The immigrant in Danish literature and film

In Denmark and Scandinavia, the role of immigrants in film and literature is still relatively virgin territory in academic terms. An important reason is that empirical evidence seems to have been lacking, so to speak, and it is the question – which this book tries to answer in various ways, among other things – whether the immigrant writer and director, as well as the art that deals with immigration and cultural encounters, is a relatively new phenomenon in Denmark, or whether these artists and this art have actually been a part, albeit a more or less invisible part, of Danish culture for many years.

But why deal with the role of the immigrant in Danish film and literature at all? Can we even talk about artists with the prefix "immigrant" in front, isn't "immigrant writer" a limiting and exclusionary, and perhaps even a chauvinistic, term? Well, in a way maybe, but this brings us to the next premise. It is of a more substantive nature and assumes that if it is to make sense to deal with immigrant art at all, then it must be because this art does something different and more (or less) than the art that traditionally dominates the canon lists and bookstores shelves. And if it does, then the conceptuality gains legitimacy, because without categorizations we as researchers cannot create an overview and trace patterns in the overall cultural and artistic trends. Both prerequisites - the concept of "immigrant" in relation to the artist and art and the idea that this artist and this art do something different, something new - are central points of discussion in this book's nine full articles on the immigrant in Danish film and literature.