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Med inddragelse af Hartmut Rosas tanker om det kontrollerbare, det ukontrollerbare og resonans, samt Georges Batailles' begreber om det heterogene, kontinuitet og immanens, udredes det, hvorledes naturbegrebet i det senmoderne samfund i høj grad er præget af en reduktiv naturopfattelse. Dernæst behandles naturens musikalitet. Hvor den kontrollerede og bestemte natur kendetegner den prometiske tilgang, omhandler den musikalske natur en orfisk og digterisk tilgang til naturen og dermed også til det økologiske spørgsmål og den menneskelige eksistens - i denne del spiller Pierre Hadots sondring mellem det prometiske og det orfiske samt digteren Inger Christensens tænkning en væsentlig rolle

This dissertation centres on the long poem alfabet by Danish poet Inger Christensen. Dealing with the threat of nuclear disaster as well as the risk of chemical contamination, this poem has often been quoted as a precursor to the wave of ecopoetry in the Scandinavian literature of the 2010s. While there have been a few previous attempts to study Christensen’s poetry within the framework of ecocriticism, no study has hitherto investigated the significance and relevance of labeling alfabet as a work of ecopoetry, nor what contemporary ecopoetry inherits and transmits from Christensen’s poem. It is the aim of this study to disclose how Christensen conjures up an ecopoetic response to global crises, as well as how the ecopoetry of the 21st century responds to her poem. The method of the investigation is inspired by the centrality of interconnectivity for ecological thinking, as well as the affirmative and creative sensibility of postcritique. Through close reading combined with exploration of intertextual connections, this thesis interprets and discusses alfabet from an ecocritical point of view, while concurrently asking what contributions the poem can make to the development of ecocritical theory and the subfield of ecopoetics. From this interplay between theory and poetic praxis, the key questions of this thesis emerge: How does Christensen’s work with poetic form illuminate ecocritical issues regarding the relation between language and world? Can incantation be understood as an ecopoetic strategy? What kind of subject is conjured up in alfabet, and in what relation does it stand to the more-than-human world? How does Christensen deal with the pervasive trope of apocalyptism as a way of representing global crises? In what ways do some of the ecopoetic texts of the 2000s reinterpret alfabet, and do these poems in turn shed new light upon Christensen’s poem? Furthermore, the similarities and differences between a romantic and a postmodern ecology are explored through the thesis’ attempts at syncretising two strands of research on Christensen’s poetry. The first four chapters analyse and discuss alfabet from different points of view, utilising divergent theoretical and intertextual approaches, while the fifth chapter examines a selection of poems by Ida Börjel, Agnar Lirhus and Juliana Spahr. I argue that alfabet belongs to the tradition of organic formalism, as Christensen’s use of formal play is intertwined with and dependent upon a view of nature as creative and self-organising. Furthermore, I suggest that rhythm should be a central concept of ecopoetics – not only because of the enchanting effects of incantation, but also because rhythm is the most bodily function of language: it is what connects bodies to each other, including the human body to more-than-human ones. Regarding the difficult but pervasive ecopoetical question of what poetry can do for us in times of global crisis, I suggest that reading poems such as alfabet is, among many other things, a way of exercising one’s capability of dealing with uncertainties and doubt – a lesson in how to meet the mysteries of a diverse and unstable more-than-human world.

This article puts forward a comparative approach between the works of Tadeusz Różewicz and Inger Christensen in the context of the diagnosis of nuclear criticism. Briefly reconstructed variants of philosophical reflection are included in the conceptual framework created by Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht. The intention here is to capture the latent catastrophe, virtually existing, yet actually experienced. The historic novelty of the threat of collective suicide to the human species has turned into a specter that haunts all areas of our activity. Total nuclear war, according to Jacques Derrida, exists as a textual phenomenon, a "fairy tale." It is so confused with reality that the pure reality of the atomic age cannot be distilled. Other philosophers write about the organized "system of disintegration" (Elsa Morante), about the system of deterrence, about the hyper-reality and simulacrality ( Jean Baudrillard), about the "supraliminal" phenomenon that shapes perception and thinking (Günther Anders). This nonevent provokes a permanent crisis for all institutions, problematizes notion of temporality, rules of rationality and subjective identity. "Spider-Web Shield" and "Alphabet" are seen here as artistic expressions of this experience… Różewicz creates a hybrid work and uses the collage technique. Ingersen, on the other hand, uses a formal rigor (abecedarium or alphabet book, alliteration) and a mathematical formula (Fibonacci sequence). They are both looking for an adequate form for a unique and elusive experience that determined the specific Stimmung (to add Gumbrecht's terminology) of the post-war era.

Anmeldelse af Dan Ringgaard og Jonas Ross Kjærgård (red.): genbesøgt. inger christensens efterladte papirer (2020).

