'FORSTAND OG HJERTE,' OR: HOW DANES LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE JANE AUSTEN

Peter Mortensen

Abstract

Focusing on a relatively obscure Danish translation from the English - Carl Kamp's rendition of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility (1811), Forstand og Hjerte (1855-56) - this essay discusses translation's role in facilitating Denmark's reorientation towards England and Englishness in the second half of the nineteenth century. The 'minor' novel Sense and Sensibility, I argue, appealed to Kamp and his publisher Ludvig Jordan not only because the novel is steeped in sentimental romance conventions, but also because it dramatizes a political and cultural conflict - Elinor Dashwood's 'sense' vs. her sister Marianne's 'sensibility' - that seemed pertinent to Danish readers of the time. After considering how Forstand og Hjerte attempts to make Sense and Sensibility and its underpinning ideology of English 'sense' persuasive and sympathetic to Danish readers, the essay concludes by briefly contrasting Karup's 'domesticating' translation strategy with the more 'resistant' method introduced by the second Danish translator of Sense and Sensibility, Eva Hemmer Hansen.