the holberg interview | marina warner “One of my earliest memories is my father’s bookshop being burned. It shaped my concerns. Why culture had this precedence, why it is so important to us, that it could be destroyed, as well it could be appreciated. I learned that very early.” A light in a cloud of darkness The Holberg Interview: Marina Warner Professor Marina Warner was never destined to be an academic, and definitely not an academic who gathered prizes. We caught up with the 2015 Holberg Prize Laureate to discuss fairy tales, myths and how fantasy and reality are interwoven. TExT Knut Melvær THE TRUTH AND UNTRUTH ABOUT MYTHS: “Myth has two dominant meanings. One is a lie and an illusion. The other is a story of greater truth,” says the 2015 Holberg Prize Laureate, Marina Warner. PHOTO: Dan Welldon/THe HOlBeRG PRIZe n 10 June 2015, Professor Ma- Quite unlike it. To get a grip on it, is the geography of my imagination,” preciated. I learned that very early,” So I began as a journalist. I wrote a ment of some household. Because rina Warner stepped into it is necessary to begin with the be- says Warner. she says. lot about fashion, cinema and was of my gender, I was brought up with Håkon’s Hall (Håkonshallen) ginning, namely her childhood and As a young child, Warner was Warner’s path into the academy the theatre reviewer at Vogue,” she narrow ambitions. It would have been Oin Bergen and received the Holberg upbringing. brought by her parents to Egypt is an unusual one, at least by to- says. “Meanwhile, I wrote books, like very different if I were a man. I had Prize from the Crown Prince of Nor- where her father opened a bookshop. day’s standards. Her aspiration as a Alone of All Her Sex. I became more to get to it by a zigzag route, by the way, Haakon Magnus. It is tempting Beginnings and a zigzag route She spoke Arabic as a child, but it teenager was to become a writer. In and more in demand as an academic. fact of the expectations and anxie- to draw parallels between her sub- “I was dealt a very unusual and in- faded away. Their stay in Egypt did her early twenties, after college, she However, I was quite surprised when ties people had about me,” she says. ject matter where encounters with spiring hand by fate. My mother not last for long. The bookshop was went from being a writer for the Brit- I was invited as a visiting scholar to princes have been a frequent theme was from Italy, a place of extraor- burned to the ground during the riots ish newspaper The Daily Telegraph what is now called the Getty Institute Gender and fairy tales since the invention of a monarchy. dinary historical layering. She grew of the national revolution of 1952. At to feature editor at the renowned for the Humanities. And so I entered The role of gender is prevalent in Warner’s extensive work on myths up in a period of fascism, political which point, the family decided to fashion magazine Vogue. She did academic life.” Warner’s retelling of her own back- and fairy tales – or “wonder tales” as oppression and ignorance; but the move back to England. not imagine that she would end up It is important to remember that ground; it has also been a substantial she refers to them — is now honoured inhabitants there where very aware “One of my earliest memories is a scholar. when Warner grew up, women were part of her scholarship. Her first book, with the most prestigious internation- of the depth of history. That part of my father’s bookshop being burned. still a rarity in academia. The Dragon Empress (1972), retold the al prize within the Humanities and the world, the Mediterranean basin, It shaped my concerns. Why cul- Venturing into academia “It was not so common in those story about China’s Empress Dowager Social Sciences – the Holberg Prize. remains essential to my preoccupa- ture had this precedence, why it is “I always wanted to write, and did days, in the kind of class I came from, Cixi. But it was Alone of All Her Sex Her path is not your typical run tion. From the Atlantic in the West to so important to us, that it could be things to finance my writing. I did not for women to be intellectuals. I was (1976), a survey of the many myths, of the mill university career story. the Fertile Crescent in the East. That destroyed, as well it could be ap- want to adapt to the demands of sales. much more destined to be the orna- symbols and iconography of the Vir- 16 the Uib Magazine. the Uib Magazine. 17 the holberg interview | marina warner facts Marina Warner • Born in London on 9 November 1946. • Novelist, historian and mythographer. • Professor of English and creative writing at Birkbeck, University of ABOUT THE HOLBERG PRIZE London. The Holberg Prize is awarded every year to a • The first female scholar to give the scholar who has made a substantial contribution to BBC Reith Lectures. gin Mary, which put Warner on the for having murdered her children — We think of Europe and literary and the cultural conversation. the humanities, social sciences, law, or theological academic map. She then went past • Publishing author of several acclaimed to a critique of how single mothers “ To produce a response asking for studies. The prize consists of 4.5 million Norwegian the oriental myths that surrounded novels. The Lost Father (1988) was are portrayed by politicians and in the Middle East as peace and harmony through cultural kroner (NOK), approximately 550,000 Euro. The Empress Cixi to the pious and reli- shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. the media, given the blame for rais- separate because of the interchange. Our ignorance of Arabic prize is often referred to as the ‘Nobel Prize of the gious myth of Virgin Mary and Joan • She writes regularly for The Guardian ing welfare leeches, child murderers way we are taught and of and Islamic tradition is much deeper arts, humanities, and social sciences’. and The London Review of Books. of Arc (1981). and criminal monsters. the patterns of publication than our ignorance of, for example, The 2015 Holberg Prize Laureate was the British Her work on fairy tales showed • She quit her position as a professor at “There have been some changes the Chinese, even though the British historian, writer and mythologist Marina Warner. her as a real pioneer. This was be- the University of Essex in protest. in gender sensibilities and values. For and translation. But that and the French have been all around Previous winners include Islamic history scholar cause her perspective allowed her example, it is no longer surprising is a misjudgement. the Middle East for centuries,” she • In 2015, she was appointed Dame ” Michael Cook (2014), sociologist Manuel Castells to study fairy tales across the many Commander of the Order of the for a woman to be minister of state. points out. (2012) and the philosophers Jürgen Habermas forms in which they exist. Be it tran- British Empire for services to higher That really is an achievement. It is (2005) and Julia Kristeva (2004, when the prize scription of oral telling, literature, education and literary scholarship. also a profound social change that An unexpected recognition was first awarded). the cinema or even video games. • She has published 15 non-fiction there are now more women than the Arabian Nights (2012) is an im- It is her inquisitive mind that has The Holberg Prize winner is announced in March This also includes how creatures and books and five novels in addition men that attend university. That is portant reminder that even in the brought Marina Warner to the point every year, and the prize ceremony takes place in to many short stories, columns and tropes from fairy tales play a role a huge social revolution,” she says. time where Europe was at its most where she is today. But her ques- Bergen in the first half of June. The University of articles. both in our everyday language and “When I went to university, only European, there was a fascination tioning of academic truths has also Bergen hosts the Holberg Prize. also in political propaganda. • Her latest book is Once Upon a Time: five per cent of the country went and appreciation of the Middle East. got her into trouble. She had a very For more information, and to follow the A Short Story of Fairy Tale (2014). “I supposed that my work has been there, and only one in five were Arabian Nights was at this time argu- public falling out with the University announcement of next year’s winner, visit: an attempt to understand the human • She has contributed to the study of women. The education of women is ably more popular in the West than of Essex and left her position there, holbergprisen.no/en myth and fairy tale by making it a ways of telling fantastic stories. Both the key to social transformation. One in the Middle East. after which she was at a loss for more legitimate field of inquiry, and by P hoto from the illusory perspective, which an extensive array of studies, analysis of the things that has not followed, “I became interested in Arabian short while. : Ole K often has an ideological and politi- and theory. and this is absolutely puzzling to me, Nights.