Anne-Marie Mai

Alcohol and culture: An introduction

The meanings we attach to drinking alcohol and the ways we define alcohol dependence are culturally sensitive. When a person is asked about drinking, the answer is often given as a narrative. For example, one of us (ASN) once asked a patient named Carl to tell the story of his drinking. He answered: “It’s often said that Jeppe drinks. But the question is why he drinks”. We understood what he meant, because he had made a reference to a character in a Danish play that all of us knew. He made use of a common cultural reference, a storyline familiar to both speaker and listener. Basically, storylines and fragments of larger master stories provide vital repetitions for upholding cultural mythologies on different phenomena. Storylines are used “to establish a set of guidelines and constraints for telling a story that conveys what convention would certify as having a certain general kind of content” (Schafer, 1992, p. 29). Individuals use the cultural stock of narratives and myths that is accessible to them. In a new situation they browse more or less consciously through cultural “warehouses” of narrative models to find one that fits their experience (Hänninen & Koski-Jännes, 1999). The models are tried on, rejected or approved, adjusted or transformed. A storyteller may consciously or unconsciously use a number of storylines and narratives in a personal story, employ storylines originating from cultural artefacts, literature, theatre, folklore, religion, mythology, and mass media (Hydén, 1995; Steffen, 1997). Narratives about drinking and drinking problems typically convey significations concerning the individual in relation to the drinking habit; for example, whether the individual with the described symptoms and attributes is allowed to assume the role of an alcohol-dependent person (Nielsen, 2003). Secondly, rhetorical effects may influence what is perceived to lead to this state of dependency, what are perceived to be the consequences of it, and what change is

Märta Tikkanen’s gender and alcohol saga

Märta Tikkanen’s poetry collection Århundradets kärlekssaga (The love story of the century, 1978) is a confessional book on life in a family where the husband and father is an alcohol abuser. It is also a love story about a married couple who love one another despite the terrible challenges posed to the relationship by alcoholism. The poetry collection became one of the most influential books in contemporary Nordic fiction, its themes on gender roles and alcohol abuse setting the trend in the Nordic discussion of women’s liberation. Märta Tikkanen’s courage to tell her own private story inspired other women to confess their gender equality problems to the public. The alcohol abuse of Märta Tikkanen’s husband Henrik Tikkanen was seen as an allegory for the more general problems in the relation between men and women. My essay introduces Märta Tikkanen’s poetry collection and discusses how the poems develop the theme of gender and alcohol. I will also compare her description of their marriage with Henrik Tikkanen’s self-portrait in his autobiographical novella Mariegatan 26, Kronohagen (1977). The analysis refers to contemporary research on gender and alcohol abuse and discusses how the poems contribute to a public recognition of the relationship between gender and alcohol abuse. The essay discusses the reception of Märta Tikkanen’s influential poems and explores her treatment of alcohol and gender in relation to other Nordic confessional or fictional books on alcohol abuse.

Men’s and women’s honour

This article has the conceptions of honour in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1879/1889) as its springboard, includes the concept of honour in Thit Jensen’s novels about the modern, emancipated woman Gerd. Det tyvende Aarhundredes Kvinde (Gerd. Woman of the 20th century, 1918) and Aphrodite fra Fuur (Aphrodite from Fuur, 1925), then focuses on the concept of honour in Suzanne Brøgger’s collection of essays Kærlighedens veje og vildveje (Love’s Paths and Pitfalls, 1975) and compares it with Pablo Llambías’ rewriting of the work from a male point of view in Kærlighedens veje og vildveje (Love’s Paths and Pitfalls, 2009).

Canons and Contemporary Danish literature

Abstract This article deals with recent Danish literature in the light of the discussion about canons occasioned by the publication of the two ministerial canons: Undervisningskanon (Educational Canon, 2004) and Kulturkanon (Cultural Canon, 2006). The article argues that recent Danish literature challenges traditional work categories and the concept of the author on which the two canons are based, and discusses which works and texts in recent Danish literature ought to belong to a future canon.

At holde samfundet levende og bevægeligt: Om forholdet mellem litteratur og velfærdsstat i Danmark

Abstract The article briefly describes the creation of the Danish arts funding system and outlines the most important ideas concerning the relationship between literature and the welfare state and the never-ending discussion of the idea and principles of supporting the arts with public means. Anders Bodelsen, Kirsten Thorup, Christina Hesselholdt and Kristian Foss Bang are some of the many authors who have received art support during the last 45 years and the article shows how a selection of their works thematizes the new human relations of the defamiliarised welfare state. The relationship between the individual, his fellow human beings and society has in their novels been interpreted in intriguingly different narrations.

Identitet Og Litteraturhistorie

ABSTRACT The paper discusses the need for a renewal of literary historiography and presents different strategies for new historical readings that can generate interest in older literature. Students at the Danish universities and high schools are supposed to have a solid knowledge of literary classics and the methods of historical reading. In a Danish context the schools task to form and develop young people have been linked to the experience of reading literature and knowing literary history. But the older literature seems to have become a compulsory reading which students want over with as quickly as possible. It is a big problem since the European postnational societies require a historical understanding of cultural values and the sources of these values. Literature gives the readers the opportunity to see and interpret themselves in relation to their surroundings, to meet the strange and unknown and to empathize with other peoples thoughts and ideas. Literature creates a special feeling of language and an understanding of how linguistic meaning is formed. The paper presents discussions of literary historiography and new approaches to literary history.

Historien som scene hos Ludvig Holberg og Charlotta Dorothea Biehl

Ludvig Holberg (1684-1754) and Charlotta Dorothea Biehl (1731-1788) are two key figures of the Nordic Enlightenment. The Norwegian Holberg took his philosophical and theological degrees from the University of Copenhagen at an early age and travelled around Europe accumulating knowledge for his historical writings. Holberg made a splendid career at the University of Copenhagen both as a professor and vice-chancellor and published historical works, satires, comedies, essays, fables, and autobiographical letters. As a woman, Biehl was barred from university education and public office. Her world was confined to her childhood home, and she never had the opportunity to travel. In return, she immersed herself in studies of language and theatre, reading with great enthusiasm Holbergs writings. She became a comedy writer and a novelist, and also wrote historical works and historical letters. The paper discusses how Biehl and Holberg made performing arts and historiography inspire each other. History is in their depictions not only a royal chronology, but a vivid narrative. Holbergs and Biehls approaches to historical study drew on different traditions: Holberg was influenced by ancient historiography while Biehl was inspired by the French chronicle; therefore, their historical writings have very different contents and designs.

Gendering Place: The Role Of Place In Anne Krabbe's Ballad Works

One of the most interesting compilers of ballad-books in Danish Renaissance was the noblewoman Anne Krabbe. During the Danish Renaissance a number of noblewomen collected ballads and their ballad-books are particularly intriguing, as they reveal the context within which ballads were committed to paper. While Svend Grundtvig divides ballads and their variants on the basis of a particular typology, in the Renaissance ballad-books the present-day reader or researcher sees the ballad as part of a fi ne artefact: the ballad-book itself. Anne Krabbe and the other aristocratic male and female compilers of ballad-books are not taken into acount in traditional, national literary histories. A large proportion of the eighty-eight ballads in Anne Krabbes book deal with female culture and sexuality. Anne Krabbes ballads have a Christian set of values as their framework and the Lutheran persuasion is part of her construction of place. Keywords: Anne Krabbes ballad works; Danish Renaissance; female culture