HANSEN, THORKILD

(1927-1989)

A Danish novelist, travel writer, essayist, and journalist, Hansen produced early work that was a harbinger of the documentary movement in Scandinavian literature in the 1960s and later. After publishing a book of literary scholarship at the age of 20, Hansen spent five years in Paris, where he studied French literature and philosophy while serving as a correspondent for a Danish newspaper. Returning to Denmark in 1952, he earned a living as a journalist. He also traveled widely in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

Hansen published several volumes about his travels, later including edited versions of his diaries from his youth and years as a newspaper journalist. His literary breakthrough came with the historical and documentary novelDet lykkelige Arabien: En dansk ekspedtion 1761-67(1962; tr.Arabia Felix: The Danish Expedition of 1761—1767, 1964). This novel is both a faithful historical account of an expedition to Yemen that was doomed from the start—five of its six members perished, with only the German Carsten Niebuhr making it back to Denmark—and a statement on the human condition that emphasizes randomness and meaninglessness. While thus influenced by French existentialist thought, Hansen goes a step further and claims that failure and anonymity are necessary preconditions to true understanding and remembrance. Niebuhr is a paradigm case, as he returns from Yemen stripped of whatever arrogance and social ambition might otherwise have clouded his vision throughout his life.

With a knack for identifying forgotten episodes in the history of Danish national ambition, Hansen next studied the case ofthe Arctic explorer Jens Munk. The result was the novelJens Munk(1965; tr. and abridged asNorth West to Hudson Bay: The Life and Times of Jens Munk, 1970). Hansen's character Jens Munk is another case of a man humbled by circumstances.Although he returned from the expedition as only one of three survivors, there were no rewards for him and he died in obscurity.

Hansen's greatest literary achievement is a trilogy that deals with the Danish slave trade. Set in the 1700s, it describes a common triangular trade route at the time. Ships sailed from Europe to West Africa loaded with weaponry and other goods, then continued to the Americas with a cargo of slaves, and then returned to Europe with a load of sugar. Denmark had a colony in the Caribbean, three islands that comprised the Danish West Indies (since 1917 the U.S. Virgin Islands), where African slaves worked the sugar plantations. The trilogy's first volume,Slavernes kyst(1967; The Coast of the Slaves), describes the capture and treatment of the slaves in Africa.Slavernes skibe(1968; The Ships of the Slaves) describes, with illustrations, the horrendous conditions the slaves had to endure while being transported across the Atlantic.Slavernes øer(1970; The Islands of the Slaves) details their lives on the islands of St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix. Hansen's work shined a bit of daylight on some embarrassing facts from the past, including Denmark's reluctance to outlaw slavery, and the Enlightenment writerLudvigHolberg's financial involvement with a company that participated in the slave trade. Hansen was rewarded for his literary achievement with theNordic Literary Prizein 1971.

After almost a decade as a public figure and highly respected writer, Hansen published his final novel,Processen mod Hamsun(1978; The Case against Hamsun), in which he described the postwar trial of the great Norwegian novelistKnut Hamsun, who had expressed strong Nazi sympathies during WorldWarII. Hansen questioned whether Hamsun had been treated according to principles of justice, and a heated debate ensued, especially in Norway. Some of Hansen's critics believed that he had gone too easy on Norway's Nazi sympathizers, and Hansen's reputation suffered when historical inaccuracies were found in his book. Hansen also published an autobiographical volume entitledSøforhør: Nærbillede af Thorkild Hansen(1982; Maritime Inquest: Close-up of Thorkild Hansen), which, in the form of an extended interview and illustrated with photographs from the author's life, looked like an autobiographical apology.