Jens Bjørneboe
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Jens Bjørneboe (October 9, 1920–May 9, 1976) was a Norwegian painter, dramatist, essayist and novelist. His first published work was Poems (Dikt) in 1951. He is widely considered to be one of Norway's most important post-war authors. Bjørneboe identified himself as an anarcho-nihilist.
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[edit] Early life
Jens Bjørneboe was born in 1920, in Kristiansand. In 1943 Bjørneboe fled to Sweden to avoid forced labor. During this exile, he met the German Jew Lisel Funk, who later became his first wife.
[edit] Literary career
Bjørneboe wrote a number of socially critical novels. Among those were Ere the Cock Crows (Før Hanen Galer, 1952), Jonas (1955) and The Evil Shepherd (Den Onde Hyrde, 1960).
His best work is by many considered to be the trilogy The History of Bestiality, consisting of the novels Moment of Freedom (Frihetens Øyeblikk, 1966), Powderhouse (Kruttårnet, 1969) and The Silence (Stillheten, 1973).
Bjørneboe also wrote a number of plays, among those were The Bird Lovers (Fugleelskerne, 1966), Semmelweis (1968) and Amputation (Amputasjon, 1970).
In 1967, he was convicted for publishing the pornographic novel Without a Stitch (Uten en tråd, 1966), and the novel was confiscated and banned. The trial, however, made the book a huge success (in foreign languages), and Bjørneboe's financial problems were (for the time being) solved. Later on, a Danish director named Annelise Meineche based a film on it. It received bad reviews.
His last major work was the novel The Sharks (Haiene, 1974).
[edit] Death and legacy
After having struggled with depression and alcoholism for a long time, he committed suicide on May 9, 1976.
Bjorneboe was described in his Aftenposten obituary as: "For 25 years Jens Bjørneboe was a center of unrest in Norwegian cultural life: Passionately concerned with contemporary problems in nearly all their aspects, controversial and with the courage to be so, with a conscious will to carry things to extremes. He was not to be pigeonholed. He dropped in on many philosophical and political movements, but couldn't settle down in any of them. He was a wanderer, always traveling on in search of what was for him the truth -- and he was a free man, in that he always ruthlessly followed his innermost intentions. Perhaps he could say, like Søren Kierkegaard, that "subjectivity is truth," for he knew no other guide than his personal conviction and his own impulses -- but he related not merely to himself; his deepest concern was society and the person in society. His subjective grasp always involved the totality."
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Novels
- Duke Hans (Hertug Hans, 1972)
- Ere the Cock Crows (Før hanen galer, 1952)
- Jonas (1955)
- Under a Harsher Sky (Under en hårdere himmel, 1957)
- Winter in Bellapalma (Vinter i Bellapalma, 1958)
- Little Boy Blue (Blåmann, 1959)
- The Evil Shepherd (Den onde hyrde, 1960)
- The Dream and the Wheel (Drømmen og hjulet, 1964)
- Moment of Freedom (Frihetens øyeblikk, 1966)
- Without a Stitch (Uten en tråd, 1966)
- Without a Stitch 2 (Uden en trævl 2, 1968)
- Powderhouse (Kruttårnet, 1969)
- The Silence (Stillheten, 1973)
- The Sharks (Haiene, 1974)
[edit] Plays
- Many Happy Returns (Til lykke med dagen, 1965)
- The Bird Lovers (Fugleelskerne, 1966)
- Semmelweis (1968)
- Amputation (Amputasjon, 1970). Reprinted as: Amputations: Texts for an Extraordinary Spectacle, by Jens Bjørneboe, translated from Norwegian by Solrun Hoaas & Esther Greenleaf Mürer. Grand Terrace, CA: Xenos Books.
- The Torgersen Case (Tilfellet Torgersen, 1972)
- Blue Jeans (Dongery, 1976)
[edit] Poems
- Poems (Dikt, 1951)
- Ariadne (1953)
- The Great City (Den store by, 1958)
[edit] Essay collections
- Norway, my Norway (Norge, mitt Norge, 1968)
- We Who Loved America (Vi som elsket Amerika, 1970)
- Police and Anarchy (Politi og anarki, 1972)
[edit] References
Obituary published in the Oslo Aftenposten, May 11, 1976 (Translated from the Norwegian by Esther Greenleaf Mürer)
