Litteratur (Eng)
swedishPublished culture by the Swedish Institute August 2004 FS 114 c Modern Literature A whole century of Swedish literature necessarily encompasses numerous literary currents: folk romanticism, fl âneur literature, expressionism, bourgeois novels, surrealistic poetry, urbane portraits, social criticism, social realism, and accounts of the disintegration of the welfare state and the fragility of the individual. Some writers belonging to this literary scene have only one role to play, but a major one. Others reappear in several guises. Different voices from different epochs speak to us, loudly or softly, from “their” particular Sweden. 2 SWEDISH CULTURE MODERN LITERATURE TURN-OF-THE-CENTURY CURRENTS Hjalmar Bergman (1883–1931), one of Another social rebel was Ivar Lo- Two giants dominated Swedish literature the truly great storytellers of Swedish lit- Johansson (1901–1990) who became the at the turn of the 20th century: Selma La- erature, was both a novelist and a drama- dominant fi gure among Swedish proletari- gerlöf (1858–1940) and August Strindberg tist. One of his specialties was portraying an writers. He portrayed the cotters — poor (1849–1912), whose infl uence on narrative the evils of contemporary life in a carniva- farm laborers who were paid mainly in kind and drama has been felt ever since. Strind- lesque, entertaining way, as in his 1919 nov- — in such novels as Godnatt, jord (Break- berg’s Röda Rummet (The Red Room), 1879, el about small-town life, Markurells i Wad- ing Free), 1933, and he captured the big-city and Lagerlöf’s Gösta Berlings saga (Gösta köping (God’s Orchid). Farmor och vår herre mentality in novels like Kungsgatan (King’s Berling’s Saga), 1891, are considered the fi rst (Thy Rod and Thy Staff), 1921, and Clownen Street), 1935.
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