Norwegian Literature Giuliano D’Amico, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim
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Norwegian Literature Giuliano D’Amico, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim 1. General Norsk litterær årbok, ed. Heming Gujord and Per Arne Michelsen, Oslo, Det norske samlaget, 313 pp., contains the usual overviews of Norwegian fiction, poetry and literary criticism from 2013 and a number of scholarly articles. This issue includes contributions on Dag Solstad, Lars Hansen, Henrik Wergeland, Karl Ove Knausgård, Olav Aukrust, Ronald Fangen and literature by survivors of the Utøya massacre in 2011. Fra Wergeland til Knausgård. Lesninger i nordisk litteratur, ed. Hans Kristian Rustad and Henning Howlid Wærp, Oslo, Akademika, 497 pp., is a wide-ranging anthology focusing on research areas such as the relationship between text and image (Hans E. Kinck, Hanne Bramness), poetry (Olaf Bull, Hans Børli, Petter Dass), fiction and drama (Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Tarjei Vesaas, Knut Faldbakken, Anne B. Ragde, Hans Herbjørnsrud, Georg Johannesen, Dag Solstad, Karl Ove Knausgård, Beate Grimsrud). Ellen Rees, Cabins in Modern Norwegian Literature. Negotiating Place and Identity, Madison, Fairleigh Dickinson U.P., 197 pp., draws upon Foucault’s concept of heterotopia and analyses the use and meaning of cabins in the literature of, among others, Henrik A. Bjerregaard, Camilla Collett, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Henrik Ibsen, Knut Hamsun, Henrik Wergeland, Maurits Hansen, Sigurd Hoel, Gunnar Larsen, Per Petterson, Dag Solstad and Erlend Loe. Love and Modernity — Scandinavian Literature, Drama and Letters. Essays in Honour of Professor Janet Garton, ed. Claire Thomson and Elettra Carbone, London, Norvik, 382 pp., is a festschrift focusing on different representations of love in Scandinavian literature. Contributions on Norwegian literature include chapters on Henrik Ibsen, Amalie Skram, Sigrid Undset, Arne Garborg, Knut Hamsun and Cecilie Løveid. True North. Literary Translation in the Nordic Countries, ed. B. J. Epstein, Newcastle, Cambridge Scholars, 300 pp., examines literary translation practice in Scandinavia throughout history. The contributions on Norwegian literature include the Swedish translation of Johan Falkberget’s Christianus Sextus, the new Penguin edition of Henrik Ibsen’s works, and a diachronic investigation of the Norwegian translations of Snorri Sturluson’s Heimskringla. Jonas Bakken, ‘Disputaser i Edda gjennom hundre år’, Edda 3:241–54, is a critical survey of the doctoral dissertations published in Edda during its first hundred years. As such, it is a valuable contribution to a future history of the field of Scandinavian Studies in Norway. 2. Tenth to Sixteenth Centuries Sverre Bagge, ‘Hákonar saga Ívarssonar — en kompilasjon fra senmiddelalderen’, MM, 2:1–17, argues that this saga is based on the corpus of the saga of the Norwegian kings (Heimskringla) and therefore a late compilation, probably the work of Snorri Sturluson. Haukur Þorgeirsson, ‘Snorri Versus the Copyists: An Investigation of a Stylistic Trait in the Manuscript Traditions of Egils Saga, Heimskringla and the Prose Edda’, Saga-Book, 38:61–74, deals in part with possible interferences in the tradition of the Norwegian kings’ sagas. Norwegian Literature 449 3. Seventeenth to Mid-Nineteenth Centuries General. Ellen Krefting, Aina Nøding and Mona Ringvej, En pokkers skrivesyge. 1700- tallets dansk-norske tidsskrifter mellom sensur og ytringsfrihet, Oslo, Scandinavian Academic Press, 345 pp., is a ground-breaking history of the periodical press in Denmark-Norway in the 18th century. Although the focus is not strictly literary and the authors are mainly concerned with issues related to censorship and the freedom of the press, the book includes several discussions of the literary texts (for instance by Ludvig Holberg) published in these periodicals. Kritikk før 1814. 1700-tallets politiske og litterære offentlighet, ed. Eivind Tjønneland, Oslo, Dreyer, 639 pp., is a comprehensive survey of cultural and literary criticism in Northern Europe in the 18th century. It includes contributions on Norwegian authors such as Ludvig Holberg (three articles), Maurits Hansen, Claus Fasting, as well as on censorship and freedom of the press in Denmark-Norway. Jostein Fet, Stemmer frå ei fjern tid. Forteljingar om bøker, viser, magiske formlar og merkelege teikn 1550–1814, Oslo, Samlaget, 325 pp., is a collection of studies on book history focusing on the Norwegian West coast in the 16th to 19th centuries. Most notably, the author focuses on religious texts and folk ballads. Although the book lacks homogeneity, it is an interesting contribution to the still underdeveloped field of book history in Norway. Annegret Heitmann, ‘Til Ostindien eller St. Croix. Circulation og kosmopolitisme i 1700-tallets dramatik’, Edda 2:120–30, focuses on a corpus of little known Dano-Norwegian plays of the 18th c., and, focusing on the concept of ‘circulation’, sheds light on the transnational and colonial implications of drama arising at the dawn of globalization. Holberg, Ludvig. Historikeren Ludvig Holberg, ed. Jørgen Magnus Sejersted and Seb- astian Olden-Jørgensen, Oslo, Scandinavian Academic Press, 442 pp., is a solid collection of studies on Holberg’s historiographical works. It also includes references to his literary production, most notably Niels Klim. Pål Bjørby, ‘En vis skribent. F. Poulain de la Barre (1647–1723) og hans tre cartensianske forsvar for kvinnen som hovedkilden til “feminismen” i L. Holbergs dikt Zille Hans Dotter Gynaicologia’, Edda, 3: 222–37, is a proto-feminist analysis of H.’s poem. Michael Rasmussen, ‘Tale og fornuft i Erasmus Montanus’, Nordica, 31:17–40, is a study of logic and rhetoric in H.’s play. Other contributions on Holberg include Kristoffer Schmidt, *‘Ludvig Holberg og fejden med Johann Arckenholtz’, Fund og forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks samlinger, 53:113–43. Wergeland, Henrik. Barbro Bredesen Opset, ‘French Toilets and Wergeland’s Flowers: The Making of a Contemporary Norwegian National Monument’, pp. 185–213 of Globalization in Literature, ed. Per Thomas Andersen, Bergen, Fagbokforlaget, 245 pp., focuses, among other things, on the building of W.’s house in 2005. It is not a literary study, but may be an interesting contribution for the scholar wishing to investigate his legacy and position in today’s cultural debate. 4. Mid-Nineteenth to Mid-Twentieth Centuries General. Finn Tveito, Løgn og litteratur. Bruk av løgner i litteraturen og i det sosiale livet, Oslo, Novus, 194 pp., includes short chapters on the motives for lying in Arne Garborg’s novels Bondestudentar and Mannfolk and in Henrik Ibsen’s plays Et dukkehjem, Gengangere and Vildanden. The analysis, though, is somewhat superficial. Joen Bille, Villa Ibsen — min mormors hus. En familiekrønike, Copenhagen, Gyldendal, 328 pp., is a family history written by Ibsen’s and Bjørnson’s great-grandchild, focused on the villa they owned in Northern Italy. While not an academic biography, it links the lives of a number of important figures in Norwegian literature .