'A Wild Incurable Longing ...'

The Danish Nobel Prize winner Johannes V. Jensen (1873-1950) ushered in the twentieth century in Danish literature with his first poems in free verse. Above all, his texts are permeated by an enthusiasm, not to be ignored, for modern technology and tempo and for the United States - largely mediated through the confrontation between apparently incompatible impressions. Everything Jensen wrote is colored by his longing for distant places and the other, a longing that is, however, held in balance by a reciprocal love for his homeland and its traditions. These engender the enormous modernist tension in his production, which also characterizes his unique short narratives, his tales from his homeland and his perspective-changing and imaginative myths. Jensen's production displays a language of unique innovation and intensity that elevates him to the rank of world literature.