Philosopher and literary theorist Stine Jensen was born in Denmark but grew up in The Netherlands. 2001 saw the publication of her debut De verlangenmachine (Desire Machine), a study about the image of women in pop music. Her doctoral research Waarom vrouwen van apen houden. Een liefdesgeschiedenis in cultuur en wetenschap (Why Women Love Apes. A Love Affair in Science and Culture, 2002) received a lot of airtime in 2007, and made her the newly acknowledged media personality she is now, when something spectacular happened: Gorilla Bokito broke out of his zoo cage to grab the refined Dutch women flirting with him.

 

In Turkse vlinders. Liefde tussen twee culturen (Turkish Butterflies. Love Between Two Cultures, 2005) she candidly portrays a romance between two cultures, a theme we also find in Dokter Jazz (Doctor Jazz, 2009), of which you can find the Booktunes soundtrack here. 

 

We at Booktunes already know Stine Jensen for a couple of years now, through her work at the VU University in Amsterdam, where she teaches Banned Books, discusses High and Low Culture, and shines her light on the placing of the Beautiful and Ugly in literature. The search for balance and positioning of self amidst two extremes seems to be a recurring theme in her work. In her latest project 'Dus ik ben' (Therefore I am) she questions the concept of an 'own identity' in a world full of alter ego's and avatars, in a world where people want to be free but at the same time connected to the whole world.

 

 

text by Erik de Loor / transl. by Mina Witteman / drawing by Ytje