I have been schooled! I might have claimed in my last post that Danish immigrant literature is practically non-existent, but this is not true. I will however still assert my claim that immigrant literature in this country is not much profiled due to some apparent reasons: interest is not that high, those who are profiled as immigrant authors don’t necessarily want their works to be classified as such, and there aren’t that many immigrant authors as opposed to ethnic Danish authors. Some would argue that the immigrant literary scene in Denmark is not as much evolved and refined as our neighbours to the north (Sweden) or those to our left (UK), and this has great bearing on the amount of literature from this specific area. Of course, right at this moment Tarek Omar with his MuhameDANEREN has just published a novel about the immigrant scene the common ethnic Dane only hears about through media. And incidentally, a good friend and colleague of mine, Charlotte, has also done some research in the area of Danish immigrant literature, and put me in my place 🙂 The interesting thing (as she told me, and I tend to agree) is that it is hard to define immigrant literature – what is an immigrant author? One foot (or 1 1/2) in another nationality or culture? And is this nationality to be much different from the Danish for it to be acknowledged as immigrant literature? Is someone whose parents came to the country in the 60s-70s from Pakistan more the ideal of an immigrant author than a blond girl born to Danish parents in Greenland who moved to Denmark at the age of 7?
Well, enough with the questionnaire, Charlotte has given me an impressive list of authors and I just have to pass it on to you guys and wish you a happy reading:
Naja Marie Aidt m.fl. (red.): anthology Nye Stemmer 2007
Amulya Malladi (1974): Lyden af bier 2009
Janina Katz (1939): Længsel på bestilling 2008
Birgithe Kosovic (1974): Det dobbelte land 2010
Alen Meskovic (1977): Første gang tilbage 2009
Milena Rudez (1958): collection of poems Verden bag glasset 2010
Muniam Alfaker (1953): Mindernes Trapez 2007
Arash Sharifzadeh Abdi (1972): collection of poems Kvasidansk 2009
Sadegh Javadi (1962): I skæbnens favn 2009
Lone Aburas (1979): Føtexsøen 2009 + Den svære toer 2011
Manu Sareen (1967): various children’s books
Özlem Cekic (1976): Fra Føtex til Folketinget 2009
Tine Flyvholm (red.): anthology Pære-perker-dansk 2011
Marco Goli: Fundér fra 2001
Rubén Palma: Fra lufthavn til lufthavn – og andre indvandrerfortællinger 2001
Adil Erdem: Rejsen ud af mørket 2003
Duna Ghali: poetry collection En have med duft af mand 2007
Murat Alpar: poetry collection Mågen er et stort bogstav 2002
Author’s with an adoptive background writing about national identity
Maja Lee Langvad: poetry collection Find Holger Danske 2004
Eva Tind Kristensen (1974): poetry collection Do 2009