Joanna Cymbrykiewicz and Aldona Zańko, “‘That’s (not) it’. Inger Christensen’s Det as Litanic Verse,” European Journal of Skandinavian Studies, 49 (2019), 2.
Inger Christensen’s poem collection Det is one of the most recognizable and significant contemporary Danish works. Its complex and elaborate form and message have already been a subject of innumerous investigations and analyses, but neither of them has addressed its litanic traits. Basing on Witold Sadowski’s methodological apparatus, we intend to demonstrate that Christensen’s work can be perceived as litanic verse in terms of its form and generic worldview. As it appears from our investigation, in Det one litanic gene, the polyonymic, is most discernible, which translates into repetitive structures and enumerations, as well as the lyrical person’s humbleness in face of the greatness of creation.