Literary impressionisms. Resonances of Impressionism in Swedish and Finland-Swedish Prose 1880-1900

This book aims to locate and draw out resonances of impressionism in Swedish and Finland-Swedish prose at the end of the nineteenth century, a field hitherto overlooked in the critical debate on literary impressionism. In order to frame the many alternative approaches to this issue, it examines the use of the term ‘literary impressionism’ not only on the Scandinavian scene but also in an international context. By focussing on three landmark discussions in the Nordic countries (Herman Bang, the Kristiania Bohème, August Strindberg), an inclusive, wide-ranging Scandinavian understanding of the relationship between impressionism and literature is advanced. The texts chosen for closer scrutiny disclose this extensive interpretation of impressionist writing: Helena Westermarck’s short story Aftonstämning (Evening Mood) from 1890 is read as an example of interart transposition, Stella Kleve’s novels and short stories are seen as indicative of the narrative modes of a literary impressionism drawing on scenic representation, but also present textual features such as the ‘metonymic mode’ and ‘delayed decoding’, elements that are central to the international approach to impressionist prose. The concluding analysis of fictional impressionists in the works of authors such as Gustaf af Geijerstam, Mathilda Roos, and Georg Nordensvan sketches a many-sided portrait of the impressionist painter while remaining true to this study’s pluralistic approach by including a discussion of K.A. Tavaststjerna’s Impressionisten (The Impressionist) from 1892, whose protagonist is not an artist but a hypersensitive, impressionable subject. This last section also investigates how fiction is used to convey a critical discussion of the means and methods of painterly impressionism, as well as the function of the use of the visual arts in these texts

Moses revisited. August Strindberg’s and Edvard Munch’s dramatic use of the figure of Moses

In this essay I explore the literary interpretation of the figure of Moses in August Strindberg’s and Edvard Munch’s contemporary plays, Genom öknar till arvland (Through Deserts to Ancestral Lands, 1903) and Den fri Kjærligheds By (The City of Free Love, ca. 1905). In the first case, the focus is on the examination of Moses as an archetypical character. Analogies are subsequently drawn between the biblical hero and other dramatic characters in the production of the Swedish playwright, such as Gustav Vasa or Birger jarl. In the latter case, I outline the strategy for a parodic reuse of the biblical source in Munch’s invention of a modern Moses created to mock his fellow painter and maestro Christian Krohg and the bohemian ideal of free love. Although the qualities of the Moses character take on different and opposite meanings in the two authors, it is of interest that the issue of a return to the common heritage of biblical culture should make itself evident in the years following both Strindberg’s and Munch’s farewell to the secular milieus of the Bohème

Bridges to Scandinavia

This volume is the final output of a project started in 2013 on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the Scandinavian Section of the University of Milan. A group of scholars working on different European and non-European cultural and literary traditions come together here to discuss the relationships between their areas of study and the Nordic countries. The range of the contributions expands over time and space, from the Middle Ages to the present day, from Poland in the east to the United States in the west, across various European countries. Through various kinds of expertise and different perspectives, this intercultural discourse deals with diverse themes, including the perception of Nordic culture(s) by foreign writers as well as the image of other cultures in Scandinavian works. In particular, the literary and cultural interchange of models and ideas between the North and other areas is investigated in a number of essays devoted to numerous authors, including, among others, Klaus Böldl, Carmen de Burgos, Carlo Emilio Gadda, Gerhart Hauptmann, Henrik Ibsen, Stieg Larsson, Carl von Linné, Rainer Maria Rilke, J.D. Salinger, Henryk Sienkiewicz, Mme de Staël, August Strindberg, and Tomas Tranströmer

The Play With Genre: Knut Hamsun’s 'I Æventyrland'

The purpose of this study is to explore Knut Hamsun’s I Æventyrland. Oplevet og drømt i Kaukasien (1903) as a text that interacts with some of the structural elements specific to the genre of travel literature. I have limited the investigation to the writer’s use of comparative rhetoric on a formal level, and to the function of conventional character types, with respect to content. The evaluation of these aspects of the narrative is undertaken with the aim of highlighting Hamsun’s awareness of and engagement with the tradition of travel writing and his talent for challenging its norms

The Play With Genre: Knut Hamsun’s ''I Æventyrland'' (1903)

The purpose of this study is to explore Knut Hamsun’s I Æventyrland. Oplevet og drømt i Kaukasien (1903) as a text that interacts with some of the structural elements specific to the genre of travel literature. I have limited the investigation to the writer’s use of comparative rhetoric on a formal level, and to the function of conventional character types, with respect to content. The evaluation of these aspects of the narrative is undertaken with the aim of highlighting Hamsun’s awareness of and engagement with the tradition of travel writing and his talent for challenging its norms

