Villy Sørensen

Villy Sorensen (13 January 1929 – 16 December 2001) was a Danish short-story writer, philosopher and literary critic of the Modernist tradition. His fiction was heavily influenced by his philosophical ideas, and he has been compared to Franz Kafka in this regard. He is the most influential and important Danish philosopher since Soren Kierkegaard.

Born in Copenhagen, Sorensen graduated from the Vestre Borgerdydskole in 1947, and then attended the University of Copenhagen and the University of Freiburg studying philosophy. Although he did not graduate, he later received an honorary degree from the University of Copenhagen. Sorensen published his first collection of short stories, Strange Stories in 1953, which many critics have identified as being the start of Danish literary Modernism. He published additional collections of short stories in 1955 and 1964, all winning various awards in Denmark. These stories generally explored the absurd and hidden parts of the human psyche. Sorensen began editing the journal Vindrosen in 1959.

Afterward, he became a member of the Danish Academy in 1965, and then edited several other Modernist journals and periodicals. Sorensen, though he continued to produce short fiction throughout his life, was also deeply engaged in philosophy, about which he wrote many essays and several books including Seneca: The Humanist at the Court of Nero and his response to Soren Kierkegaard's Either/Or, Hverken-eller He also published books and essays about Nietzsche, Kafka, Marx, Schopenhauer and Kierkegaard, and was a notable translator of over 20 books.

He was awarded The Nordic Council's Literature Prize in 1974, and the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1983, along with many other awards and recognitions. He died in Copenhagen in 2001.