Bibi de Karin Michaëlis et sa rencontre avec la réalité : Hygge lyfestyle expérimenté par les enfants?

The Danish word hygge, whose definition is the subject of scientific papers and dissemination works, is nowadays one of the terms that most frequently characterize Danish culture and world view. In many books and articles (more and more in the last few years), this word is used to label a value system involving any aspect of daily life, and is presented as the secret of Danish happiness, a state of wellness which international surveys have confirmed at least since 1970s. In The Danish Way of Parenting (2014), Jessica Alexander and Iben Sandahl investigate the different aspects of this way of living when upbringing children; the key words the authors use and their fields of application find several meaningful correspondences in Karin Michaëlis’ Bibi’s daily life, with the substantial difference that in Michaëlis’ series (first book in 1927, 1929), the focus lies on the girl herself, who often reports her experiences. My contribution aims to assess to what extent Bibi exemplifies a way of life and a value system which later has been formalized in the nowadays worldwide discussed Danish hygge lifestyle (or, better, in its way of parenting), in this way offering a new perspective to consider Michaëlis’ plea for children’s rights and spaces in her literary works.