Om Dansk pen

Forsvarer ytringsfriheden | Fremmer litteraturen

En del af PEN International

Dansk PEN er en del af PEN International, en litterær organisation der promoverer bøger fra hele verden og forsvarer ytringsfriheden for skribenter af enhver art: forfattere, dramatikere, journalister, formidlere af viden, bibliotekarer, oversættere, redaktører etc. Vi ser det som en del af vores formål at forsvare retten til fri udøvelse af alle kunstneriske udtryksformer.

Navnet PEN er oprindelig en forkortelse for ordene Poets, Playwrights, Essayists, Editors & Novelists. I dag ytrer vores medlemmer sig gennem en langt bredere vifte af genrer, medier og fag, men betegnelsen for forfatterens vigtigste værktøj, pennen, holder vi fast i som et universelt tegn for friheden til at ytre sig.

Dansk PEN 100 år

Hvornår bliver Dansk PEN fuldgyldigt medlem af PEN International? I Politiken 9. oktober 1924 refereres en tale holdt af den engelske romanforfatter og dramatiker John Galsworthy i PEN-klubben i London. Som foreningens internationale præsident skal han have sluttet af med, som det hedder i avisen, ”et velkomstord til Stifteren af den danske PEN-klub, Forfatteren Svend Borberg, der var til Stede ved Middagen”, og Borberg skal som Dansk PEN’s første daglige leder have kvitteret ved at sige om foreningens nye danske gren at den ”netop ønskede at skabe det Aandsarbejdernes internationale Broderskab hvorom Galsworthy havde talt”.

Præsident for Dansk PEN var dengang forfatteren Martin Andersen Nexø. – Det var dog ikke en ”Broder”, men digteren, romanforfatteren, feministen og internationalisten Catharine Amy Dawson Scott der havde grundlagt PEN International et par år tidligere. Hun beskrev organisationen som ”en ordenes republik der skulle samle nationerne”. PEN er jævnaldrende med Folkeforbundet (forløberen for FN), og der er klare fællestræk i ånd og målsætning.

PEN-chartret vedtaget i København 1948

Som et modsvar til al den propaganda tidens medier var blevet oversvømmet af omkring 1. Verdenskrig, sådan så man PEN i de tidligste år, altså som en mulighed for netop at lade skribenters møder med hinanden bane vej for en genetablering af værdier såsom accept af forskellighed, gensidig forståelse mellem alle nationer, forsøg på i fællesskab at sikre fri udveksling af kunst og litteratur.

Det begynder med gæstfrihed, men hen imod slutningen af 1920’erne understreges det i en pamflet at PEN altså ikke bare er en middagsklub! Vi skal ikke langt ind i 1930’erne før nazisme i Tyskland og fascisme i Spanien og Italien begynder at påvirke arbejdet i PEN; nu lægger man også afstand til at mennesker fængsles af politiske eller religiøse grunde. Og i 1933 ændrer alt sig med bogafbrændinger og forfølgelse af forfattere.

Her er det – under PEN Internationals daværende præsident H.G. Wells – at et princip om ”liberty of expression” kommer på banen. Fra da af forventes det af PEN-medlemmer at sige fra over for propaganda for vold, racisme, folkedrab etc.

Ved Stockholm-kongressen i 1946 vedtages et formål om også at gøre modstand mod de mørke sider af en fri presse, nemlig desinformation styret af politiske eller personlige interesser. Og så, ved organisationens internationale kongres i København i 1948, får PEN sit første såkaldte ”Charter”. Ytringsfriheden bliver ved den lejlighed det fuldt formaliserede omdrejningspunkt i programmet for PEN. Det er den fortsat.

Læs PEN’s Charter her

Danish PEN is part of PEN International, a literary organization that promotes books from all over the world and defends the freedom of expression for writers of all arts: authors, playwrights, journalists, communicators of knowledge, librarians, translators, editors, etc. We see it as part . of our purpose to defend the right to free exercise of all forms of artistic expression.

The name PEN is originally short for the words poets, dramatists, essayists, editors and novelists. Today, our members express themselves through a much wider range of genres, media and subjects, but we hold on to the term for the writer’s most important tool, the pen, as a universal sign of freedom of expression.

Danish PEN 100 years

When will Dansk PEN become a full member of PEN International? In Politiken 9 October 1924, a speech given by the English novelist and playwright John Galsworthy at the PEN club in London is referenced. As the association’s international president, he must have finished with, as the newspaper says, “a word of welcome to the Founder of the Danish PEN club, Author Svend Borberg, who was present at the dinner”, and Borberg will, as Danish PEN’s first day-to-day manager having signed off by saying about the association’s new Danish branch that it “wanted precisely to create the International Brotherhood of Spirit Workers of which Galsworthy had spoken”.

The president of Dansk PEN at the time was the writer Martin Andersen Nexø. – However, it was not a “Brother”, but the poet, novelist, feminist and internationalist Catharine Amy Dawson Scott who had founded PEN International a few years earlier. She described the organization as “a republic of words that should unite the nations”. PEN is the same age as the League of Nations (the forerunner of the UN), and there are clear commonalities in spirit and objectives.

The PEN charter adopted in Copenhagen 1948

As a response to all the propaganda the media of the time had been flooded by around World War 1, this is how PEN was seen in the earliest years, i.e. as an opportunity to let writers’ meetings with each other pave the way for a re-establishment of values ​​such as acceptance of diversity , mutual understanding between all nations, attempts to jointly secure the free exchange of art and literature.

It begins with hospitality, but towards the end of the 1920s it is emphasized in a pamphlet that PEN is not just a dinner club! We do not have to go far into the 1930s before Nazism in Germany and fascism in Spain and Italy begin to affect the work of PEN; now people are also distanced from imprisoning people for political or religious reasons. And in 1933, everything changes with book burnings and persecution of authors.

Here it is – under PEN International’s then president H.G. Wells – that a principle of “freedom of expression” comes into play. From then on, PEN members are expected to speak out against propaganda for violence, racism, genocide etc.

At the Stockholm Congress in 1946, an objective was adopted to also oppose the dark sides of a free press, namely disinformation controlled by political or personal interests. And then, at the organization’s international congress in Copenhagen in 1948, PEN gets its first so-called “Charter”. On that occasion, freedom of expression becomes the fully formalized focal point in the program for PEN, which it continues to be.

Read the PEN Charter