I foråret 2018 udkom Inger Christensens verden ønsker at se sig selv. Bogen er næsten 1.000 sider lang og fyldt med færdige og ufærdige digte, prosaskitser, anmeldelser og meget mere. Tilsammen kaster teksterne væsentligt nyt lys over et af det tyvende århundredes vigtigste danske forfatterskaber og en af de internationalt mest fejrede moderne nordiske lyrikere.I denne bog spørger en række fremtrædende Inger Christensenforskere, hvilke konsekvenser verden ønsker at se sig selv har for vores billede af forfatterskabet. Inger Christensens værker udmærker sig ved at være usædvanligt gennemarbejdede. De virker som om, de ikke kunne være anderledes. Undersøgelsen af hendes papirer fører os bag dette perfekte billede af værkerne og ind i den proces, som lå forud. Ikke alene støder vi på et hidtil ukendt udkast til en krimi fra Paris, vi får også lejlighed til at genbesøge Christensens spekulative essays og hovedværkerne det, Brev i april og alfabet. Frem træder et revideret og endnu rigere billede af forfatterskabet.

Inger Christensens arkiv i Det Kongelige Bibliotek kaster nyt lys på den proces, der er gået forud for værkerne i form af manuskripter, udkast m.m., og arkivet giver et nuanceret blik på forfatterinden som figur i det litterære felt. Arkivets første og største del blev erhvervet tilbage i 2007. Da Det Kongelige Bibliotek ved samme lejlighed blev lovet supplerende materiale, ventede man fornuftigvis med ordningen og katalogiseringen af de fem flyttekasser med usorteret materiale, indtil det resterende var blevet afleveret. Inger Christensens død i 2009 udskød ordningen på ubestemt tid, og først i sommeren 2015 modtog Håndskriftsamlingen de resterende papirer, hvorefter ordningen kunne gå i gang med henblik på at tilgængeliggøre et materiale, der fylder 60 arkivæsker i alt, indeholdende breve, manuskripter og andre typer dokumenter.

Denne oppgaven er en lesning av Inger Christensens sonettkrans Sommerfugledalen, hvor jeg forsøker å kretse inn hvordan det poetiske språket og den poetiske skapelsen kommer til uttrykk i sonettene gjennom å utforske de motivene og tematikkene som satt sterkest igjen hos meg etter endt lesning. Et gjennomgående perspektiv i oppgaven er opplevelsen av den flimrende effekten i sonettene, som gjør diktene til noe som skjer nærmest i forbifarten. Dette kommer også til uttrykk gjennom Christensens bruk (i hennes essayistikk) av Novalis’ formulering «tingenes sælsomme relationsspil», som er viktig i hele denne oppgaven, og som jeg etter hvert knytter til både et intertekstuelt perspektiv, til lek og spill som motiv og tematikk i sonettene og, helt til slutt, til et økokritisk perspektiv. I innledningen redegjør jeg for metode og teori, og trekker spesielt inn den franske litteraturteoretikeren og semiotikeren Roland Barthes, som blir den viktigste teoretikeren som jeg tar med meg i de påfølgende kapitlene. Oppgaven er delt inn i fem kapitler, i tillegg til innledningen: «Mellomrommene», «Fargeflimmer», «Glemsel og skapelse», «Å skjule og avdekke» og «Naturen og sorgen». Gjennom å utforske motiver og tematikker som ligger nært opp til disse kapitteloverskriftene, viser jeg hvordan sonettenes bruk av bevegelse, ikke minst gjennom alle bildene som skapes og brytes ned i sonettene, av lek og spill med ordenes skapende og nedbrytende krefter, er sentrale i Sommerfugledalen, hvor døden hele tiden ligger under som et premiss, og som en innskrevet del av både livet og diktet. Jeg skriver om hvordan det poetiske språket både er smuldrende og skapende, idet det både utsier de store ordene som døden, livet og kjærligheten og konkrete sommerfuglarter og stedsnavn. Disse bevegelsene viser seg også gjennom det lyriske jeg’ets skiftende grad av tilstedeværelse i sonettene, som kan være både helt i bakgrunnen og sanselig nærværende. Mot slutten av oppgaven skriver jeg om hvordan Sommerfugledalen, med sin flimrende effekt, skaper en innsikt i poesiens taktile berøring med sannheten (et begrep som jeg henter fra Barthes), som kommer nettopp av samspillet mellom bevegelse og stillstand, det skjulte og det avdekte, glemsel og erindring, skapelse og ødeleggelse, mellom jeg’et og omgivelsene, og av sommerfuglene selv, som både sommerfuglstøv, bilder og levende vesener i diktene.

