Swedish Studies 841

V. SWEDISH STUDIES*

LITERATURE By Birgitta Thompson, Lecturer in Swedish, University of Wales, Lampeter

1. General Nordisk kvinnolitteraturhistoria. v. Liv och verk, ed. Elisabeth Møller Jensen et al., Malmo¨, Bra Bo¨cker, 396 pp., is the final volume of this large project (see YWMLS, 55:1036, 58:971–72, 59:913–14). It includes brief biographies in alphabetical order of all women writers in vols i- iv, bibliographical references, and indexes. S. H. Rossel, ‘Gibt es eine nordische Literatur?’, Paul, Skandinavistik, 85–98, is a paper given to German-speaking Scandinavianists at a symposium in Norway, 1997; it discusses whether a common literature for the five Nordic countries is at all possible, and suggests an integrated literary project to heighten international awareness of Nordic literature. Stina Hansson, Fra˚n Hercules till Swea. Den littera¨ra textens fa¨ra¨ndringar (SLIGU, 39), 162 pp., examines the transformation of what was recognized as ‘literary’ in analyses of selected texts from c. 1650 to 1850. It focuses on three established literary criteria and their changing roles, namely Classical rhetoric, the inherited cultural/literary repertory, and the relationship between oral and the ‘new’ focus on writing and printing. Instead of the generally accepted linear process in literary history and its various epochs, it argues that changes in literary texts and forms happen over a long time through the gradual adjustment of prevailing standards. H. von Born, ‘Stockholms ro¨ster’, TsSk, 21:41–53, discusses Stockholm in literature from the Eric Chronicle to the modern day. Parnass, no. 2, is a special issue devoted to ‘Rupture’; spanning 700 years from Petrus de Dacia to Ylva Eggehorn, it deals with a number of diverse authors: Ellen Key, Amelie Posse, and Sonja A˚ kesson. E. Lagerroth, ‘Litteraturen som motpol till veten- skapen’, Sjo¨berg, Litteraturens makt, 131–53, warns of the danger inherent in modern literary theory that threatens to make the text secondary, and hence to diminish the power of literature. C.-G. Holmberg, ‘ ‘‘Ord ha taggar.’’ Maktkamp mellan fo¨rfattare och journalister’, ib., 199–211, considers the treatment of press and

* The place of publication of books is Stockholm unless otherwise indicated. 842 Swedish Studies journalists in literary works, with reference to Haquin Spegel, Esaias Tegne´r, Strindberg, and others.

2. The Middle Ages S. Wu¨rth, ‘Eufemia: deutsche Auftraggeberin schwedischer Literatur am norwegischen Hof ’, Paul, Skandinavistik, 269–81, considers Queen Eufemia and her involvement in the translation into Swedish of the three texts of the Eufemiavisor. W. Layher, ‘Origins of the Old Swedish epic Hertig Fredrik af Normandie: a Middle Dutch link?’, TsSk, 21:223–49, discusses the relationship between the 14th-c. Old Swedish text of one of the Eufemiavisor and its lost 13th-c. source.

3. From the Renaissance to the Gustavian Age A. Swanson, ‘Eriks-visan. Disappearances of a song’, ScSt, 72:49–62, argues that this patriotic song about ’s oldest political event originates in a 16th-c. Latin translation by of a well-known old song. Joachim Grage, Chaotischer Abgrund und erhabene Weite. Das Meer in der skandinavischen Dichtung des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts (Palaestra, 311), Go¨ttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 331 pp., diss. with a summary in English, examines the presence of the sea in 17th- c. and 18th-c. Scandinavian literature, concluding that it did not play a significant role until well into the 18th c. Reference is made to examples of baroque sea imagery in writers such as Lucidor and Samuel Columbus; analyses of both topographical and sentimental landscape poetry present changes in the sea motif; philosophical didactic verse on seafaring reflects a problem in the age of Enlighten- ment. The main part of the study deals with the sea as a subject of literary description in didactic poetry, starting with two Scandinavian verse epics on the creation of the world, the Dane Anders Arrebo’s Hexae¨meron (1661) and Haquin Spegel’s Gudz Werk och Hwila (1685). bellman, carl michael. Torkel Sta˚lmarck, Bellman i verkligheten. Familjeliv, sa¨llskapsliv, konstna¨rsliv, Norstedts, 211 pp., examines in nine chapters the various circles and milieux B. frequented and their decisive influence on his writing. From his extensive knowledge of the period, Sta˚lmarck gives a lucid introduction to B.’s life and time. A. Dvergsdal ‘Den oppbyggelige Bellman? En studie over Bellmans epistler’, Edda, 110–29, discusses the importance of religion in B.’s drinking songs. brenner, sophia elisabeth.S.Mu¨ller, ‘ ‘‘Herren sargar och la¨ker, han sla˚r och hans hand helar.’’ Konfliktbewa¨ltigung in den autobiographischen Texten von Marta Hagman (1765), Sophia Elisabeth Brenner (1722) und Christina Regina vom Birchenbaum’,