Den Danske Litterære Biografis Identitet – Med Udgangspunkt i Peer Hultbergs Biografiske Roman Præludier

Abstract

The paper discusses the issue of the contemporary Danish biographical novel, its identity and condition on the example of Peer Hultberg’s work on Chopin’s childhood, Preludes. The author of the article argues that the novel diverts to a large extent from the traditionally formulated principles which govern the genre of a biographical novel. In order to demonstrate it, the author analyses the text using the following criteria as a sort of a litmus test of the work’s “biographical provenance”: chronologically structured plot, objectivity and the protagonist’s development. As expected, the Preludes does not meet any of the above expectations towards a biographical novel, which proves that the work can be recognized as a postmodernist literary biography. The structure consisting of fragments, narration in the form of stream-of-consciousness and lack of milestones in the protagonist’s life are the primary features of the new genre which is seen as inherent in postmodernist tendencies, in particular those formulated by Jean-Francois Lyotard and Zygmunt Bauman.