Noter : Kilde: Svend Giversen - væverlinien.
Den Store Danske Encyklopædi: Jensen, Johannes Vilhelm, 20.1.1873-25.11.1950, dansk forfatter; bror til Thit Jensen. Med sine værker gennem første halvdel af 1900-t. skabte han en ny omverdensorienteret, suggestiv prosa og poesi i Danmark. Tildelt nobelprisen 1944.
Han blev født i Farsø, Himmerland, som søn af en dyrlæge. I 1893 blev han student og flyttede til København for at læse medicin, et studium, han med vekslende intensitet fortsatte indtil 1898. Undervejs begyndte han at skrive digte og især kulørte romaner til magasinet Revuen (1895-98) under pseudonymet Ivar Lykke. Sin egentlige skønlitterære debut fik han med romanen Danskere (1896) om en ung provinsstudents møde med storbyen København. Romanen Einar Elkær (1898) fortsætter dette spor i et portræt af en lignende hovedperson, der opløses i selvrefleksion og ender med at dø af "blød Hjerne". Med Himmerlandsfolk (1898) åbnede Johannes V. Jensen for sin jyske basis og skabte historier om skæbner blandt bønder, der var uløseligt bundet i deres instinkter. Senere udkom flere samlinger af disse Himmerlandshistorier, der som genre strækker sig gennem hele forfatterskabet. Det gælder også en anden kortprosagenre, som han opdyrkede, myten, der giver et glimt af menneskets vilkår i naturen og tiderne, fastholdt i det oplevede nu. Genrebetegnelsen fandt han i 1901, men i de tidlige prosastykker Mørkets frodighed (samlet 1973) er formen på vej allerede i årene før 1900. Den første samling udkom med titlen Myter og Jagter (1907). Mytisk er også betragtningsmåden i hans mest berømte værk, romanen Kongens Fald fra 1900-01, hvor hovedpersonen Mikkel Thøgersen i tiden omkring 1500 må se sine drømme om at blive til noget stort forgå i tilværelsens almindelige lov om stigning og uomgængeligt fald. Hans skæbne bindes stadig tættere til kong Christian 2., og romanens symbolske sluterkendelse er, at Jorden, modsat middelalderens opfattelse, går rundt om Solen, et symbolsk udtryk for, at hverken kongen eller menneskets jeg er tilværelsens centrum. Mennesket er sat under 'faldets' lov. Noget lignende gælder synet på Danmarks historiske situation, idet begivenhederne omkring 1500 ses som begyndelsen til landets forfaldshistorie med perspektiv til tabet af Sønderjylland i 1864. Men selvom romanen således tematisk omhandler det fejlslagne danske liv, så gør den det i et kraftfuldt sanseligt sprog.
Årene 1900-01 blev meget betydningsfulde. Her skrev Johannes V. Jensen små prosaskitser til avisen København, hvoraf nogle senere i omsat skikkelse indgik i hans Digte (1906), et værk, som med sine seks frie digte revolutionerede den lyriske digtning i Danmark. "Interferens" fra denne samling er særlig berømt, da det præcist sammenfatter en moderne erfaring: "Min Bevidsthed ytrer sig som sjælelig Interferens./ Selve det skrigende Forhold mellem alle i øvrigt harmoniske Virkeligheder/ er mit Indres gennemtrængende Tonart". 1901 udkom hans første kulturkritiske artikelsamling, Den gotiske Renaissance, der sætter den sejrende angelsaksiske kultur med dens dyrkelse af kendsgerningen og maskinen op mod den romanske kultur. Handlingen og sansningen kom nu i centrum; æstetisk nåede han frem til det udsagn, der foregriber futurisme og ekspressionisme ti år senere: skønheden følger styrken.
