ABSTRACT
Karen Blixen (1885-1962), also using the name Isak Dinesen, is a Danish storywriter. She is best known for Seven Gothic Tales (1934), which almost procured her a Nobel prize, and Out of Africa, on which the 1984 Oscar winning movie featuring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep was based. For this book, however, most relevant is her short story ‘Carnival’, about a party with several participants dressed up as commedia dell’arte characters. The story, based on her life-long infatuation with the genre, accompanied Blixen throughout her life. A first version written in 1910-11 was titled La danse mauve (The wild dance), given a definite form as ‘Carnival’ in 1925-6, re-elaborated in the 1930s and touched again in the 1950s, but remained unfinished and only appeared posthumously in 1977. Given that the story was turned into a metaphor of its times, thus of modern life in general, its full thrust and relevance can only be understood in the context of Blixen’s own life and times.
