Towards the Light, into the Silence: Danish Working-Class Literature Past and, Perhaps, Present

Abstract

The chapter presents an overview of Danish working-class literary history. The initial sections outline the established narrative of the tradition from the late 19th century to the early 1980s, whereas the closing parts poses the question: Does a contemporary Danish working-class literature exist? The backdrop of this question is the decline of scholarly interest in working-class literature since the 1980’s which has left the tradition’s trajectory over the last four decades generally unexplored. The chapter argues that contemporary Danish literature contains a multifaceted list of works for a 21st century working-class literature. However, even the limited number of recent studies addressing the possible connection between this body of works and the tradition present no univocal assessment of the current state of Danish working-class literature. The varied interpretations, the chapter argues, are a result of an inherent challenge in the research field: that of defining working-class literature. Thus, the exploration of the history of Danish working-class literature – focusing on the construction of the tradition – exposes it as a contested field and highlights the different conceptualizations of the term.