University of California: In Memoriam, 1992

Børge Gedsø Madsen, Scandinavian: Berkeley

	1920-1988
	Professor of Scandinavian Literature, Emeritus

Bø:rge Gedsø Madsen came to America as a young man with a long education in Denmark behind him. As a boy he attended the cathedral school in Odense. He went on to study at the universities of Aarhus and Cophenhagen, where he acquired a through grounding in Scandinavian culture of the late nineteenth century, a positivist orientation toward literature, an exact knowledge of the ins and outs of the Danish learned world, and a perfect French accent. As a teacher and scholar he never managed to adjust completely to the American academic environment.

Like many another young Scandinavian who sought his fortune in America, Borge spent many years teaching in midwestern schools before earning a Ph.D. from Minnesota in 1957. He came to Berkeley as an Assistant Professor of Scandinavian that same year.

It would be difficult to do justice to Borge's steadiness in relation to the Danish component in our program. Year after year Børge taught advanced courses in Danish language and literature, Scandinavian theater, and the modernist breakthrough. He could be a rigorous and demanding teacher, one who adapted to students' abilities and training, but who made no concessions about linguistic standards or the use of evidence. He was very severe with advanced graduate students who had been lazy. Børge did not understand or approve our American interest in theory and methodology; in spite of this he contributed certain imponderables to our program--a love of literature and learning, a sense that taste, erudition, wit, and style are also a part of learning in the humanities.

Never a particularly productive scholar, Børge's important research was his book, Strindberg's Naturalistic Theater, a study of the Swedish dramatist's use of French programs and manifestos. With one or

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two exceptions, the rest of Børge's research concerned the modern breakthrough in Scandinavia. He published something on many of the great figures: Andersen, Jacobsen, Obstfelder, Pontoppidan, Jensen, Bjørnson, Schack, Ibsen, and Brandes. His knowledge of the period was thorough, superior to that of any other person in the department. His published work did not do complete justice to his learning, affection, and sensitivity. In fact, he was not a critic in the Anglo-Saxon or French sense; at his best he was an appreciator, an amateur in the best meaning of the word.

Over the years Børge developed into a much-appreciated spectator of this institutional world. All of us can recall with pleasure his disabused but accurate observations of academic arrogance, prevarication, and place-seeking. He could be utterly plain-spoken upon occasion.

Børge retired in 1988. His health had been poor for some time, and he died within the year. He was divorced. His is survived by three children, Thomas, Annalise, and Peter.

About this text
Courtesy of University Archives, The Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-6000; http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/info
http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb7c6007sj&brand=oac4
Title: 1992, University of California: In Memoriam
By:  University of California (System) Academic Senate, Author
Date: 1992
Contributing Institution:  University Archives, The Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-6000; http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/info
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