Word and truth — a look at Johannes V. Jensen’s journalism. Part 1

Abstract

Since the establishment of the Johannes V. Jensen Centre at Aarhus University in 1993, studies of the Nobel Prize winner have shifted from the biographical to the textual. At the same time, the publication especially of early works with critical commentary has intensified. The present article traces some themes throughout a half-century of Jensen’s journalism which was first assembled in book form in 2014 under the title Word and Truth. The material brings more nuance to impressions of the poet’s opinions and positions, also because the anthologizing of his journalistic works has until now and for good reason skimmed only the cream. Now the dregs are considered as well, and even this portion of Jensen’s work impresses with its linguistically seductive energy and fascinating images. Most of the articles Jensen himself agreed to have reprinted and they were included in the so-called mythic volumes. Jensen regarded myth as a special genre, his own reply in all modesty to what H. C. Andersen had done for the fairy tale. Jensen’s journalism spans also biographically from the poet’s native soil in Jutland to distant parts of the world, with the capital as well as rural Tisvilde as important stops along the way. The poet’s efforts to protect nature and the implied archeological interests (not only in a Danish context) are reflected in a number of articles. Just as meaningful, but modernity-oriented, is an enthusiasm for technical development, machinery, traffic on land, sea and air. Life’s origins and the development of the species are viewed in a Darwinist perspective. The present article’s second part deals with Jensen’s tradition-bound understanding of the relationship between the sexes and, in that connection, with his fear of “sexual confusion” often mentioned, most painfully in the 1907 intimidation of his colleague Herman Bang. Finally, attention is given to the part of Jensen’s journalism which portrays his own travels and his writings on others’ contributions to the genre of travel literature.