| Nordbok august 2005
by Kirsten Thisted
When angels play Mozart
Also Lisbeth Nebelong’s (b. 1955) novel Når engle
spiller Mozart (When angels play Mozart) (2003) is a declaration
of love for the Faroe Islands – at the same time as being
a spirited novel about the national community between Denmark
and the Faroe Islands. As the main character did not spend her
earliest
childhood, but only one summer (1967) when she was eleven in the
Faroe Islands and later on her last year at upper secondary school
(1973-74) the conflicts are more obvious. Lisa chooses to take
her A-levels at the Faroese gymnasium, but gets so furious with
her anti-Danish Faroese teacher who cheats her out of the top
marks she deserves, that she cuts the tassels off her Faroese
student’s cap, thus turning it into a Danish cap. Lisa feels
rejected in her attempt to integrate, and never will the ambitious
Lisa forget or accept this defeat, this insult that has been allowed
to overshadow so much of what was positive about her stay.
Lisa cannot be said to be completely wrong when she accuses the
Faroese society of being narrow-minded
and closed towards foreigners – but we learn later that
she was also partly at fault herself in seeing herself in the
role of a foreigner.
At the beginning of the book we find ourselves onboard a plane
together with the 44 year old Lisa, in February 2000, on her way
back to the Faroe Islands to give a lecture on the subject «The
Faroe Islands as an independent state – necessary reforms
in the process of sovereignty».
Over the years Lisa has made a career for herself as an internationally
recognised specialist in constitutional law, but without in any
way making the Faroe Islands her subject. On the contrary, she
has always consciously avoided the Faroe Islands, and when now
she is on her way back, it is only because a colleague has become
seriously ill.
Over the following three days and nights, the text cuts between
her brief stay in Tórshavn and all the memories that come
flooding back. Slowly the palisades that Lisa has carefully been
constructing between herself and all that the Faroe Islands stood
for, not least her childhood sweetheart Kåre, are broken
down.
At the same time we follow the breakdown in the political process
that were to lead the Faroe Islands to independence.
Lisa works hard on her speech, which in accordance with her colleague’s
plans is meant to be «a bone dry, legal paper» without
any form of personal involvement. One must stick to the facts.
No politicising, no having a personal opinion – even less
any personal feelings. Well, of course something quite different
happens. Softened by memories, seeing the place again and moved
by evocative music, Lisa finally manages to loosen the grip on
herself, and in her speech she at last combines the political
and the personal.
By acknowledging the connection between these two, otherwise carefully
segregated tracks, Lisa gains redemption and reconciliation, both
personally between herself and the choices of the past, and between
herself as daughter of the Danish rigsombudsmand and the Faroese
audience.
First and foremost the novel is a story about an individual coming
to terms with herself. Closely connected with this is the theme
about modern female identity, split between career and the choice
of whether to have children or not. The novel’s point is
the transference of these psychological approaches to the problematics
of the cultural encounter. Just as Lisa at last confronts herself
with the injustices of the past and reconciles
herself to them, so must the partners in the national community
arrive at an understanding and put aside the past – whether
the Faroe Islands choose to continue within the national community
or form their own nation state. Both in Greenland and in the Faroe
Islands one sometimes hears the question asked why the Danes are
so extremely reluctant to discuss the national community between
Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Why
does one never hear the Danes talk about what the national community
means to them and what they want from it?
When angels play Mozart can be seen as an invitation to open up
this debate.
Kirsten Thisted er mag. art i nordisk litteratur, ph.d. Ovenstående
om "Når engle spiller Mozart" er uddrag fra artiklen
"Grey areas" i Nordbok-publitaionen "Nordic voices",
der udkom i august i forbindelse med en international litteraturkonference
og udstilling i Oslo. Publikationen kan downloades på www.nordbok.org,
hvor den også gratis kan bestilles.
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