Markus Floris Christensen. Anxiety in Modern Scandinavian Literature: August Strindberg, Inger Christensen, Karl Ove Knausgård. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2024. Pp. 224.

Jon Helt Haarder: “The Hole in the 00s: In and Out of Art with Performative Biographism”The hole mentioned in the title refers to the breaking down of barriers between art and life. This project of the historical avant-garde as it has resurfaced in the relational art practices of the 1990s is used as one way of framing a dominating trend in Scandinavian literature around the turn of the century: “Performative biographism” is suggested as a label for the widespread use of biographical or autobiographical material for artistic purposes. Authors and texts treated or mentioned include work by Peter Høeg, Suzanne Brøgger, Jørgen Leth, Das Bechwerk, Carina Rydberg, Karl Ove Knausgård, Kristian Ditlev Jensen, Knud Romer, Kim Leine – and August Strindberg.

The literature of Scandinavia is amazingly rich and varied, consisting of the works produced by the countries of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland, and stretching from the ancient Norse Sagas to the present day. While much of it is unknown outside of the region, some has gained worldwide popularity, including the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen, the stories of Isak Dinesen, and the plays of Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg. While obviously including the area's most famous works, the Historical Dictionary of Scandinavian Literature and Theater also provides information on lesser known authors and currents trends, literary circles and journals, and historical background. This is accomplished through a list of acronyms, a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and several hundred cross-referenced dictionary entries, which together make this reference the most comprehensive and up to date work of its kind related to Scandinavian literature and theater available anywhere.

"August Strindberg, World Historical Plays. Translated From the Swedish by Arvid Paulson. Introduction by Gunnar Ollén. (The Library of Scandinavian Literature, Volume 6, Erik J. Friis, General editor)." The Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory, 47(4), p. 305

In 1897 August Strindberg, almost fifty years old, embarked on one of the great comebacks in the history of literature. For six years he had lived as an exile in Germany, Austria, and France. Though more than twenty years earlier he had earned a place in Scandinavian literature, the general view in Sweden was that he was finished, his career over. Then, with the publication of Inferno, the novel that described some of the most harrowing experiences of his exile years, he returned swiftly to the center of Swedish literary life. In Out of Harry G. Carlson analyzes the reasons for Strindberg's collapse and subsequent reemergence as an influential modern writer.Strindberg's early success was as a realist, or Naturalist, writer in the 1870s and 1880s. Astute and politically conscious, Strindberg emphasized social relevance in his art. At the same time, however, he instinctively trusted his highly inventive visions. The tensions and contradictions between realist and dreamer ultimately helped precipitate the collapse of his career in the Inferno years.Carlson explores Strindberg's struggle to redefine both his art and himself as an artist, and the influence on him of various intellectual trends in fin de siecle Berlin and Paris--occultism, alchemy, Orientalism, medievalism. After declaring himself finished with drama and fiction, Strindberg turned to an old love, painting, and sought out friends in avant-garde circles, among them Munch and Gauguin. His renewed interest in painting and in experiments in the powers of the visual imagination laid the groundwork for the radical experimentation of his later drama. In the extraordinary atmosphere of artistic ferment in Berlin and Paris, Strindberg's always sensitive visual imagination became recharged with energy, and the writer was inspired to return to work. The results in plays like To Damascus, A Dream Play, The Dance of Death, Erik XIV, and The Ghost Sonata amounted to a vision of drama that helped change the course of the modern theatre.

Modern Scandinavian Literature in Translation at the University of Nebraska Press

Anxiety in Modern Scandinavian Literature

Nation and sacrifice