Den medrivende udtryksevne gav Johannes V. Jensen sikkerhed til at udkaste voldsomme udviklingssyner, der ikke undgår at viderebringe mange af de racistiske spekulationer, som var almindelige i tiden lige efter 1900. Den gotiske race så han således udspringe i Jylland, siden flytte til England med folkevandringen i vikingetiden og videre derfra i moderne tid med udvandringen til Amerika. I essaysamlingen Den ny Verden (1907) følger han det sejrende gotiske spor i Amerika, ligesom hovedpersonen Lee i romanen Hjulet (1905) nedkæmper de dunkle motivers førerskikkelse Cancer: "Her var Kærnen i den Taage af kvindagtig Trang til at dyrke og blive dyrket, der løj alle Omrids ud i Uendeligheden, til Himmels og ad Helved til (...) en gammel snavset Fyr, egnet til Lem i et Hospital mellem andre arme snakkesalige af Kønnet".
Menneskets historie før goterne, bevægelsen fra urtiden til Amerikas opdagelse blev temaet i Den lange Rejse (6 bd., 1908-22), hvor han benyttede darwinismens forestilling om de bedst egnedes overlevelse som model for sin beskrivelse af menneskets udvikling fra istiden frem til Christoffer Columbus.
I disse udviklingssyner er den udadvendte erobring af land, den nordeuropæiske races forrang, imperialismen, maskinen og kendsgerningen klare positive værdier for Johannes V. Jensen. På det personlige plan stemmer det overens med hans ønske om at ville være en anden end den indadvendte, sjæleligt overspændte halvfemser-figur, han havde været. Der er noget voldsomt og villet over hans forandring af sig selv hen imod den harmoni, som han erklærede som sit standpunkt, og efter hans død har mange da også, modsat hans egen vurdering, foretrukket ungdomsforfatterskabet.
Han havde giftet sig 1904 og slået sig ned med familie på Frederiksberg i København. Ud fra forestillinger om normalitet og sundhed fór han hårdt frem mod den homoseksuelle Herman Bang i en aviskronik 1906 og fik derved den samlede litterære offentlighed imod sig. Polemikken gled over i hans næste bestræbelse (1907) på at samle alle de folkelige forfattere under én betegnelse: "Den jyske Bevægelse". Johannes V. Jensen ville, med udgangspunkt i det folkelige gennembrud, som afløste 1890'er-digtningen, føre en kulturkamp på det litterære felt, hvor dannelsens forfinelse skulle afløses af en kultur, der tog udgangspunkt i menneskets omgang med naturen og produktionen.
Sideløbende med udgivelsen af de enkelte bind af Den lange Rejse opbyggedes efterhånden et stort essayistisk og journalistisk forfatterskab, der tog mere og mere af Johannes V. Jensens skabende evne. I essaysamlingen Introduktion til vor Tidsalder (1915) uddrog han erfaringerne fra sine rejser Jorden rundt. Hovedinteressen var sammenlignende racestudier, hvor han gerne ville se de forskellige racer som trin i menneskeåndens udvikling. Æstetik og Udvikling (1923), som er en efterskrift til Den lange Rejse, redegør for hans særlige placering i den litterære tradition med yndlingsdigtere som Goethe, Bjørnson, Hamsun, H.C. Andersen og Oehlenschläger. Endelig sammenfatter Aandens Stadier (1928) hans biologiske, antropologiske og naturvidenskabelige interesser under begreberne evolution og race. Da disse begreber senere i 1930'erne fik en nazistisk farvning, tog Johs. V. Jensen kraftigt afstand fra deres politisk-ideologiske udnyttelse.
Det fiktive forfatterskab tyndede, med enkelte markante undtagelser, ud med digte i traditionelle former, undertiden inspireret af oldnordiske versemål, som knyttede sig til hans oversættelse af De islandske Sagaer (1930-32) og Heimskringla (1928). Stærkt blandt disse digte står "Som Dreng skar jeg Skibe" og digtet om Oehlenschläger "Graven i Sne". Romanerne ebbede ud med den groteske Dr. Renaults Fristelser (1935) og Gudrun, en hyldest til hverdagens kvinde (1936).
Johannes V. Jensen var livet igennem en maskeret person. Han ville være moderne, sportstrænet og bekendte sig til den fremvoksende industrikultur, men samtidig havde han stærke bindinger til sit jyske udspring. Hans livslængsel skærpedes af en dødsrædsel, og man kan anskue hans udviklingssyner og hans mytetænkning som en måde at takle den religiøse drift. Med al sin aggressive styrke ville han overgive øjeblikket intakt til sine læsere, for, som han lærte ved at se bjerget Fusijama (Fujiyama): "den højere Verden, vi stunder imod, kan (kun) være netop den der er" (1902).
