Frits Andersen – författare

Africa: a forgotten continent that evades all attempts at control and transcends reason. Or does it? This book describes Europe's image of Africa and relates how the conception of the Dark Continent has been fabricated in European culture – with the Congo as an analytical focal point. It also demonstrates that the myth was more than a creation of colonial propaganda; the Congo reform movement – the first international human rights movement – spread horror stories that still have repercussions today. The book cross-examines a number of witness testimonies, reports and novels, from Stanley's travelogues and Conrad's Heart of Darkness to Hergé's Tintin and Burroughs' Tarzan, as well as recent Danish and international Congo literature. The Dark Continent? proposes that the West's attitudes to Africa regarding free trade, emergency aid and intervention are founded on the literary historical assumptions of stories and narrative forms that have evolved since 1870.

South Sea Island. The Geography of Pleasure is a literary history of European, Russian and American travelogues, films, paintings, philosophical treatises, all fascinated by the Polynesian islands. Our ideas of nature, growth and sustainability are currently being challenged by climate change and sea level rise, with major identity and security policy implications that are particularly evident in the Pacific, but will also have consequences for the entire planet. The book is a contribution to a new global literary history and provides a historical in-depth perspective for highly topical discussions in interdisciplinary areas such as Pacific Studies, Island Studies, Ocean Studies and Planetary Studies.The Danish version of the book was nominated for 'Book of the year' in one of Denmark's most prominent newspaper and in another described as "epoch-making literary history" and shortlisted among the 5 non-fiction books in 2018, "which has made a difference". In addition, it was awarded the prestigious 'Georg Brande's Award' because it is "pioneering" and as the committee wrote: "Sydhavsøen [South Sea Island] is a book that conveys fascinating knowledge and theory in an exemplary way".