Inger Christensen | |
|---|---|
 Christensen in 2008 | |
| Born | 16 January 1935 Vejle, Denmark |
| Died | 2 January 2009 (aged 73) Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Resting place | Garrison Cemetery, Copenhagen |
| Occupation | Poet, novelist, essayist, editor |
| Nationality | Danish |
| Period | 1962 - 2000 |
| Notable awards | De Gyldne Laurbær (1969) Danish Critics Prize for Literature (1969) Swedish Academy Nordic Prize (1994) Austrian State Prize for European Literature (1994) Rungstedlund Award (2001) |
| Spouse | Poul Borum |
| Children | Peter Borum |
Inger Christensen (16 January 1935 – 2 January 2009)[1] was a Danish poet, novelist, essayist and editor. She is considered the foremost Danish poetic experimentalist of her generation.
Born in the town ofVejle, on the easternJutland coast of Denmark, Christensen's father was a tailor, and her mother a cook before her marriage. After graduating fromVejle Gymnasium, she moved toCopenhagen and, later, toÅrhus, studying at the Teachers’ College there. She received her certificate in 1958. During this same period, Christensen began publishing poems in the journalHvedekorn, and was guided by the noted Danish poet and criticPoul Borum (1934–1996), whom she married in 1959 and divorced in 1976.[2]
After teaching at the College for Arts inHolbæk from 1963 to 1964, she turned to writing full-time, producing two of her major early collections,Lys (Light, 1962) andGræs (Grass, 1963), both examining the limits of self-knowledge and the role oflanguage inperception. Her most acclaimed work of the 1960s, however, wasIt (Det), which, on one level, explored social, political and aesthetic issues, but more deeply probed large philosophical questions of meaning. The work, almost incantatory in tone, opposes issues such as fear and love and power and powerlessness.[2]
In these years Christensen also published two novels,Evighedsmaskinen (1964) andAzorno (1967), as well as a shorter fiction on the ItalianRenaissance painterMantegna, presented from the viewpoint of various narrators (Mantegna's secretary Marsilio, the Turkish princess Farfalla, and Mantagena's young son), Det malede Værelse (1976, translated into English asThe Painted Room byHarvill Press in 2000).
Much of Christensen's work was organized upon “systemic” structures in accordance with her belief that poetry is not truth and not even the “dream” of truth, but “is a game, maybe a tragic game—the game we play with a world that plays its own game with us.”
In the 1981 poetry collectionAlfabet, Christensen used the alphabet (from a ["apricots"] to n ["nights"]) along with theFibonacci mathematical sequence in which the next number is the sum of the two previous ones (0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34...). As she explained: "The numerical ratios exist in nature: the way a leek wraps around itself from the inside, and the head of a snowflower, are both based on this series." Her system ends on the n, suggesting many possible meanings including “n’s” significance as any whole number. As withIt, however, despite its highly structured elements this work is a poetically evocative series concerned with oppositions such as an outpouring of the joy of the world counterposed with the fears for and forces poised for its destruction.
Sommerfugledalen of 1991 (Butterfly Valley: A Requiem, 2004) explores through thesonnet structure the fragility of life and mortality, ending in a kind of transformation.
Christensen also wrote works for children, plays, radio pieces, and numerous essays, the most notable of which were collected in her book Hemmelighedstilstanden (The State of Secrecy) in 2000.
In 1978, she was appointed to theRoyal Danish Academy; in 1994, she became a member of theAcadémie Européenne de Poésie ("European Academy of Poetry");[3] in 2001, a member of theAcademy of Arts, Berlin.[4] She won the Grand Prix des Biennales Internationales de Poésie in 1991; She received theRungstedlund Award in 1991.[5] Der österreichische Staatspreis für Literature ("Austrian State Prize for European Literature") in 1994; in 1994, she won theSwedish Academy Nordic Prize, known as the 'little Nobel'; theEuropean Poetry Prize in 1995;The America Award in 2001;[3] the GermanSiegfried Unseld Preis in 2006;[6] and received numerous other distinctions. Her works have been translated into several languages, and she was frequently mentioned as a candidate for theNobel Prize in Literature.[3]
Years link to corresponding "[year] in poetry" article for books of poems, or "[year] in literature" for other literary works:
The complete "Butterfly valley" has been set twice by two Danish composers,Niels Rosing-Schow andSvend Nielsen. Both versions were, separately, recorded byArs Nova Copenhagen with poetry reading by the poet.
