Karen Blixen's "The Poet" and Søren Kierkegaard's 'Gjentagelsen'

TY - JOUR

T1 - Karen Blixen's "The Poet" and Søren Kierkegaard's 'Gjentagelsen'

AU - Bunch, Mads

PY - 2014/12/1

Y1 - 2014/12/1

N2 - It is commonly acknowledged within Karen Blixen scholarship that some of Blixen's tales are literary responses to other works from world literature. In this paper I will argue that the tale "The Poet" from Seven Gothic Tales (1934) should be included in this line-up of responses as a literary response to Søren Kierkegaard's Gjentagelsen (Repetition) from 1843. Through juxtapositions of quotes and analysis of plot development and character constellations, I will show how Blixen redevelops the plot and reverses the characters from Kierkegaard's Gjentagelsen. I will pay particular attention to a reoccurring character in Kierkegaard's production: the elderly bachelor esthete (Constantin Constantius), whom Blixen in "The Poet" exposes as a demonic, yet comical character. I will conclude by pointing out that repetition should be acknowledged as an integral part of Blixen's poetics, since she consistently repeats archetypal plots and characters from world literature in her works that at the same time are completely new and original, following the dialectics of repetition.

AB - It is commonly acknowledged within Karen Blixen scholarship that some of Blixen's tales are literary responses to other works from world literature. In this paper I will argue that the tale "The Poet" from Seven Gothic Tales (1934) should be included in this line-up of responses as a literary response to Søren Kierkegaard's Gjentagelsen (Repetition) from 1843. Through juxtapositions of quotes and analysis of plot development and character constellations, I will show how Blixen redevelops the plot and reverses the characters from Kierkegaard's Gjentagelsen. I will pay particular attention to a reoccurring character in Kierkegaard's production: the elderly bachelor esthete (Constantin Constantius), whom Blixen in "The Poet" exposes as a demonic, yet comical character. I will conclude by pointing out that repetition should be acknowledged as an integral part of Blixen's poetics, since she consistently repeats archetypal plots and characters from world literature in her works that at the same time are completely new and original, following the dialectics of repetition.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - Karen Blixen

KW - Isak Dinesen

KW - Søren Kierkegaard

KW - Gjentagelsen

KW - The Poet

KW - Digteren

KW - Dansk litteraturhistorie

KW - Harold Bloom

KW - Karen Blixen

KW - Isak Dinesen

KW - Comparative Literature

KW - Søren Kierkegaard

KW - Scandinavian Studies

KW - Scandinavian Literature

KW - Danish Literature

M3 - Journal article

SN - 2191-9399

VL - 44

SP - 165

EP - 185

JO - European Journal of Scandinavian Studies

JF - European Journal of Scandinavian Studies

IS - 2

ER -