A Glimpse of Danish Literature [Part 7]

We would like to introduce some representative authors to help readers gain more information and understanding of Danish literature.

Beautiful flowers in the garden

In order to help readers have more information and understanding about Danish literature, we would like to introduce some typical authors.

ABELL Kjeld (1901-1961) was a playwright. His father was an educator. He was a reformer of Danish theatre, against the stereotypes of the bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie. In his later years, he tended to introduce symbolic elements into his plays, leading to an abstract humanism (particularly influenced by existentialism).

The play Melodien, der Blev Voek (1935) criticized the barren capitalist society. The play Anna Sophie Edvig (1939) expressed an anti-fascist humanism. The play Days on a Cloud (1947) questioned the responsibility of science in the atomic age.

Writer ANDERSEN Hans Christian.

ANDERSEN Hans Christian (1805-1875) was a writer, the son of a poor shoemaker. He received little education, grew up self-taught, was reserved by nature, and maintained a commoner's character all his life, so when interacting with artists and aristocrats, he inevitably had a complex. From the age of 14, he moved to the capital, was helped by a few aristocrats, and went abroad to study several times. At the age of 17, he had published books. His first successes were his travelogues and the book Picture Book Without Pictures (Billedoog uden Billeder, 1840). Andersen also wrote poetry, plays, and novels with a romantic flavor and a petty bourgeois humanitarian character, which are rarely enjoyed today.

The work that made Andersen famous throughout the world for many generations was the collection of Children's Tales (Eventyr, Fortalte for Born, 1835-1841) which included over one hundred and fifty stories. Andersen borrowed plots from myths, fairy tales, folk tales, history, and fictionalized them based on everyday life.

The story was written for children, but adults also enjoyed reading it, because of its poetic yet realistic nature, its profound philosophical meaning, its elevation of morality, and its criticism of the vices of society. Andersen also told his own life story as an ancient tale in The Story of My Life (Mit livs Eventyr, 1855).

Writer Hans Christian Andersen is perhaps a rare literary phenomenon in the world. Usually, countries choose monumental constructions, great heroes, excellent politicians, talented generals... to be their symbols. Denmark alone chose a writer - Andersen.

Denmark calls itself the land of Andersen, of the “little mermaid”. A country of just over five million people, is proud to have a writer that countries with a population of hundreds of millions do not have the honor of having. Andersen often included in his stories his unfulfilled ambitions, hopeless love, compassion for the miserable, trying to overcome his own circumstances, finding comfort in dreams and God's grace. Typical examples are The Little Mermaid, The Little Match Girl, The Ugly Duckling…

In 2005, the world celebrated the 200th anniversary of Andersen's birth, perhaps the most translated and widely read author on a global scale. In Vietnam alone, since 1926, over one million translations have been published, all of his works transcending space and time.

ANDERSEN Nexoe Martin (1869-1954) was a Danish writer, born in Copenhagen and died in Dresden, Germany. He was the son of a stonemason. He suffered from a young age, working as a servant, a shoemaker, a teacher, and a journalist. He was mainly self-taught. In 1841, when Denmark was occupied by Germany, Andersen Nexoe was arrested and fled to Sweden and the Soviet Union. From the age of 82, he lived in the German Democratic Republic until his death.

Andersen Nexoe was a proletarian writer, representing the socialist realism trend in Northern Europe, always standing on the side of peace and progress, defending communism. In his early creative period (1893-1903), he took the working people as the central character, but had not yet escaped the bourgeois liberal ideology and decadent literary tendencies; for example, the travelogue Sunny Days (Soldage, 1903) was written after visiting Italy and Spain.

Andersen Nexoe became increasingly class-conscious, especially through his understanding of the Spanish proletariat (1902) and the significance of the 1905 revolution in Russia. In 1906-1910, he published the world-famous novel Pelle Erbreren (Pelle, the Conqueror). This is a work praising class consciousness, solidarity among the exploited, reflecting the belief in the inevitable victory of social justice.

After the October Revolution in Russia, Andersen Nexoe joined the Danish Communist Party and wrote the novel Ditte, the Child of Men (Ditte Menneskebarn, 1917-1921), which praised the kindness of proletarian women; an epic about the Danish proletariat.

In the four-volume series of Memoirs (Erindringer, 1932-1939), the author recounts his life.

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