It's not often that a literary study makes front page news! On September 2nd, Denmark's largest daily newspaper POLITIKEN published a front-page story on Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen), reporting that an important new study by UW Professor of Scandinavian Studies Marianne Stecher had challenged decades of criticism about the Danish literary icon, whose literary works about colonial Africa have often provoked controversy and elicited praise. Critic Mikkel Bruun Zangenberg gave high marks (five-hearts) to The Creative Dialectic in Karen Blixen's Essays, calling it a "smashing good study" ("Knagende god afhandling") and a full-page interview with Professor Stecher by cultural journalist Camilla Stockmann was also featured in that day's paper. Since Politikens news coverage stirred up another debate about Blixen, a number of critics have offered opinions and reviews of the new study. Read the articles, interviews and book reviews from Politiken and other Danish and Scandinavian newspapers below:
Frontpage story in Politiken, 2 September 2014:
http://politiken.dk/kultur/boger/ECE2383562/karen-blixen-frikendes-for-racisme/
Five-heart Book Review by Mikkel Bruun Zangenberg in Politiken, 2 September 2014
http://politiken.dk/kultur/boger/ECE2383394/knagende-god-afhandling-giver-fornyet-indsigt-i-blixens-verden/
Interview with author by Camilla Stockmann; Frontpage of Politiken's Cultural Section, 2 September 2014:
http://politiken.dk/magasinet/interview/ECE2383711/ekspert-langt-ude-at-tro-at-blixen-var-nazist/
Politiken's satirical illustration of Blixen lion-hunting, 3 September 2014: Caption reads in Danish reads: "A Danish American researcher demonstrates that Karen Blixens mentality was different than previously assertained." Blixens loevejagt (pdf)
Politiken's interview with three other Blixen scholars, 6. September 2014:
http://politiken.dk/kultur/boger/ECE2387934/litteraturforsker-selvfoelgelig-var-blixen-racist/
From Sweden's SVENSKA DAGBLADET, reporting Stecher's book and the Danish debate on Blixen:
http://www.svd.se/kultur/karen-blixen-var-inte-nazist_3895132.svd
Kristeligt Dagblad's book review by Bo Haakon Joegensen and interview with author, 11 - 12 September 2014: http://www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk/kultur/2014-09-11/karen-blixen-var-ikke-racist or Kristeligt Dagblad (pdf)
Satirical Illustration from Politiken
Copies of the book can be ordered through The University of Chicago Press website.