Sorensen, Villy

▪ 2002

      Danish writer and philosopher (b. Jan. 13, 1929, Copenhagen, Den.—d. Dec. 16, 2001, Copenhagen), became one of the most influential Danish intellectuals of his generation. A prominent literary critic after World War II, he began his career writing modernist short stories whose subjects often drew upon the rich allegorical traditions of myth and religion and whose themes earned the writer comparisons to Hans Christian Andersen and Franz Kafka. These themes, which later were expanded in Sørensen's philosophical writings, dealt with notions of the extraordinary in the everyday and with the isolation of the self in society. His first short-story collection, Sœre historier (1953; Tiger in the Kitchen and Other Strange Stories, 1957) was followed by Ufarlige historier (1955; Harmless Tales, 1991). His philosophical texts included Digtere og dæmoner (1959) and Hverken-eller (1961), which were both published during the period in which he was coeditor of Vindrosen, the leading Danish modernist journal of its time; at this time Sørensen became more politically visible. During the 1960s he edited Karl Marx's Økonomi of filosofi (1962) and translated Kafka's short stories and works on Friedrich Nietzsche and Arthur Schopenhauer. Along with Niels I. Meyer and K. Helveg Petersen, Sørensen wrote Oprør fra midten (1978), a widely discussed treatise that put forth a nonpartisan, utopian vision of the future. Other notable works by Sørensen included Formynderfortællinger (1964; Tutelary Tales, 1988), Ragnarok (1982), and Apollons oprør (1989).

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