Et kysk og forvovent Borgerbarn” – Claussens ærbare ... - Dansk.dk

Abstract
Reading through Sophus Claussen’s writings it becomes obvious that most of his writing
activities are circulating around women. With a bit of knowledge of the writer’s
biography it also becomes clear that most of these writings about women stem from
experiences in Claussen’s own life, because of which it cannot be read and analysed
without taking notice of his real-­‐life experiences with women in the Danish society
around the turn of the previous century.
The images of women in Claussen’s work can be categorized into three different kinds.
Firstly we have the respectable women who are fascinating Claussen time after time, but
who are also bound by society’s conventions on women’s sexual behaviour. The erotic
unapproachableness that he discovers with these decent young women is expressed by
a number of female characters that are no longer “real” women from Claussen’s life but
instead mythological, erotic and warm. These goddesses follow their own will and
wisdom and are therefore symbols of the criticism Claussen had against society. They
represent the norms that Claussen himself whished to live by, and with them comes also
a shift in genre – with the mythological women the author goes from what could be
called “classical” poetry to writings of a more symbolist kind which is used when
Claussen cannot enunciate his statements in referents from the earthly/daily world
anymore.
And Claussen’s dissatisfaction with society only seems to grow: after having lined up
the goddesses he is seeking downwards against hell where he devotes his writings to
women of demonic kinds. These demons range from prostitutes to queens but possess
one similarity: they are all in the power of their sexual instinct – and they urge others to
be the same.
To find a real-­‐life woman who fulfils this way of thinking and behaving must have
seemed hard during Claussen’s time. Nonetheless he found such a woman, and the
Italian Signora Clara with whom he fell in love on one of his travels is described as the
very ideal of female nature. Containing both decent and beautiful looks and a very liberal
sexuality she captured Claussen (or Silvio, as the narrator in the partly autobiographical
novel Valfart is called), but for no more than a few months – after having been healed by
the love of Clara he dedicates himself completely to writing as he realises that the erotic
powers from within can be canalised into creativity.
What I concentrate on in this assignment is therefore the sublimation that Claussen
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