Følgende 2 tekster er kopieret fra Nobelkomiteens hjemmeside på internettet 2004:
Johannes V. Jensen - Autobiography - til Nobelkomiteen i forbindelse med modtagelsen af Nobelprisen i litteratur 1944:
I was born on the 20th of January, 1873, in a village in North Jutland, the second son of the district veterinary surgeon, H. Jensen, a descendant on both sides of farmers and craftsmen. In 1893, at the age of twenty, I graduated from the Cathedral School of Viborg, and subsequently studied medicine for three years at the University of Copenhagen. I earned my living by my pen until it became necessary for me to choose between further studies and literature. The grounding in natural sciences which I obtained in the course of my medical studies, including preliminary examinations in botany, zoology, physics, and chemistry, was to become decisive in determining the trend of my literary work.
My literary career began near the turn of the century with the publication of Himmerlandshistorier (1898-1910) [Himmerland Stories], comprising a series of tales set in that part of Denmark where I was born. This was followed in the years up to 1944 by «legends» and«myths» representing literary forms I have particularly liked, and of which nine volumes have appeared (Myter, 1907-45 [Myths]). I have also written poetry, a few plays, and many essays, chiefly on anthropology and the philosophy of evolution.
For many years I was engaged in journalism, writing articles and chronicles for the daily press without ever joining the staff of any newspaper. Nor have I ever belonged to any political party. After extensive journeys to the East, to Malaya and China, and several visits to the United States, I inspired a change in the Danish literature and press by introducing English and American vigour, which was to replace the then dominant trend of decadent Gallicism. The essence of my literary work is to be found in my collection of poems, which may be regarded as a reaction against the fastidious style of the day bearing Baudelaire's poisonous hall-mark. My poems represented a turn to simple style and sound subject matter (Digte, 1904-41, 1943 [Poems]).
A probing analysis of the problems of evolution forms the basis of my prose. During half a century of literary work, I have endeavoured to introduce the philosophy of evolution into the sphere of literature, and to inspire my readers to think in evolutionary terms. I was prompted to do this because of the misinterpretation and distortion of Darwinism at the end of the 19th century. The concept of the Übermensch had disastrous consequences in that it led to two world wars, and was destroyed only with the collapse of Germany in 1945. In the course of opposing this fallacious doctrine, I have arrived at a new interpretation of the theory of evolution and its moral implications.
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1944
Presentation Speech by Anders Österling, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy , December 10, 1945
Today Johannes V. Jensen will receive in person the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1944, and we are happy to salute the great Danish writer who since the beginning of the century has been in the front rank, always active, for a long time controversial, but universally admired for his vitality. This child of the dry and windy moors of Jutland has, almost out of spite, astonished his contemporaries by a remarkably prolific production. He could well be considered one of the most fertile Scandinavian writers. He has constructed a vast and imposing literary œuvre, comprising the most diverse genres: epic and lyric, imaginative and realistic works, as well as historical and philosophical essays, not to mention his scientific excursions in all directions.
This bold iconoclast and stylistic innovator has increasingly become a patriarchal classic, and in his heart he feels close to the poetry of the golden age and hopes that one day he will be counted among the life-giving tutelary spirits of his nation.
Johannes V. Jensen has been such a passionate student of biological and philosophical evolution that he should be amazed at the singular course of his own development. A conquering instinct forms the basis of his being. He was a native of Himmerland, a relatively dry region in western Jutland, and his impressions of men and things were engraved indelibly on his consciousness. Later he was to remember those resources that were hidden beneath the sensations of childhood, the ancient treasure of family memories. His father, the veterinarian of Farsö, came from that area, and through his paternal grandfather, the old weaver of Guldager, Jensen is directly descended from peasants. Characteristically enough, his first book dealt with the province of his origin. His incomparable Himmerlandshistorier offer an original portrait gallery of primitive and half-savage creatures who are still subject to ancient fears. The promised land of his childhood, powerful and alive with the past, is found again in his mature poetry.
