Re: no Laughing matter (aka Swedish Literature, last part)


Subject: Re: no Laughing matter (aka Swedish Literature, last part)
From: The Laughing Man (the_laughing_man@hotmail.com)
Date: Thu Apr 13 2000 - 05:40:32 EDT


Stig Dagerman
No laughing matter, indeed. To Kill A Child smells so much of Dagerman, that
even if you didn't know he'd written it, you'd feel it.

Stig Dagerman in private, I of course never knew (he committed suicide
before I was even born). Perhaps he was a humorous man. But his prose was
nothing to laugh at. Being compared to Kafka in many ways, he definitely
wasn't the humorous storyteller Kafka was, whose stories are dead funny in
their terrible way. He was no Salinger, no master of jargon (and, as we all
know, irresistible funny). Stig Dagerman's prose hurts. No matter seems to
be a laughing matter for Dagerman.

Often when I'm abroad, I go looking for my favorite Swedish writers in the
bookstores and libraries. Finding Per Olov Enquist at Auckland library in
New Zealand made me feel at home, even though I was on the other side of
Earth. And finding Dagerman in a West End bookstore is like getting that
confirmation there is something genuine out there (of course, we know there
is, intellectually, but I'm talking about when you feel it, deep down).

I'm trying to get hold of the parts from "A Burnt Child" I most often read
aloud for friends when I want them to read Dagerman, but I can't find it.
Alta Vista fails me.

A Last Try
My last salvation try will be these two web-links. First there is the
Runeberg Project:

http://www.lysator.liu.se/runeberg/admin/

Project Runeberg publishes Nordic literature on the Internet since 1992.
Unfortunately, the authors have to be dead for 70 years until the texts can
be published here, which makes most of what I'm looking for absent, anyway.
But do they have some great classics: August Strindberg, probably the
greatest author Sweden has ever produced, is represented with his major
works. He's absolutely brilliant, so if you've missed him: repent! Ibsen is
another star you can read here, if you know Norwegian!

The second link is an abstract on Swedish 20 Century Literature (damn, I'm
not represented):

http://www.si.se/eng/esverige/litteng.html

I'll quote my favorite's here, for those of you who can't browse at work:

I won't mention Strindberg, He's the only one anyone knows, anyway.

Hjalmar Söderberg
" Few authors capture the fin-de-siècle flâneur atmosphere of disillusioned
sophistication as skillfully as Hjalmar Söderberg (1869-1941). His
protagonists were passive and listless, aimlessly roaming the streets of
Stockholm, but the fact that Söderberg did not condemn their often decadent
lifestyles was considered somewhat shocking. Den allvarsamma leken (The
Serious Game), 1912, is perhaps the most widely read of all the classic
Swedish romance novels, while Förvillelser (Aberrations), 1895, and Doktor
Glas (Doctor Glas), 1905, are remembered for their vivid portrayals of
Stockholm."

Pär Lagerkvist
"Pär Lagerkvist (1891-1974) was one of the first modernist poets in Sweden.
His expressionist poem, Ångest (Anguish), 1916, introduced modernist
lyricism to Sweden. Lagerkvist's prose and poetry addressed the great
existential questions of the existence of God and the meaning of life. He
often chose the ancient world for his settings. He was also a playwright.
Himlens hemlighet (The Secret of Heaven), 1919, his best known drama, echoes
Strindberg's Ett drömspel."

Eyvind Johnson (but they are not mentioning his masterpiece)
"During the interwar period a number of writers emerged who had their roots
in the working class, among them Eyvind Johnson, Vilhelm Moberg, Moa
Martinson and Jan Fridegård. Many of them wrote autobiographical novels in
the spirit of Maxim Gorky. During 1934-1937, Eyvind Johnson (1900-1976) came
out with Romanen om Olof (The Novel About Olof) in four parts, depicting a
working-class boy's path from a simple background to self-insight. Johnson
wrote historical novels as well and took a stand against the Nazis in his
Krilon (Krilon) trilogy, 1941-1943."

Artur Lundkvist and Harry Martinson
"Artur Lundkvist (1906-1991), a surrealist poet and prose writer, was a
prolific author throughout his life and played a key role in introducing
international literature to Swedish readers. Harry Martinson (1904-1978), a
former sailor who had grown up as an orphan, described his difficult
childhood in Nässlorna blomma (Flowering Nettle), 1935. In the thirties he
became one of Sweden's finest nature poets. But he also wrote the space epic
Aniara (Aniara), 1956, in which he described the arms race and galloping
technical advances in a spirit of disillusionment. This poetic epic was
later turned into an opera."

Ekelöf, oh, Ekelöf
"The thirties produced such influential poets as Johannes Edfelt, Hjalmar
Gullberg and Nils Ferlin. In 1932, Sweden's arguably greatest poet, Gunnar
Ekelöf (1907-1968) made his debut. Sent på jorden (Late Arrival on Earth),
1932, was called the first Swedish collection of surrealist poetry. Ekelöf
wrote simple, immediate poems as well as experimental ones, often with
Oriental influences. He crushed the letters in order to find a new language
which better reflected a shattered reality."

Dagerman
"One genius of the 1940s generation who died young was Stig Dagerman
(1923-1954). Guilt and anxiety were the themes of his symbolist and
gro-tesque novels, such as Ormen (The Snake), 1945, De dömdas ö (Island of
the Doomed), 1946, Bränt barn (A Burnt Child), 1948, and Bröllopsbesvär
(Wedding Worries) 1949. In Den dödsdömde (The Condemned), 1947, he also
distinguished himself as a playwright."

The great Aspenström
"One of Vennberg's disciples was the modernist poet Werner Aspenström
(1918-1997), who was a successful playwright as well. Although his
breakthrough came in 1946 with the collection Skriket och tystnaden (The
Scream and the Silence), he is mostly associated with the fifties. One of
the most widely read Swedish poets, he remained active as a writer until the
end."

OK, I realize no one even get this far, so I'll just include my two later
favorites from here, even though Tomas Tranströmer, Willy Kyrklund, Sara
Lidman, Jan Myrdal, Sven Lindqvist are all very good. I didn't realize I had
so many "favorites". In high school, when they tried to get our attention by
texts like the one I've been quoting, everyone fell asleep. So I'm doing
this against better judgement. Can't help myself. This is the last part of
my prophecy. I'll only write Salinger related post from now on. Promise.

The last two:

My beloved Enquist
"Per Olov Enquist (b. 1934) wrote both documentary prose and experimental
novels. Hess (Hess), 1966, is a fragmented meta-novel, and in Legionärerna
(The Legionnaires), 1968, he combined documentary and fictional elements in
his account of the extradition of Baltic war refugees from Sweden to the
Soviet Union. Later Enquist wrote novels with a broader scope, for example
Musikanternas uttåg (The March of the Musicians), 1978, and Kapten Nemos
bibliotek (Captain Nemo's Library). In the mid-seventies Enquist made his
breakthrough as a playwright. Tribadernas natt (The Night of the Tribades),
1975, and Från regnormarnas liv (The Dance of the Rainsnakes), 1981, helped
him become one of Sweden's internationally most acclaimed dramatists,
alongside Lars Norén."

Peter Kihlgård. I'm still waiting for Strandmannen, "The Beach Man", to be
translated.
"Autobiographies and confessional literature have experienced an upswing.
For example Peter Kihlgård (b. 1954), renowned as a master of fantasy, wrote
Anvisningar till en far (Instructions for a Father), 1996, a prose poem
depicting his adolescence."

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

-
* Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message
* UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Mon May 01 2000 - 06:20:13 EDT