Isak Dinesen

Karen Blixen, who wrote under the pen name Isak Dinesen, has a hugely complex legacy. Her writing is testament to a profoundly violent time in history and a unique window to the perspective of a coloniser: her narratives are filled with feelings of superiority, identification, objectification, and guilt. As to her craft, it is illuminating to know she was considered for the Nobel prize several times, but the fact that her stories about Africa were for a time considered the most valuable and noteworthy of the continent is proof of how deep imperialism runs through the literary canon. A rich, interesting read for anyone interested in the aesthetics of colonialism.