Underdanmark i ny dansk prosa

Sub-Denmark in new Danish Prose
After the new Millennium Sub-Denmark has become a main theme in Danish prose. Contemporary conditions of life in the working class figure as stumbling block and subject for important literature. The article focuses on a number of books from 2013, several of which were among the best reviewed and most read during that year: four novels and a poetry collection, in this context considered a sort of verse novel.
Which literary and ideological tendencies in this renewed preoccupation with Sub-Denmark are highlighted in this process? Do they correspond to our conceptions of working class literature?
The article applies an updated terminology of literary history, an optic of genres and currents, firstly applied in a description of Danish working class literature 1890-1930. Through this comparative approach, the readings of contemporary works show that considerable historical differences (notably a weaker relation to the labor movement) co-exist with an astonishing continuity of genre, style and ideological current. Slum naturalism with a sprinkling of decadence as well as the melodramatic novel are still important extremities. One main trend is even now the autobiographically based family novel, portraying an upbringing in a dysfunctional family at the bottom of society – thereby focussing on the world of childhood.