Extracts from Dorrit Willumsen

By : Søren Schou

Dorrit Willumsen, like Inger Christensen and Kirsten Thorup, has her artistic roots in the modernism of the 1960s.  Not the text-thematic composition of her two colleagues, but the slightly earlier so-called confrontational modernism.
  One searches her work in vain, however, for Rifbjerg´s animated celebration of the world of objects.  A 1970 novel is entitled Tea seasoning acrylic fee grasshopper (the krydderi acryl salær græshopper) - there is a lot of linguistic fascination in such a juxtaposition of words, but no intelligibility.  The absurd materialistic world stifles any spontaneous manifestation of life.  People are doped up into a state of pseudo-contentment.  Only the nausea grows and grows, in defiance of, or because of, all the stimulants.
  The Neon Park (Neonhaven) from 1976 depicts the theme park approach to life, where the last ride follows the direct route to a necrophilous hell.  Every possible technological fix is put to use in order to forestall anyone getting a pain in the existence. Personality is a matter of hygiene, the correct dosage of angst- and cold sweat-removing medication. 
  Even though Willumsen´s work is clearly motivated by a feminist background, it is not only women, but both sexes which are seen as victims of the ideal of perfection.  The man with the gigantic mother-fixation is a figure which appears just as frequently as the nymph who pleases male voyeuristic and Lolita-impulses.  In The Man as Pretext (Manden som påskud 1980) representatives of both genders are locked into obsessive inner monologues.
  In the 1970s, Willumsen´s stories of ready-made people in a ready-to-move-into  civilisation were read as a critique of women´s oppression, capitalism and the aesthetics of commercialism.  While the themes were contemporary, the style was not.  She stuck to a modernistic voice, but it was realism that was making the grand utterances.
  Her social criticism was never ostentatious, but was presented via a sequence of events which was just as surreal-grotesque in its choice of motif as it was cool and unambiguous in form. 
  The doll motif is central to Willumsen, understandably in light of her portrayal of characters who are seeking to ward off intimidation from an over-bearing and unmanageable reality.
  The short story Coppelia the Model (Modellen Coppelia 1973) is about a woman who flees from the intimacy of marriage to cultivate an equally stereotypical role as a vamp.  And Programmed for Love (Programmeret til Kærlighed 1981) presents us with a doll geared up to fulfil every imaginable sexual need.
 Over the last dozen years or so, Willumsen´s writing has turned away from the surreal.  She eventually became a (kind of) realist at a point when realism was being declared obsolete.  At the same time, her interest in historical subjects was growing.
  Sigh Heart (Suk hjerte 1986) is a Copenhagen family saga from the 1930s to the present day.  She reached a wider audience, however, with her three biographical novels about passionate, extraordinary characters who were all artists in their own field:  Madame Tussaud, Empress Theodora and Herman Bang.
  Marie (Marie 1983) describes the life of a woman as reflected in both the golden mirrors of Versailles and the crimson blade of the guillotine.  It is an eventful account of Madame TussaudÆs experiences during the French Revolution followed by her years of exile in London, where she created the famous waxworks.
  The novel is of the same kind as Annemarie Selinko´s Désirée, wrote Jens Kistrup in his review in Berlingske Tidende, but added: "It is a much better book."  Marie sums up WillumsenÆs artist- and doll-motifs from an original perspective.  Is it possible to create art in a politicised age, without the artist taking on the role of journalist of death?  Did this resulting collection of what are in reality lifeless wax figures counterbalance all the toil, all the human cost?

Søren Schou is a lecturer at the University of Roskilde and a literary reviewer The article was published in Weekendavisen, 31 January-6 February 1997

Translated by W. Glyn Jones