The Norwegian Cabin in Christian Valeur’s Steffen tar sin del av ansvaret

Abstract

"The Norwegian Cabin in Christian Valeur’s Steffen tar sin del av ansvaret. The purpose of this article is to provide an analysis of the representation of the hytte or the Norwegian cabin in Christian Valeur’s 2009 novel Steffen tar sin del av ansvaret (“Steffen Takes His Share of the Responsibility”). Discussing the topos of the hytte, I seek to show how the novel offers a commentary on the Norwegian cabin tradition in the context of the climate crisis in particular and, more generally, on the paradoxical ideas of closeness to nature through consumerism. Drawing on Ellen Rees’s study about cabins in Norwegian literature (2014) and understanding this locus as a heterotopia (Foucault 1986), I discuss how the cabin ironically loses its value of being an “environmentally friendly” form of dwelling, and therefore cannot accomplish its potential role as a heterotopia of compensation. On the other hand, the cabin becomes a place of refuge and self-reflection for the narrator and therefore functions as a heterotopia of crisis. Finally, I suggest we can read the novel in relation to the hyttebok (“cabin book”) conventions, underlining the satirical and subversive nature of the novel towards ecological attitudes in Norwegian society. In this way, I aim to propose a new interpretation of the novel as a work of climate fiction. Keywords: Norwegian cabin, heterotopia, Christian Valeur, hyttebok, climate fiction."