Årg. 24 Nr. 42 (2025): Literary Explorations of Health and Kinship
Originalartikler

“To be able to live among the deads”: Parody and empathy in Harald Voetmann’s Amduat. An Oxygen Machine

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  • Anders Juhl Rasmussen
Anders Juhl Rasmussen
Lektor
Forside med overskriften: Literary Explorations of Health and Kinship. Billedet på forsiden forestiller en ældre kvinde i en sofa, der ser undrende på maleren.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7146/tfss.v24i42.143652

Publiceret 2025-06-05

Nøgleord

  • Parody,
  • empathy,
  • harald voetmann,
  • egyptian,
  • amduat

Citation/Eksport

Juhl Rasmussen, A. (2025). “To be able to live among the deads”: Parody and empathy in Harald Voetmann’s Amduat. An Oxygen Machine. Tidsskrift for Forskning I Sygdom Og Samfund, 24(42), 109–127. https://doi.org/10.7146/tfss.v24i42.143652

Copyright (c) 2025 Anders Juhl Rasmussen

Creative Commons License

Dette værk er under følgende licens Creative Commons Navngivelse –Ikke-kommerciel (by-nc).

Resumé

The Danish author Harald Voetmann’s father died late in his life of a pneumonia at a regional hospital, and shortly thereafter, the author published a collection of short literary texts written by hand as an epitaph to his father with the title Amduat. An Oxygen Machine. In the ancient Egypt, the Amduat is a night-journey of twelve hours in the “after-life” of a pharaoh accompanied by the sun god. Voetmann uses this old mythology as a palimpsest for his representation of the last hours of his father’s life at the hospital. The handwritten texts are parodic or satirical rather than pathetic and sincere, even though the subject matter is deeply emotional, and this form complicates the expected empathic identification with the loss. Yet, the lasting effect of the reading is, perhaps, to be reminded of human life as a vibrant mystery when confronted with death as the unknown territory.

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Referencer

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