Homo Sapienne

First edition

Homo Sapienne, stylized as HOMO sapienne, and also known as Last Night in Nuuk or Crimson, from its English translations, is a novel by Greenlander Niviaq Korneliussen, published in 2014 in both Greenlandic and Danish. After winning a short story competition, Korneliussen was financially supported by the Greenland government to write the novel over three months, but she wrote it in only one. It is about the lives of several LGBT characters in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. While reviewers commended its subject matter, the novel had issues with pacing and tone; it received a mixed critical reception. Regardless, it was nominated for the 2015 Nordic Council Literature Prize. Korneliussen would later go on to win the prize in 2021 with her follow-up, Naasuliardarpi (Flower Valley).

Background

Korneliussen in 2016

Niviaq Korneliussen is a Greenlandic writer who grew up in Nanortalik, a village in the south of the island. She entered a short story competition held in Greenland for young writers in 2012, submitting a piece called "San Francisco". She won the competition, and was then asked for a novel by the publisher. She received financial support for three months from the Greenlandic government to write the novel, but she wrote it all in only the final month. Homo Sapienne (stylized as HOMO sapienne) was published in 2014 in the Greenlandic language, with one chapter in English. It was translated into Danish by Korneliussen, and separately into English (as Crimson and Last Night in Nuuk) and German.

While most Greenlandic literature is traditionally focused on its geography and its modest living conditions, Korneliussen's novel is instead written in a stream of consciousness, occupied with the interior lives of its characters. The culture of the island is rather inflexible, resulting in Korneliussen drawing upon pop culture in the English language rather than in Greenlandic. The book documents LGBT life in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. Characters in the novel include Arnaq, Fia, Inuk, Ivik, and Sara, all of whom are of undisclosed ages but perhaps in their twenties. Fia was also the name of a character in "San Francisco". Since Nuuk is a small town of some 17,000 people without an established gay subculture, the novel is set mostly in bars and in homes.

Events for the novel included a class reading in celebration of a theme day for the North Atlantic region, where pizza was served and songs in regional languages were sung.

Reception

Homo Sapienne had a mixed reception. While its themes of LGBT identity were accepted by its Greenlandic audience, the details of familial abuse were not. The novel was criticised as immature and Korneliussen as lacking experience by Katharine Coldiron of the Los Angeles Review of Books, since it contains unnecessary material (such as a dramatis personae—a list of characters), the characters have similar voices, shallowness, and details of pop culture. Hannah Jane Parkinson of The Guardian said the book was clumsy, and there were major discontinuities throughout, some within the space of a single "fag break". The tone was also criticised by a reviewer for the Women's Review of Books as too colloquial. Despite the criticism they levied, Coldiron and Parkinson both found positive attributes in the novel. Coldiron said some of the novel had thoughtful narration, and "subtly" portrayed Greenlandic life "without much politicizing", while Parkinson said some of the prose was lyrically written.

Scholar Rozemarijn Vervoort wrote that Korneliussen's novel made her a "pioneer for a new generation of young Greenlandic authors". Similarly, Coldiron suggested that Western literary presses take into account more writers like Korneliussen, who write in underrepresented regions.

References

Bibliography

• "Nordatlantisk gymnasieklasse – Ivaanap isaanit isigalugu". Bank Nordik (in Kalaallisut). 2019. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
• Brunton, Ruby (18 February 2019). "Hurtling toward a new voice: On Niviaq Korneliussen's Last Night in Nuuk". Bomb Magazine. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
• Coldiron, Katharine (15 January 2019). "A layover in Greenlandic fiction via Niviaq Korneliussen's "Last Night in Nuuk"". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
• Ditum, Sarah (5 September 2018). "Breaking the ice: Greenland's new literary star". 1843 Magazine. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
• Gee, Alastair (31 January 2017). "The young queer writer who became Greenland's unlikely literary star". The New Yorker. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
• Lorentsen, Kristin; Stougaard-Nielsen, Jakob (2020). "North Atlantic drift: Contemporary Greenlandic and Sami literatures". In Lindskog, Annika; Stougaard-Nielsen, Jakob (eds.). Introduction to Nordic Cultures. London: University College London Press. ISBN 9781787354029.
• Mai, Anne-Marie (7 August 2019). "An overview of Nordic prose fiction since 1945". nordics.info. Aarhus University. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
• McManus, Noelle (1 March 2019). "Stupid, evil, queer". Women's Review of Books. 36 (2).
• Parkinson, Hannah Jane (2 November 2018). "Crimson by Niviaq Korneliussen review – rage and queer romance under an icy sun". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
• Thisted, Kirsten (29 September 2016). "Hadet i kroppen: Sprog, køn og tilhørsforhold i ny Grønlandsk litteratur" [The hate in the body: Language, gender, and national affiliation in new Greenlandic literature]. Kvindelitteraturhistorie på Nettet (in Danish). Retrieved 14 November 2021.
• Vervoort, Rozemarijn (2018). ""Hold op med den selvmedlidenhed": Nye orienteringer i en Grønlandsk samtidsroman" ["Stop that self-pity": New orientations in one Greenlandic contemporary novel]. Tijdschrift voor Skandinavistiek (in Danish). 36 (2): 269–275.