Melankoliens landskaber - en analyse af melankoliens mange ansigter i dansk lyrik

Landscapes of melancholia - an analysis of the many faces of melancholia in danish lyric

Jørgensen, Alberte Marie

4. semester

Dansk (cand.mag.), Kandidat

2026

2026-01-04

79

This master’s thesis Landscapes of melancholia explores melancholy in Danish lyric, by examining how melancholy can be expressed, and which feelings, emotions and states of mind it can be related to. An interest created by the concept of melancholy, which can be difficult to define, due to the many things it can be related to. Based on a theoretical framework consisting of sorrow, melancholy, exis-tentialism and mood, this thesis wishes to examine the many-sided concept of melancholy, and how it’s related to feelings and conditions like sorrow, sadness, anxiety, loneliness, happiness, depression, longing and emptiness. This examination is based on a methodically foundation, where both psycho-analytic and existentialistic elements are present. Based on four different poetry collections the analysis found that melancholy can be related to various feelings, emotions, moods and states of minds. Throughout the analysis, it became obvious that the human mind, the human body and the surrounding environment all had part in understanding the different aspects of melancholy, and how it can be related to more than just a subject. In the first two poetry collections Tarkovskijs heste (2006) by Pia Tafdrup and Ormene ved himlens port (1995) by Henrik Nordbrandt it was found that death, grief and sadness are deeply related to the feeling of melancholy, often due to the loss of a loved person or an object. In the third poetry collection Pigesind (1939) by Tove Ditlevsen, the collection’s focus on anxiety, emotional development and vulnerability influenced both the environment, and especially the lyrical self. The meeting between the inner and the external created a feeling of melancholy, where the lyrical self’s inner self, played a central part in the flourishment of melancholy. Last the poetry collection City slang (1981) by Søren Ulrik Thomsen showed how melancholy can be found in a mix of loneliness, emptiness and a search for meaning, in a chaotic and overwhelming world. Melancholy was found to be deeply related to the surrounding environment, and the limitations of living in a world where nothing never stands still, which challeng-es the connection to the outside world. Through the discussion it became clear how multifaceted the concept of melancholy is, because all the feelings, emotions, states of minds and conditions related to melancholy throughout the analy-sis, have their own ranges. Anxiety is found in both the inner self and the surrounding environment, where it presents itself, both from a subjective and an objective point of view. The same applies to sorrow which can be related to both a person/subject but also a more unknown object. Sorrow can be found in the inner self, but also in the surrounding environment, moods and objects that surrounds the human. However, it was still found that all these different aspects of sorrow and anxiety can be related to melancholy, which suggests the massive width and depth there is to the concept of melancholy. At the same time the concept of melancholy was considered in relation to the literary historical context, where it was found that the newest poetry collections were more likely to be about sorrow than the older ones. Therefore, melancholy will most likely be related to sorrow in newer poetry publications, rather than older poetry publications. Furthermore, the discussion explored and reflected on how happiness and positivity is part of the concept of melancholy. An examination created by the interest of melancholy being present in happy memories and longing for better times. Through this discussion different theoretical positions were included as evidence to this allegation, where melancholy was described both in relation to reflexivity, creativity, happy memories and thoughts about the past and the future. This elaborated some aspects of melancholy, that wasn’t based on only negative and depressed emotions and feelings, where also more joyful, positive and uplifting feelings and circumstances were present. An understanding one of the authors, Henrik Nordrbandt, agree on, through his description of melancholy as an uplifting state, where the experience of good mood can be a part of the feeling of melancholy. Therefore, this thesis finds that melancholy can be related to numerous of different emotions, feelings and states of mind, both positive and negative. No emotion, feeling and state of mind is more relevant than any other, due to the depth of the concept of melancholy, where both positive and nega-tive aspects can be related to it. Because melancholy that can carry both sorrow and happiness in its versatility.

Melankoli ; Sorg ; Angst ; Længsel ; Eksistentialisme ; Stemning ; Psykoanalyse

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