Gustafs ansigter : selvfremstilling i Gustaf Munch-Petersens forfatterskab

The Danish-Swedish writer Gustaf Munch-Petersen (1912-1938) is considered one of the pioneers of Danish modernist poetry. His death at the age of 26 as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War, a conflict that was later widely understood as a prelude to the Second World War, made him one of “the young dead” of Scandinavian literature. But this is only one among several pictures of him. Self and identity are underlying themes in much of his poetry and prose, and this thesis aims at elucidating “the faces of Gustaf”. By this metaphorical term I understand the ways in which Gustaf Munch-Petersen lets a self appear within the framework of a poem or a fictional prose text. My theoretical point of departure is hermeneutic and eclectic since I do not wish limit myself to a particular theoretical perspective, thereby inevitably cutting myself off from certain types of potential meaning. I draw on a wide range of different contexts discussed in the introductory chapter. Chapter 2 examines the legend of Gustaf Munch-Petersen as one of “the young dead” and tells a narrative of his life as it lends itself to reconstruction on the basis of his letters and other documentary material. Chapters 3 to 7 each deal with a “face” – five different, but interrelated types of self-representation. Each chapter is based on a cross section of Gustaf Munch-Petersen’s literary works and organized around analyses and interpretations of selected texts that are especially suited to shed light on self-presentation. Their headings are: “New man”, “Son”, “Lover”, “Saviour”, and “Artist”. These five literary faces all bear some relation to a marked undercurrent of longing for a radically different and renewed world, a theme which runs through Gustaf Munch-Petersen’s writing. If there is a uniting artistic driving force behind his literary faces, it is this: a self that in its literary creativity is constantly driven forward by a yearning towards a utopian vision and away from the constraints of individuality.