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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.

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.