Højholt, Per

(1928-2004)

   A Danish poet, novelist, and essayist, Højholt has had a great deal of influence on the poetry of his country but is largely unknown outside Denmark. After a couple of minor poetry collections, he had his breakthrough as a writer with Poetens hoved (1963; The Poet's Head). The volume Min hand 66 (1966; My Hand 66) contains poems that are very self-reflective and refer only indirectly to an extralinguistic reality. His theory of poetry is presented in the essays Cezannes metode (1967; Cezanne's Method) and Intethedens grimasser (1972; The Grimaces of Nothingness), and is further illustrated in Turbo (1968; Turbo), a volume of unusual poetic energy.

   In addition to a series of more traditional volumes of poetry, Højholt published 12 volumes with the common title Praksis (19771996; Praxis), which contain both poems and prose texts, as well as what Højholt, employing a nonsensical neologism, has termed "kvababbelser." These are satirical poems dealing with current issues, and they have been very popular in radio broadcasts, as has a series of monologues in the Jutland dialect spoken by a woman character, Gitte. Højholt also wrote Auricula (2001), a fantastic novel about Europe during the 20th century, in which a large number of human ears are conceived and born and spread out over the continent.