World Literary Awards

← Back to Home

Johannes Vilhelm Jensen

ヨハネス・ヴィルヘルム・イェンセン

Johannes Vilhelm Jensen

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1873-01-20 （Farsø, Jutland, Denmark）
Died
1950-11-25 （Østerbro, Copenhagen, Denmark） age 77
Nationality
Denmark
Languages
Danish
Religion
Atheism
Residence History
Farsø (birthplace) → Copenhagen (later residence)

Career

Occupations
Writer, Novelist, Poet, Essayist
Active Years
1896-1950
Influenced By
Walt Whitman
Influenced
Danish modernist writers and poets of the first half of the 20th century
Nominations
Nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature 53 times between 1925 and 1944

Education

University of Copenhagen
Faculty of Medicine (attended)
Period: 3年間在籍（修了せず）
Country: Denmark
Studied medicine for three years but left to pursue a literary career

Awards

Nobel Prize in Literature
1944
Organization: The Swedish Academy
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Fall of the King

1901 Historical novel

A modern historical novel centered on King Christian II of the 16th century; a penetrating study of people of the era and a critique of Danish indecision and lack of vitality.

PowerHistoryNation and individual
Translations
  • The Fall of the King (English translations)

The Long Journey

1922 Epic cycle / evolutionary novel

A six-novel cycle treating the origins and evolution of mankind; an ambitious attempt to introduce evolutionary ideas into literature.

EvolutionOrigins of mankindScience and narrative
Translations
  • The Long Journey (English translations, various volumes)

Poems 1906 (Digte)

1906 Poetry collection

A 1906 collection of poems that helped establish Jensen as an early leading modernist in Denmark, notable for prose-poem experiments and direct language.

ModernismLanguage experimentation

Himmerland Stories (Himmerlandsfolk)

1898 Short story collection

A series of tales set in Himmerland, the region where Jensen was born, featuring rural life and regional character.

Rural lifeRegional identityHuman character studies

Bibliography

  • Danskere (1896)
  • Einar Elkjær (1898)
  • Himmerlandsfolk (1898)
  • Kongens Fald / The Fall of the King (1900–1901)
  • Digte / Poems (1906)
  • Den lange rejse / The Long Journey (1908–1922)
  • Evolution and Morality (1925)
  • The Jutland Blast (1931)
  • Poems 1901–43 (1943)
  • Africa (1949)

Translations of Works

  • The Long Journey, vol.1–3 (English translation, 1924)
  • The Fall of the King, translated by P. T. Federspiel (1933); translated by Alan G. Bower (1992)
  • The Waving Rye (English translation, 1958)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Modernist expressionDirect, straightforward languageProse-poem and formal experimentation
Recurring Motifs
EvolutionNature and national characterHistorical perspective

Legacy

Considered one of the major Danish writers of the first half of the 20th century; notable for introducing evolutionary ideas into literature and for contributing to Danish modernism. His reputation is complicated by controversial racial theories and polemical writings.

Museums

  • Museumcentre Aars Aars, Himmerland, Denmark

Archives

  • Collections held at the Royal Danish Library

In Popular Culture

  • Johannes V. Jensen Land in northern Greenland named in his honor

Quotes

  • "for the rare strength and fertility of his poetic imagination with which is combined an intellectual curiosity of wide scope and a bold, freshly creative style."
    Source: Nobel Prize in Literature 1944 citation (The Swedish Academy) (1944)
  • "This child of the dry and windy moors of Jutland has, almost out of spite, astonished his contemporaries by a remarkably prolific production."
    Source: Award ceremony speech, Anders Österling (1945) (1945)

Trivia

  • One sister, Thit Jensen, was also a well-known writer and early feminist.
  • He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature 53 times (first nomination in 1925).
  • He included a smiley-like face in correspondence around 1900, noted as an early example of typographic play.