»The Whole World«

The bilingual oeuvre of Karen Blixen/Isak Dinesen contains many traces of inescapable connections and distant reverberations from the entire world: relations to far-off places, figures of mobility and foreignness; a ‘global mix’ of literary forms; innumerable references to intertextual works from world literature; and provocative perceptions of the world. Drawing upon globalisation theories, this study is the first to focus on this hitherto neglected aspect of Blixen’s/Dinesen´s relationship to the world, which runs right through the anecdotes, figures and tropes in her work. In their engagement with the world as a whole, her narratives reflect models and dynamics of globality, while aesthetically representing connectivity and an awareness of foreignness.