Helga Johansen

Helga Johansen (1852–1912) was a Danish writer whose works are associated with the period in Scandinavian literature known as The Modern Breakthrough. The sister of painter Viggo Johansen, she was brought up in a well-to-do Copenhagen home. After intermittently working as a teacher, she began to suffer from mental illness. In 1896, writing under the pen name Et Fruentime (A Woman) she made her debut with the novel Rids, tre monologer (Outline, Three Monologues). This was followed in 1900 by Hinsides: En psykologisk Redegørelse (Beyond: A Psychological Account), drawing on her own experience of hospitalization with a confused combination of thoughts and monologues.

Early life Born on 12 August 1852 in Copenhagen, Helga Johansen was the daughter of the merchant Frederik Christoph Johansen (1804–74) and his wife Camilla Petrine née Jepsen (1815–92). While still a small child she suffered a leg injury but nevertheless was able to care for her ailing mother until she died in 1892. Graduating in 1879 as a teacher from the Beyers, Bohrs and Femmers College, she taught intermittently while undertaking her own studies of Hebrew and of philosophy with the assistance of Harald Høffding.

Helga Johansen died on 25 December 1912.