Isak Dinesen’s “The Deluge at Norderney” and Eccentric Indifference

Abstract

Taking Isak Dinesen’s short story “The Deluge at Norderney” as its example, this essay explores the ramifications of Ina Schabert’s definition and characterization of the “foot-off-the-ground novel” as a model for thinking eccentric literature. In this, it turns on the idea of indifference as a key component and technique of eccentricity. While in the realm of gender and sexuality “queer” may be a strong rival for the “eccentric,” the essay shows that eccentric indifference follows a logic which sets it apart from the interventionist aesthetics of queer.