Svend Aage Madsen

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Svend Åge Madsen (born November 2, 1939) is a Danish novelist. He studied mathematics before he began writing fiction. His novels are generally philosophical and humorous.

A recurring trait in his books is that the characters face some sort of extreme situation which enables a philosophical theme to emerge.

Madsen's work may be divided into three phases. The first phase comprises abstract modernist works influenced by writers such as Franz Kafka, Samuel Beckett, Alain Robbe-Grillet and James Joyce. These works examine the capacity of language to depict reality; they include the experimental novels The Visit (Besøget, 1963) and Additions (Tilføjelser, 1967), the "unnovel" Pictures of Lust (Lystbilleder, 1964), and the collection of short stories Eight Times Orphan (Otte gange orphan, 1965).

Madsen would later define these novels as "anti-art". The change to the next phase of his work was, according to him, a shift from "anti-art" to "anti-anti-art", which accepted the result of the first phase: "that reality can not be described", but that one may attempt to build a meaningful literature from a relativistic stance. The project was now to show how "lower" genres (such as crime fiction, romantic fiction and science fiction) could be a mosaic of equal truths that make up reality. This change is also a change from modernist literature to postmodern literature.

The third phase of Madsen's work comprises some novels that are less abstract and more realistic than his earlier works, but are still highly imaginative. At the same time, Madsen started working on a "macro"-text in which characters are used repeatedly in different novels, main characters becoming minor characters and vice versa. All of these novels take places in the city of Aarhus in Denmark. Through a complex net of bizarre stories, Madsen creates an alternative Aarhus in which everything is possible and extreme philosophical positions are explored. Madsen's late literature is quite unique but can perhaps best be likened to the magical realism of Latin America.

Perhaps Madsen's most famous work is Vice and Virtue in Middle Time (Tugt og utugt i mellemtiden, 1976) which has been translated into English. In this novel, a man from a very distant future takes on the experiment of writing a novel of the age called Middle Time, which is the western world in the 1970s. This creates an amusing philosophical position, in which everything we take for granted is questioned in the light of a totally different perspective on life. The main plot is a rewriting of Alexandre Dumas, père's The Count of Monte Cristo, but there are references to many classic novels.

[edit] Bibliography

Most of Madsen's books have not been translated into English. The following may be considered to be his most important works:

The Visit (Besøget), 1963
Pictures of Lust (Lystbilleder), 1964
Eight Times Orphan (Otte gange Orphan), 1965
Additions (Tilføjelser), 1967
The Corpse and the Lust (Liget og lysten), 1968
The Third Time, We'll Take Him (Tredje gang så ta'r vi ham...), 1969
The Masked Ball (Maskeballet), 1970
What If the World Exists (Sæt verden er til), 1971
Days With Diam or Life at Night (Dage med Diam eller Livet om natten), translated to English, 1972
Virtue and Vice in the Meantime (Tugt og utugt i mellemtiden), translated to English,1976
The Bond of Hatred (Hadets bånd), 1978
See the Light of Day (Se dagens lys), 1980
Off the Track You Have Come (Af sporet er du kommet), 1984
Let Time Pass (Lad tiden gå), 1986
The Laveran Family (Slægten Laveran), 1988
Narrating the People (At fortælle menneskene), 1989
Between Heaven and Earth (Mellem himmel og jord), 1990
The Hunt for a Human (Jagten på et menneske), 1991
Seven Ages of Madness (Syv aldres galskab), 1994
The Female Without a Body (Kvinden uden krop), 1996
Takes Place (Finder sted), 1998
Mirror of Genes/ Remirrored (ambiguous title)(Genspejlet), 1999
The Ungodly Farce (Den ugudelige farce), 2002
Det syvende bånd, 2006