Greenlandic literature

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The Greenlandic literature is in Greenlandic language written literature of the Inuit or Danes or the descendants of compounds of Inuit and Danes in Greenland live.

prehistory

Oral culture and the narrative tradition of the polar peoples from Greenland to the Chukchi Peninsula were closely related for a long time. It was not until the Danish colonization and mission that Greenland became more closely bound to Denmark in the 18th century . The Greenlandic literature that emerged in this context is therefore a fairly new phenomenon and is one of the most recent Nordic literatures; at the same time, it ties in with ancient narrative forms and myths. The result is a hybrid literature: there are Greenlanders who write in Danish and Danes who write in Greenlandic.

Because of the written fixation (and especially because of the translation into European languages), important features of what is spoken or what is communicated in monotonous speaking and drum singing have been and are lost; the written expression experiences a clear "loss of mood" compared to the listening experience, which is difficult to compensate. The Greenlandic myths deal with cosmic creation and natural forces, with people with supernatural abilities, shamans , ghosts and giants, the everyday stories reflect the traditional rough life of the Inuit, whereby both worlds appear closely intertwined.

According to Anna Kim, the Inuit culture is characterized by a certain “lack of traces”: Everything is used, nothing is preserved except in the oral story.

Christian indoctrination by the Danish Lutheran Church and the Moravian Mission in Greenland (which existed from 1731 to 1900) with the ban on drumming, unfair trade, forced marriages and, more recently, alcoholism and forced resettlement almost wiped out the traditional knowledge of the Inuit. The drum singing, which was often connected with dance and was cultivated during the singing quarrel to resolve conflicts or by shamans, was replaced by psalm singing.

Early Greenlandic Literature

A Greenlandic written language has only existed in standardized form for about 150 years. In the middle of the 18th century, Poul Egede , the son of the Lutheran missionary and bitter opponent of drum singing, Hans Egede , developed a Bible for Greenlanders in a Danish-Greenlandic mixed language - an early example of the artificial hybridization of language and literature.

The myth of Kaassassuk the orphan boy, recorded by Knud Rasmussen, illustrated by Jakob Danielsen

From the middle of the 19th century, a purely Greenlandic written language for translations of the Bible and Psalms was developed. The New Testament was first translated into Greenlandic by Konrad Kleinschmidt . His son, the missionary Samuel Kleinschmidt , had the first grammar of the Greenlandic language printed in Berlin in 1851. The standardization of the language that he initiated is based on the central dialect of West Greenland. To this day, however, this has prevented Greenlanders from Thule in the north or from East Greenland from being able to distinguish themselves in the written language. The first publishing house with a printer was founded in 1857; Atuagagdliutit , the first newspaper (initially only one sheet of paper, but later also with a reprint of European classics) appeared in 1861. In the same year the missionary Carl Janssen (1813–1884) published the first world history in Greenlandic ( Silamiut ingerdlausiánik , “The progress of Humanity ”, reprint 2012). The first dictionary appeared in 1871, but literacy was very slow.

Rasmus Berthelsen

Oral narratives were first collected by the missionary Peder Kragh 1823–1828 in North Greenland, by the bailiff Hinrich Johannes Rink 1858–1868 on the west coast and by Knud Rasmussen 1900–1920 in central West Greenland. The hunter Jakob Danielsen (1888–1938), who trained himself as a painter and told stories himself, succeeded in capturing the mood and drama of the sagas and the facial expressions and gestures of the narrators, who imitated their heroes and involved the audience To convey pictures, which were also provided with detailed explanations. The narrator Jens Kreutzmann (1828–1899) and the painter Aron von Kangeq (1822–1869) were familiar with the written language and conveyed some of the stories they illustrated themselves, which have not yet been translated into German. Rasmus Berthelsen (1827–1901) was the first to write hymns in Greenlandic language and Greenlandic rhythm with constant variations and increasing intensity, similar to drum singing.

The early 20th century

The beginning of the 20th century was a time of intellectual awakening and the establishment of identity, in which a local educated elite began to travel to Europe and to be active as a writer. The first and at the same time first political Greenlandic novel, Sinnattugaq (“The Dream of a Greenlander”, 1914), openly depicts the problems of society and outlines a vision for the year 2105, 200 years later. Its author was Mathias Storch (1883–1957). Augo Lynge (1899-1959) followed with another political novel and short stories. The catechist Josva Kleist (1879–1938) and the pastor, painter, composer and natural poet Henrik Lund (1875–1948) continued the tradition of hymn poetry with an enlightened moral impetus. Lund's poem Our Country, As Ancient You Are from 1912 was an invitation to open up the country to the challenges of technology and was later given the status of the official national anthem , composed by the musician, poet and linguist Jonathan Petersen (1881–1961).

In the 1930s and 1940s, a generation of Greenlandic authors oriented themselves towards European literature and its forms: novels, stories and plays in the style of the Danish national romantic school were written by Pavia Petersen (1904–1943), Frederik Nielsen (“Fari”, 1905–1991 ), who published the first collection of Greenlandic poems not intended for singing, and Hans Lynge (1906–1988), also known as a “Greenlandic Impressionist” painter and sculptor, who was influenced by Christian ethics and Inuit values .

Social modernization since 1950 and its reflexes in literature

In the 1950s and 1960s, the modernization, urbanization and openness to the outside world that went hand in hand with the greater autonomy of 1953 were increasingly reflected. Until then, the country was shielded from the outside world. Now hunting has been replaced by industrialized fishing, the Greenlandic language has been enriched with English loanwords, and the complete recycling of natural materials has been replaced by the throwaway society . With the end of the colonial status in 1953, the cultural pressure to assimilate z. B. through the mandatory use of the Danish language in official matters.

