Perpetual Teenager – An interview with Anna Söderquist, Curator of the Hong Kierkegaard Library
By Kiara Fitzpatrick ’25
October 2022
From an outside perspective, the decision to move from Copenhagen, Denmark to Northfield, Minnesota seems strange. What could this quaint Minnesotan college town possibly hold over the Danish capital? For Anna Söderquist, the newly appointed Curator of the Kierkegaard Library, the answer was simple: she was drawn by the proximity to the forefront of study and scholarship on Søren Kierkegaard. The Kierkegaard Library has a withstanding attraction which draws like-minded scholars and faculty from across the globe to our Northfield campus. Although the power of Kierkegaard to bring international scholars to rural Minnesota is incredible in and of itself, Söderquist has been so literally moved by his work that she has relocated internationally not once, but twice.
Söderquist’s childhood was a vibrant one, filled with music, dance, and art. Her father was a pianist, while her mother, hailing from Tahiti, taught ballet. Her time was split between woodsy rural Connecticut and tropical Tahiti; two unique locations which instilled in her a profound connection to nature and the natural world. Despite living most of her adult life under urban skyscapes, Söderquist has never forgotten the childhood feeling of recognizing “something divine through nature”. Her mother’s family in Tahiti was big and welcoming: doors never closed, and the train of people never stopped chugging through. From living in Tahiti and Connecticut, Boston, Brooklyn, Copenhagen, and finally, Northfield, Söderquist recounts the community found in each distinct locale.
Upon first moving to Boston and beginning study at Northeastern University, Söderquist experienced a crisis which many St. Olaf students recognize. Undergraduate indecision hit her head on, and there was no glimpse of relief until she took her first philosophy class. Söderquist’s inclination has always been towards the human condition. Classes in social work, psychology, history, sociology began to get at the symptoms of this existence, but it wasn’t until that first encounter with philosophy that her personal, deep, existential questions were addressed. From then on, she felt her path was clear.
While philosophy can be seen to present more questions than it answers, this was the first time that Söderquist’s own questions were taken seriously. The fact that an entire discipline was dedicated to questioning human experience was astounding! And beyond that, she discovered she was not alone in these questions. One of the great draws of philosophy for Söderquist was its existence as a dialogical, living body. She holds that “you can have dialogue with millennia of other minds.”
But why Søren Kierkegaard? What about this Danish philosopher drew her in? Söderquist was first exposed to existentialism in her undergraduate years, and Kierkegaard was one of the initial main characters. Once introduced, she couldn’t get away from him. Söderquist describes Kierkegaard’s style as having a “sticking power.” Even when she was not reading him, his written introspection and personal reflection prompted the same within her own mind. Not only was she conversing with Kierkegaard through his texts, but reading him was an immersive process. It caused her to have a reflective dialogue within herself. For Söderquist, Kierkegaard was not a choice. “He picked me,” she says.
Recognized as the father of existentialism, Kierkegaard isn’t known for his optimism. Existentialism, in general, is culturally viewed as a philosophy which focuses on anxiety, despair, and meaninglessness: all things that society doesn’t want to focus on. On the other hand, Söderquist sees it as a genuine acknowledgement that we will all struggle over the course of our lives. While thought of dark or depressing, existential philosophy, and Kierkegaard in particular, first gesture towards problematic internal processes. Söderquist believes that “becoming conscious of self-cloaking [deceptive] tendencies is an occasion for change and growth and transformation.” She recognizes that although we experience plenty of anxiety, despair, and meaninglessness, Kierkegaard’s philosophy “sees these struggles as an opportunity for hope, vulnerability, risk, and transformation.” In the face of seemingly insurmountable pain and stress, Kierkegaard encourages us to “trust that good change is possible.” While jokingly referring to herself as a “perpetual teenager,” Söderquist is a proud existentialist.
Söderquist first encountered the Kierkegaard Library (HKL) in 2010, when a friend from her graduate studies at the New School returned from a summer research program. On top of a weekly Kierkegaard reading group in her Brooklyn apartment, Söderquist now headed to Northfield over the next four summers to engage with the historic collection. From creating a reading group in graduate school with her New School Philosophy Department peers to participating in her neighborhood’s community garden, it’s easy to see where Söderquist’s goals for the HKL stem from. Throughout her study of Kierkegaard, the one constant factor, regardless of academic setting or even continent, has been community. This orientation is something she brings into her new position. While the philosophical process is executed within oneself, Söderquist says she finds great value in the “communal focus on internal processes” found at the Kierkegaard Library.
Despite still being in her inaugural semester, Söderquist’s presence is already felt on campus. Students often drop into her office for writing guidance, a Kierkegaardian clarification, or just to converse. Söderquist’s office overlooks the lawn in front of Steensland Hall, while her philosophy course, aptly called “Kierkegaard and Existentialism,” is held in the lower floor of the HKL. The ability of her students to see the magnitude of Kierkegaard’s corpus and his lasting influence has a profound impact on them. Sophomore Liz Mills, a Philosophy and Ancient Studies double major, raves about Söderquist’s class: “Professor Söderquist is enthusiastic about existentialism, which puts a new light on its sometimes dark content. She’s so conversational, and seems to genuinely care about her students’ questions and own thoughts.” Mills also commented on the value of having a female professor in a male-dominated profession. She says that learning from someone with similar cultural and gender contexts is inspiring and influential to their experience as a budding philosopher.
Philosophy is often viewed by skeptics as a discipline of the past, unfit for a place on the stage of the modern world. Why should students continue to study it, and Kierkegaard in particular? Even though Kierkegaard is a two-centuries-old philosopher, Söderquist says, his works have the ability to appeal to every person. Even with his somewhat localized cultural understanding, Kierkegaard “reaches right down into people.” No matter who you are, crises and uncertainty are innately human struggles, and he recognizes that. Despite all our flaws and shortcomings, Söderquist believes Kierkegaard “sees us as utterly unique creatures and beings that have something completely particular to ourselves to contribute” and presents us to ourselves as such. In short, Kierkegaard gives the modern reader license to struggle and the “resources and tools to survive being human.”
These tools are even more powerful when coming from Kierkegaard himself. Besides the joy that Söderquist felt from just being able to recognize her own questions in the writing of another, she thinks there is something even more special in holding a physical primary text. In the Howard V. Hong Rare Book Room, one can find a world-renowned collection of Kierkegaard’s own works, and a near-replica of his personal library. Beyond the history within the pages itself, Söderquist cherishes the unique annotations found on each historic page. They tell stories not just created in the past, but about it. Söderquist’s sociological background comes into play here: these rare texts give us a “ rare sociological instinct into past society.” They can be used to disprove ideas about Kierkegaard’s readership, which Söderquist finds particularly interesting. She notes especially that through the collection and examination of previously owned and annotated texts, we can “debunk the myth that women didn’t read Kierkegaard’s non-pseudonymous works,” which provides new insight into Danish society during his lifetime.
The HKL contains the widest linguistic range of Kierkegaard’s works and a vast body of scholarly literature which analyzes it. Söderquist says the HKL contains “nearly everything you might wish to read about Kierkegaard.” While a scholar may be drawn to Northfield because of the library’s physical resources, the securing factor is the community found within the library’s walls. Not only does one encounter scholars from across the globe, Söderquist has placed a constant focus on constructive dialogue. While interacting with past thinkers, Söderquist emphasizes the dialectical relationship necessary for the continued life of such a community as the Kierkegaard Library.