Abstract

This reading of Lisa Strømme’s debut novel The Strawberry Girl (2016) is informed by Gérard Genette’s approach to literature as ”hypertextual,” by which the literary theorist means that any text evokes “some other literary work” (Palimpsests: Literature in the Second Degree 9). To weave the story of how Munch painted the first version of his iconic Skrik (The Scream) at Åsgårdstrand, Strømme read Munch’s journals, newspaper archives, an old memoir by a local woman, Inger Alver Gløersen, whose stepfather was a friend of Munch’s, she explored Munch events and exhibitions, Munch’s paintings, and she had talks with local people. Aside from these non-literary sources, the writer referenced Goethe’s Faust, the legend of Peer Gynt, the Poetic Edda, Dostoevsky, and she prefaced each chapter of the novel with a quote from Goethe’s Theory of Colours. This kind of multi-layered writing lends itself to what Genette calls, using Philippe Lejeune’s coinage, “a palimpsestuous reading” (399) done by readers whose barthesque “jouissance” leads them into the temptation of loving “(at least) two [texts] together” (399), and, in this case, a lot more than two, and not just texts, but also the enthralling art of painting, in a synesthetic experience.

Highlights

  • This reading of Lisa Strømme’s debut novel The Strawberry Girl (2016) is informed by Gérard Genette’s approach to literature as ”hypertextual,” by which the literary theorist means that any text evokes “some other literary work” (Palimpsests: Literature in the Second Degree 9)

  • Being fascinated by history and by the intriguing figure of the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, the British-born artist living in Norway sets the novel in Åsgårdstrand in 1893, the year when Munch painted the first version of The Scream

  • I further connect this chronotope with the fact that, by referencing media, literary and art sources, the novel is “hypertextual” and invites the reader “to engage in a relational reading,” which Gérard Genette calls “palimpsestuous” in his book Palimpsests: Literature in the Second Degree (399)

Read more

Summary

Introduction

This reading of Lisa Strømme’s debut novel The Strawberry Girl (2016) is informed by Gérard Genette’s approach to literature as ”hypertextual,” by which the literary theorist means that any text evokes “some other literary work” (Palimpsests: Literature in the Second Degree 9). Being fascinated by history and by the intriguing figure of the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, the British-born artist living in Norway sets the novel in Åsgårdstrand in 1893, the year when Munch painted the first version of The Scream.

Results
Conclusion
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call