Johan Herman Wessel (6 October 1742 – 29 December 1785) was an 18th-century Danish-Norwegian poet, satirist and playwright. His written work was characterized by the use of parody and satiric wit.

Biography

Wessel was born and raised at Vestby in

Akershus Akershus () is a county in Norway, with Oslo as its administrative centre, though Oslo is not located within Akershus. Akershus has been a region in Eastern Norway with Oslo as its main city since the Middle Ages, and is named after the Akers ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. He was the son of Jonas Wessel (1707–1785) and Helene Maria Schumacher (1715–1789). His father was a parish priest. He was one of thirteen children in a family. His younger brothers included mathematician Caspar Wessel (1745–1818) and jurist Ole Christopher Wessel (1744–1794) His sister-in-law was landowner Maren Juel (1749–1815) and naval hero Peter Tordenskjold (1690–1720) was his great uncle. He entered attended

Oslo Cathedral School Schola Osloensis, known in Norwegian language, Norwegian as Oslo Katedralskole (''Oslo Cathedral School'') and more commonly as "Katta",

in 1757 followed by the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University. ...

in 1761. At the university, he studied foreign languages. He later made a living principally as a tutor and translator. He lived most of his somewhat bohemian life in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

, dependent on casual work and weakened by bad health and drinking. Wessel became the admired centre of The Norwegian Society (''Norske Selskab'') a grouping of Norwegian literary figures cultivating their national identity in Copenhagen, and writing in classical metres.

Personal life

In 1780, he married Anna Catharia Bukier (1748–1813). They were the parents of one son, Jonas Wessel who was born in 1781. The marriage suffered from his alcoholism, depression and inability as a provider. Johan Herman Wessel died at age 43 in

and was buried in the cemetery of Trinitatis Church.

Works

Wessel's poems and plays are frequently satirical and humorous. His literary style is deliberate elaborate and digressive and at the same time elegant and witty. Another genre is the

epigram An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word derives from the Greek (, "inscription", from [], "to write on, to inscribe"). This literary device has been practiced for over two millennia ...

that he mastered, especially his short, witty, impudent, precise and also self-ironic commemorative poems. Wessel is known first of all for his many humorous and satiric verse tales referring to man's foolishness and injustice. Most notable is ''Smeden og Bageren'' ("The Smith and the Baker") about the only smith of a village who is pardoned for

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ce ...

since the village people need one, while a more superfluous baker is executed instead (there are two bakers, the village only needs one) in order to observe the rules that "life pays life". In ''Herremanden'' ("The Squire") a man coming to Hell makes unpleasant discoveries of the origin of his own son while ''Hundemordet'' ("The Dog Murder") tells about wrangle about trivial things. His satirical play '' Kierlighed uden Strømper'' ( ''Love without Stockings'', 1772—with epilogue, 1774) is a generic

parody A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...

of neoclassical tragedy; it takes place in a daily milieu of banal conflicts but observes the formal rules of "heroic language". It is still performed. Another play ''Anno 7603'' was written in 1781. It has a low literary value, and it has never been performed—it is held in such low esteem that it is often omitted from lists of his works —but it has some cult status since this is one of the first examples of

time travel in fiction Time travel is a common theme in fiction, mainly since the late 19th century, and has been depicted in a variety of media, such as literature, television, and film. The concept of time travel by mechanical means was popularized in H. G. Wells ...

. The main characters, Leander and Julie, are moved by a

fairy A fairy (also called fay, fae, fae folk, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, generally described as anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic, found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Cel ...

to a future (AD 7603) in which gender roles have been switched and only women are allowed to fight in the military. The traditional restaurant ''Wesselstuen'' in Bergen, Norway features many decorations inspired by his works.

References

Other sources

* Liv Bliksrud, ''Johan Herman Wessel og hans tid'', Wesselakademiet, 2000. (Norwegian) * Liv Bliksrud, ''Den smilende makten : Norske Selskab i København og Johan Herman Wessel'', Aschehoug, 1999. . (Norwegian)

External links