The Therapist and the Vampire A Reading of Tove Ditlevsen’s Novel A Child was Harmed.

Abstract

The literature of Danish author Tove Ditlevsen (1917–1976) was highly loved and appreciated by people otherwise unfamiliar with literature. This article is a study of her first novel, Man gjorde et Barn Fortræd [A Child was Harmed] from 1941, focusing on the structural coherence between literariness and the representation of gender. The point of departure is an examination of how the author combines the narrative strategies of the psychoanalytic case story with those of the detective story. The therapist and the villain are male stereotypes. The female protagonist, on the other hand, integrates and internalizes the therapist and the detective as mental positions, which function as her tool and strategy to remove the shadow cast on her life. By using the strategies of the therapist and the detective, she reveals the sexual crime that has been committed against her in her early childhood. Finally, the shadow disappears and she is capable of embracing a rich and meaningful life as a woman.

Keywords: Tove Ditlevsen, plot, gender, sexual crime, psychoanalysis, detective story