Periferie esistenziali nella Copenaghen di fine millennio: Radiator (1997) di Jan Sonnergaard

Abstract

The concept of periphery may refer to one or more areas of a city, but it can also have a not strictly geographical, rather a social, psychological, existential connotation, developed from deep unease and hatred for the privileged classes, something which eventually may lead to cynicism and nihilism. The protagonists of the ten stories gathered in Radiator, literary debut of Jan Sonnergaard (1963-2016), express different nuances of this common condition: young, in their twenties or thirties, they tell about their meetings in the capital, their sentimental and sexual approaches, their sometimes hard jokes played to the most vulnerable, until a series of thefts which are partly planned, partly due to the rapture of the moment. Their actions are marked by a bare, often brutal language, but sometimes they are accompanied by monologues and outbursts against the institutions that should guarantee dignity and opportunity for everyone, while they actually perpetuate injustice, in this way revealing the dark side of the contemporary Danish welfare state. The reader encounters several paradoxes, first of all the fact that the protagonists do not appear to be essentially marginalized: indeed, they have the resources to lead an acceptable life, and, yet, they are substantially excluded, as they feel in a marginalizing system they rebel against when they are not forced to resign.
This contribution attempts to analyse the construction of the concept of periphery, with particular emphasis on urban descriptions, recurring in some stories, and on their role in the action and in the characters’ world view. The analysis will also try to contextualise Radiator not only inside postmodern literature, but also from a diachronic perspective, taking account of some of the main representations of Copenhagen in Danish literature since the late 19th century.