The first books of Johannes V. Jensen reveal him as a young man from the provinces; a student of opposition, living in Copenhagen; an arduous and agitated youth, fighting passionately against intellectual banality and narrow-mindedness. This native of Jutland, self-conscious, difficult to approach, but sensitive, was soon to find his country too narrow. Stifled by the familiar climate of the Danish isles, he threw himself into exotic romanticism with the cool passion of a gambler. His travels across foreign continents for the first time opened to him the space needed by his restless, unchained imagination. During that period of his life he sang the praise of technology and mechanization. Just as his compatriot H. C. Andersen was perhaps the first to describe the charms of railway travel, Johannes V. Jensen was the prophet of the marvels of our age, of skyscrapers, motor cars, and cinemas, which he never tires of praising in his American novels, Madame D'Ora (1904) and Hjulet (1905) [The Wheel]. But soon he entered into a new stage of his development; at the risk of simplifying matters we might say that, having satisfied his passion for distant travel, he began to look in time for what he had pursued in space. The same man who had sung the modern life, with its rapid pace and noisy machines, has become the spectator of ancient epochs and has devoted himself to the study of the long, slow periods during which man first sought adventure.
Thus we come to perhaps his most important creation, the six volumes combined under the title Den lange rejse, which leads us from the ice age to Christopher Columbus. The central theme or one of the central themes of this work is the universal mission of the Scandinavian people, from the great migrations and the Norman invasion to the discovery of America. Jensen considers Christopher Columbus a descendant of the Lombards, in short a Nordic man, if not a Jutlander like himself. In this monumental series appears a legendary figure, Nornagestr. He is not at all the same person who appears at the court of King Olaf Tryggvason to tell his stories and die there. According to the Icelandic saga he was three hundred years old; but Jensen makes him even older and turns him into a kind of Ahasverus, ubiquitous, always behind his time, a stranger among the new generations, but nevertheless younger than they because he lived at a time when existence itself was young and mankind closer to its origins. The writer has followed tradition only as far as it was useful to him. Three prophetesses came to Nornagestr's mother to see the child and one of them predicted that he would die as soon as the candle could no longer burn. Gro, the mother, immediately extinguished the candle and gave it to the child as an amulet. In the work of Johannes V. Jensen, Nornagestr sometimes lights it in foreign lands and whenever he does so a deep abyss of time opens before him. When he comes to again, seized by the love of life, he is transported to his country, the fresh and green Zealand.
All legends exist because reason alone cannot clarify experience. What then is Nornagestr, who plays such an important role in the epic of the Danish master? Perhaps it is the spirit of the Nordic people rising from the night like a phantom or like an atavistic creature. One suspects that this unique globetrotter with his harp is closely related to the author himself, who has given him many ideas about life and death, and about the close relation between the present and eternity - the precious fruits of experiences gathered from the lands and seas of the globe.
For Johannes V. Jensen, who grew up on a Jutland moor where the horizon is often indented by a line of tumuli, it was natural to divide his interests between facts and myths and to seek his way between the shadows of the past and the realities of the present. His example reveals to us both the attraction of the primitive for a sensitive man and the necessity of transforming brute force into tenderness. He has attained the summit of his art by means of these violent contrasts. A fresh, salty breeze blows through his work, which unfolds with vivid language, powerful expression, and singular energy. Precisely in the poets most deeply rooted in their country do we find this poetic genius for words. Jensen is the voice of Jutland and of Denmark. With his talents he deserves the title of the most eminent narrator of the victorious struggle of the Nordic people against nature, and of the continuity of the Nordic spirit throughout the ages.
Mr. Jensen - If you have listened to what I have just said you will certainly think that the few moments I had were much too short to accomplish the long voyage through your work, and that I have neglected important aspects of it. It is fortunate for us as well as for you that a proper presentation is hardly necessary at all in your case. You are a well-known member of our great family and as such you are now asked to receive from the hands of our King the distinction which the Swedish Academy has awarded you.
At the banquet, Professor A.H.T. Theorell, Director of the Department of Biochemistry at the Nobel Institute of Medicine, called Mr. Jensen «the splendid representative of the proud literary tradition of our dear sister country, Denmark» |