Volume 45, Issue 1

This article presents an original interpretation of Henrik Ibsen’s work When We Dead Awaken by advancing a hypothesis which explains Rubek and Irene’s path into death as an act of atonement. The analysis encompasses reflections on the meaning of terms such as love, life, art and guilt in the context of the work. The article emphasises the importance of children’s education, which proves itself to be the only effective way to contribute to mankind’s refinement – something very important in the main character’s view. In its last part the article seeks causes of the altered behaviour of the main characters immediately before their deaths (especially their feeling of attraction to death).

This article discusses one of Johannes V. Jensens ”Himmerland Sto­ries”, ”Wombwell”, which appeared in Nye Himmerlandshistorier in 1904, as well as some related texts. ”Wombwell” may be said to illustrate how the tradition-bound inhabitants of rural Himmerland experienced the hurried, violent modern world passing by in the shape of the well-known, world-famous English menagerie established in 1805 by George Wombwell, whose successors as a matter of fact toured in Northern Jutland in the summer of 1888. A major issue raised in the text is a longing Wombwell’s magnificent appearance inspires in the minds of three local youngsters, now wishing to escape from their familiar milieu. An equivalent longing motivates the hero’s departure from his childhood setting in popular tales in order to take possession of unknown parts of the outer (and inner) world. In Jensen’s story this aspect is represented by Miss Alice, the attractive lion trainer of the menagerie. Aspects like these are also unfolded in three other texts of Jensen to which ”Wombwell” is compared, ”Løverne” (“The Lions”), ”Circus Rieger” and ”Menageriet” (“The Menagerie”). These texts point to a major generic issue in Jensen’s Himmerland stories, in that he navigates along the borderline between childhood remembrance and fictional creation, or between description and narration. That borderline becomes blurred and even disappears since the process of remembrance turns out to be much more creative than simply reconstructive.

The Swedish poet, essayist and aphorist Vilhelm Ekelund wrote extensively on the topic of foreign authors. Some of these writers represent the Greek and Roman cultural heritage; some belong to the modern-day literary canon. This article investigates the nature of these “intercultural encounters” in Ekelund’s body of work. By processing data from Andar i den Ekelundska sfären (1989) and Konkordans till Vilhelm Ekelunds skrifter (2000), we have been able to count all references made to the most important individuals appearing in Ekelund’s texts. At the top end of the table we find such prominent writers as Goethe (1343 references), Nietzsche (985) and Plato (503 references). We show that Ekelund’s oeuvre is largely dominated by male authors and philosophers of Western cultural heritage: the most prominently figured foreign nationalities being German (20,7%), Greek (10,1%), French (9,2%) and Roman (5,4%) writers. The quantitative method applied in our study is a good complement to more textcentered approaches to literature. In this case, it allows us to determine, with a great deal of accuracy, the extent and nature of the intercultural encounters in Vilhelm Ekelund’s body of work.

On the basis of the underlying mathematical permutation, Inger Christensen’s brev i april counts as part of her systemic poetry (’systemdigtning’). The form of the poem, structured by the mathematical permutation, becomes a carrier of significance which is interwoven with the content level of the poem by a pattern of motives. The possible infinity of the permutation as much as the periodical ending of it, refer in its double structure to the cyclic life of mankind. Furthermore, the structure of the poem emphasizes a profound skepticism towards language, which is the central aspect of the poem, and rais­es the question, if language can refer to the world and the things within it. The poem therefore discusses the human (in)ability to name the things in the world. Furthermore, it opens up the picture of a labyrinth between mankind and the world, i.e. the loss of the connection between them. The positive ending, ­however, is, on the basis of the periodical structure, not a guaranty for a positive future.

Bavian (2006), Danish writer Naja Maria Aidt’s collection of short stories, is not only, as suggested by the title, about the animal in the human being. The stories are also about the ways human beings today are prone to exclude others. The texts are about people on the move and most often Aidt lets descriptions of bodily reactions and affect speak instead of talk and dialogue. However, it is significant for Aidt’s writing that the body never represents an idea about freedom – rather, the opposite of freedom. Moreover, personal freedom is not thought about as a way of escape to Aidt’s characters; it is more an alibi for disregarding others. The article suggests that Bavian maybe read as showing how ‘the naked life’ (Agamben) has been talking about is turning into a common lot.