Some of the Greenlandic authors reacted with a nostalgic return to traditional Greenlandic traditions. Dances and performances. Among them were some pastors who had performed their duties in remote parts of the country such as Thule or East Greenland and were now confronted with the modernization of West Greenland. They tried to preserve the oral histories of these regions, where shamans and necromancy play a major role. Mention should be made of Otto Rosing (1896–1965) and his son Jens Rosing (1925–2008), who both also worked as painters and illustrators, as well as Villads Villadsen (1916–2006) and Otto Sandgreen (1914–1999). Later, sharp social and civilization criticism increased, represented by the writer and politician Moses Olsen (1938–2008), the two writing activists of the Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA) party fighting for autonomy , Jens Geisler (1951–2010) and Aqqaluk Lynge ( * 1947) as well as the painter, illustrator, poet and narrator Kristian Olsen Aaju (1942–2015). This current, which was influenced by the student movement and existentialism and opposed to Danish influence and alienation, also included the former teacher and editor Hans Anthon Lynge (* 1945), a very popular author in Greenland . Hans Lynge also took part in this search for identity at an advanced age and published a large tetralogy on the history of the Greenlanders from immigration from Canada to the present (1970–1988).

In the 1980s, the first women in Greenland articulated themselves literarily, for example Josva Kleist's daughter Maaliaaraq Vebæk (1917-2012, winner of the Greenlandic Culture Prize 2001) with the novels Bussimi naapinneq (1981) and Drømmen om det store hvide hus (1982 ), which were also translated into Russian, as well as the translator and local politician Mariane Petersen (* 1937) with a collection of poems published in 1988 and the epic poem Inuiaat nunaallu (1993) on the history of Greenland.

With the extended autonomy status of 1979, the polarization between the representatives of a “real” Greenlandic identity and the colonial Danish presence weakened. Not all of Greenland's problems are seen as the consequences of foreign rule, and the discussion about identity has lost its explosiveness. One of the “postcolonial” authors is Ole Korneliussen (* 1947), who lives in Copenhagen, with his novel Tarrarssuumi tarraq (1999; “Schatten im Spiegel”, Danish: Saltstøtten ).

The poet, prose writer and screenwriter Hans Anthon Lynge, winner of the Culture Prize 1999 and the Danish Translator Prize 2010, regards the question of Greenlandic identity as open in his letter novel Allaqqitat (“Confessions”, 1997); in any case, it cannot be answered by recourse to ethnic preferences and traditions.

A new generation

Even for younger authors such as the lyricist, performance artist and painter Jessie Kleemann (* 1959) and the author Kelly Berthelsen (* 1967), the question of how to deal with tradition in building a modern nation state that is still in is in a post-colonial phase - comparable to Sami or Faroese literature .

However, more and more authors also write in English or Danish or have their books translated with a view to the international book market. Greenlandic singers and songwriters such as Angu Motzfeldt (* 1976), who wrote his lyrics in English , first became known abroad .

Niviaq Korneliussen (2016)

With Aima born in 1981 Greenlandic artist Bolatta Silis-Høegh a Greenlandic children's book was published in 2018 for the first time in German. Niviaq Korneliussen (* 1990) wrote her debut novel HOMO sapienne (2014) about homosexuality, love and identity.

Ivalo Frank is one of the approximately 13,000 Greenlanders who live outside the island . She was born in Greenland to Danish parents and lives as a filmmaker and freelance writer in Berlin and Copenhagen.

The interaction of language, music, dance and painting is characteristic of many artists. Feature films have also been made in Greenlandic since 2008.

Publishing houses and book market

With Atuagkat, Greenland has a publisher that publishes books in Greenlandic. The publishing house Atuakkiorfik had to stop working in 2009. Today, including translations from other languages, around 120 book titles appear each year, with a print run of 1000 to 2000 copies. Fiction makes up only a small part of it. Neriusaaq (“The Rainbow”), which has been published since the early 1990s, was the only art and culture magazine that was able to establish itself .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Anna Kim: Invasions of the private . Droschl, Graz 2011, ISBN 978-3-85420-781-8 .
  2. ↑ Slow thaw in eternal ice. Literary and documentary perspectives on the Arctic. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , September 3, 2005. Accessed June 6, 2014.
  3. ↑ K. Thisted, 1986, p. 343
  4. ↑ K. Rasmussen, Schneehüttenlieder. Eskimo chants. Transferred and edited by Aenne Schmücker . Essen / Freiburg i. Br. 1947 (Danish edition Copenhagen 1930), new edition: Greenland sagas , Salzwasser-Verlag Paderborn, ISBN 978-3-8460-0273-5 .
  5. ↑ Ebbe Volquardsen: The Beginnings of the Greenlandic Novel: Nation, Identity and Subaltern Articulation in an Arctic Colony. 2012.
  6. ^ Digitized version of the first edition: Mathias Storch: Singnagtugaк. Rosenberg, København 1914. (PDF; 30.81 MB).
  7. ^ Martin Banham: The Cambridge Guide to Theater . Cambridge University Press 1995, p. 451.
  8. ↑ http://www.greenland.com/en/about-greenland/kultur-sjael/kunst/hans-lynge.aspx
  9. ↑ http://www.greenland.com/en/about-greenland/kultur-sjael/kunst/jessie-kleemann.aspx
  10. ↑ J. Clauser 2016, p. 508.
  11. ↑ https://www.kullerkupp-kinderbuch.com/gute-kinderbuecher/aima/
  12. ↑ Biographical data on www.nordicwomensliterature.net
  13. ↑ J. Clauser 2016, p. 508.

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