This dissertation investigates different sorts of repetition in the text ”Watersteps” and the four central lyrical works of the Danish poet Inger Christensen (1935–2009), it, Letter in April, alphabet and Butterfly Valley. The poems are analysed through close reading against a backdrop of the philosophical investigations of repetition by Søren Kierkegaard, Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Derrida as well as the phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and the lifeworld philosophy of the late Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. Inger Christensen is known for constructing different systems as framework for her texts. Repetition is a dominant element in these systems, and in her texts repetition is pervading in her prose as well as in her poetry. The repetitions have important functions structuring the texts and creating new meanings. Using a term of Novalis you could say that they function as tools of a writer who is ”inspired by language” (”ein Sprachbrgeisterter”). The repetitions are literal (or just slightly changed) and thematical. They are nearly always not just a repetition of a former expression or theme. The investigation shows that something new is produced in the process of repeating. While repetition pushes expressions and themes forward in the texts, the signification and meaning of these are changed at the same time. The process often includes displacement and condensation supplying the text with never ending possibilities of creating new relations and new meanings. The combination of system, repetition, and the meaning of the text shows the relationship between subject, world and language. They are independent phenomena at the same time as they are deeply involved in each other. The constant interaction and the tension between them are demonstrated in the texts both formally and semantically. Reality is suspended between them in eternal mobility; identity becomes relative. The living subject is defining and redefining itself by being part of the world mediated to it through language, and these two are in turn constantly redefined in the process of repetition. In this way the subject, and certainly the poet subject, is always expressing the world or, in reversed order, the world expresses itself through the subject.

Samme artikel som i Spring nr. 37 (2015)The poetic voice in the Danish poet Inger Christensen's book of poems alphabet from 1981 is a prophetic voice. Since the Old Testament prophets, the prophetic voice has been characterized by a 'retroprospective' temporal structure: it jumps forward to a future disaster and backward from the fictional future to the present political facts. In Inger Christensen's words, the prophetic voice talks about a world bathed in the whitewashed, godforsaken light of impending disaster. This article suggests that an analysis of the prophetic voice in alphabet opens up a possibility to address the relationship between poetry and nuclear war and, in more general terms, between art and disaster.

A paranoid and shameful reading of Inger Christensens novel Azorno.The contagious feelings of paranoia and shame played a vital part in my first reading of the novel Azorno, written by the Danish poet Inger Christensen. In this essay, I’m letting those emotions direct the ‘understanding’ and analysis of the novel. In earlier research the focus has been to comprehend what the novel ‘really is about’, and even though it has been mentioned that the form probably is a way to make the reader a visible constructer of the novel’s ‘meaning’ the understanding has never been created by the affects that occurs during the reading. In doing so, I mean, a new and more subversive ‘understanding’ of Azorno is possible. Azornos is a quite peculiar novel which form builds upon an ambivalence, where the reader never can distinguish true from false, fiction from reality. This ambivalence is caused through the change of narrator that takes place in each chapter. The Chapters are first shaped as letters, where four women discuss who is the one that really knows Azorno, and then as notes, that seem to come from a diary and concerns the writing of a novel. The uncertainty increases when the earlier narrator is accused by the next one of being a liar, something that happens in every letter. In the notes the first narrator is told to be the pseudonym of the next one and so it continues. Thus the reader get the feeling of not knowing who the true narrator is – or if there is one. The accusations of lying and the paranoid attitude are contagious to the reader who gets the feeling that the text and its narrators are not to be trusted. Another affect shaping the text is shame, caused by the text’s seductiveness. The reader is held in the violence of the text by constantly searching for the truth but also repeatedly being deprived the delightful taste of it. At the same time, the reader is also starting to shamefully enjoy the feeling of being fooled by the text. In the article, I will use the theory of paranoia offered by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. Sedgwick understands paranoia as nothing different from knowledge per se and as a feeling that, when it’s shared, can be a useful in theories aiming to understand and deconstruct power. The positive consequences of acknowledging paranoia while reading is according to Sedgwick understood as something that, if it is taken seriously, also can be a way to move towards possibilities and reparation. By embracing the strong and negative feeling of paranoia, the reader, I argue, has the opportunity to, together with the text, construct another narrative about the seducer Azorno – which is the name of the main character of the novel– and, the perhaps five, women who might be his mistresses. When adding the acknowledgment of shame and using the theory of shame as a emotional power of keeping ’things in it’s ”right” place’, but also a feeling that – if it is shared – can work in opposite direction, since shame seen as a important experience also can make normative ideas visible. By admitting and sharing the shame sensed during the reading of Azorno, normative ideas regarding the relationship between the reader and the text, as well as standard ideas about mistresses and seducers, becomes visible and therefore also brought to a possible change. Thus, in the ending of the novel a new affect – more exultant – is achieved in the relationship between the reader and Azorno.

Udgivelsesdato: Marts