expressions, partly in a legal-historical context, and to explore the portrayal of the criticism of the authorities and of the national in them. He viewed the fact that his critical expressions cost him his job in relation to his judgment of the Norwegian government. The article shows that the texts can be seen as early whistleblowing. Through a mix of humor – which I demonstrate is an element in the genealogy of whistleblowing – and seriousness, intertextual play, natural tropes, and wordplay, the texts appeal to the idea of a threatened national instinct and mobilize concern on behalf of the nation. This interpretation sheds new light on the poet, journalist, and also the lawyer and departmental employee Vinje, aspects which have not been previously explored in literary research.