An emigrant’s attempt to recover lost names: Aksel Sandemose’s “What’s Gone is a Dream”

Abstract

During the years of World War II, the Danish-Norwegian writer Aksel Sandemose (1899–1965) wrote the novel “Det svunde er un drøm” (“What’s Gone Is A Dream”), which in 1944 was published in Swedish and in 1945 in Danish. It is one of the most interesting Scandinavian novels of the mid 20th century. and is an artistic reflection of the feelings of a Norwegian thirty years after his emigration to America. The author pays a lot of attention to character names and their transformations (Johanes Torsen becomes John Torson) as well as to their associative connections – their strategic choice (Agnes, Susan) adds to the meaning of the work of literature. The aim of the article is to investigate the novel “What’s Gone Is A Dream” from the standpoint of literary antroponymy. The investigation has been performed using the analytical and hermeneutic method referring to research carried out in the field of literary antroponymy. The article consists of three parts. The first surveys the field of literary antroponymy. The second investigates the process of name retrieval that John Torson gets immersed in when back in Norway. The third part of the article analyzes the name transformation of people once dear to the protagonist. We disclose the motives of the protagonist’s choice to change his own first and second names which endows him with a new, American identity and, consequently, takes him away from his Norwegian origin. However, by admitting his former Norwegian servant Carlsson, now Carl, bearing a typical Scandinavian name, as a friend and a life companion (the shortened name of the latter sounds like a nickname) he seems to regain his original identity, and the two form a small Norwegian community. The character names (Agnes, Susan) of the novel have semantic connotations and the author plays with their primary meaning and transformations. [...]