Of Darkness: In the fall term 2017 Josefine Klougart will be “Friedrich Dürrenmatt Guest Professor for World Literature“ at the University of Bern
Josefine Klougart is one of the most promising and productive young writers of Scandinavia and regarded as one of the most important literary voices of her generation. Born 1985 in Denmark, Klougart now lives in Copenhagen. She studied literature and history of art in Aarhus and attended the Danish Writer’s School in Copenhagen, from which she gratuated in 2010. In the same year, she published her debut novel Stigninger og fald (Rise and Fall) which has been awarded with the Danish Royal Prize for Culture and nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize.
Since then, Josefine Klougart has written four further novels: In 2011, Hallerne (The Halls) was published, and one year later Én af os sover (One of Us is Sleeping) which was – among other nominations – also shortlisted for the Nordic Council Literature Prize. Om mørke (On Darkness) in 2013 and New Forest in 2016 followed. Klougart’s books have been translated into English, French, Italian, and Turkish, and published in eight different countries.
With essays and interviews for print and radio, for example about the norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik, Klougart reached an international audience in Scandinavia, France, Croatia, Turkey and in the U.S.. She is currently working on a project together with the icelandic-danish artist Olafur Eliasson.
From September to December 2017, Josefine Klougart will spend the fall term in Switzerland as Friedrich Dürrenmatt Guest Professor at the University of Bern. She gives a weekly seminar on the topic of «DARKNESS: literature as a way to accelerate the thought», arguing that literature is not as much about recognizing ourselves in stories and ideas as it is about undergoing a change in the encounter with a new language or a new way of thinking. Accordingly, darkness will be discussed not only on the basis of Klougart’s own works but also in exemplary texts from Vladimir Nabokov, Herta Müller or Lars von Trier. In addition, Klougart will invite guests to her class, including the journalist Lars Borking and the publisher Jakob Sandvad from Denmark.