Into the Blue. The Visualization of Building Walls and Transgressing Borders in Scandorama by Hannele MikaelaTaivassalo and Catherine Anyango Grünewald

This essay examines Scandorama, a graphic novel from 2018 scripted bythe Finland-Swedish writer Hannele Mikaela Taivassalo and drawn by the Kenyan-Swedish artist Catherine Anyango Grünewald. The work is read as a comment tounsettling trends in contemporary Scandinavia such as rising nationalisms, antiimmigrantsentiments, and the destruction of nature. Special attention is given to howthe issues of building walls and transgressing borders are recorded not only on averbal level but, first and foremost, to the ways in which these concerns are entrustedto the visual code of comics. It is argued that the chromatic structure employed in thebook creates a visual subtext expressing the dystopian theme embedded inScandorama. Through the use of a single colour, blue, in a monochrome storyworld,the idea of erecting walls and transgressing borders is backed up and expressed in atleast three contexts investigated in the article: (1) ‘othering’; (2) architecture; (3) bodyand mind. Here, the dramaturgical potential of colour combines with motives such asgovernment surveillance, loss of individualism, genetic engineering, futuristictechnology, environmental destruction, and urban settings to produce a dystopian‘blueprint’.This essay examines Scandorama, a graphic novel from 2018 scripted bythe Finland-Swedish writer Hannele Mikaela Taivassalo and drawn by the Kenyan-Swedish artist Catherine Anyango Grünewald. The work is read as a comment tounsettling trends in contemporary Scandinavia such as rising nationalisms, antiimmigrantsentiments, and the destruction of nature. Special attention is given to howthe issues of building walls and transgressing borders are recorded not only on averbal level but, first and foremost, to the ways in which these concerns are entrustedto the visual code of comics. It is argued that the chromatic structure employed in thebook creates a visual subtext expressing the dystopian theme embedded inScandorama. Through the use of a single colour, blue, in a monochrome storyworld,the idea of erecting walls and transgressing borders is backed up and expressed in atleast three contexts investigated in the article: (1) ‘othering’; (2) architecture; (3) bodyand mind. Here, the dramaturgical potential of colour combines with motives such asgovernment surveillance, loss of individualism, genetic engineering, futuristictechnology, environmental destruction, and urban settings to produce a dystopian‘blueprint’

Forme di narrazione autobiografica nelle letterature scandinave. Forms of Autobiographical Narration in Scandinavian Literature

Il volume raccoglie 24 contributi di studiosi italiani e stranieri di scandinavistica sul tema della narrazione autobiografica. I testi trattati vanno dal Cinquecento all'età contemporanea e appartengono alle letterature danese, norvegese, svedese e svedese di Finlandia. I contributi sono scritti per buona parte in inglese, una parte in italiano, alcuni in svedese e norvegese. Tutti sono provvisti di abstract in inglese. Il volume è preceduto da un'introduzione, scritta sia in italiano sia in inglese, che inquadra i contributi all'interno della riflessione teorica internazionale e scandinava sull'autobiografia. Dei quattro curatori, tre sono anche autori, mentre Andrea Meregalli figura solo come co-curatore

Dante nelle letterature straniere

Il volume offre un incrocio di sguardi critici sulle rotte percorse dall’opera dantesca nelle letterature straniere. A settecento anni dalla sua morte, la voce di Dante continua a oltrepassare confini permeando immaginari lontani, in un incedere di evocazioni, traduzioni, interpretazioni e riscritture. I venti saggi qui presentati tratteggiano un itinerario di esplorazione delle tracce dantesche nelle tradizioni letterarie di Albania, Svezia, Francia, Cuba, Polonia, Stati Uniti, Germania, Argentina, Danimarca, Scozia, Inghilterra e Messico. Le diverse latitudini abbracciate si articolano in una raccolta di studi che dall’epoca moderna confluisce nell’estremo contemporaneo, calibrando nuovi orizzonti e prospettive nello sconfinato territorio della critica dantesca. Gli autori e le autrici illuminano storie di ricezione, riletture e dialoghi intertestuali nei quali la memoria della Commedia si riconfigura in un’inesauribile pluralità di scritture, di cui si intende consegnare in queste pagine uno sguardo di carattere esplorativo e non antologico. La parola di Dante attraversa lingue e universi letterarioculturali senza tradirsi ma conoscendo nuove fioriture: confermandosi una parola necessaria, profetica e viva

Literary Impressionisms

This book aims to locate and draw out resonances of impressionism in Swedish and Finland-Swedish prose at the end of the nineteenth century, a field hitherto overlooked in the critical debate on literary impressionism. In order to frame the many alternative approaches to this issue, it examines the use of the term ‘literary impressionism’ not only on the Scandinavian scene but also in an international context. By focussing on three landmark discussions in the Nordic countries (Herman Bang, the Kristiania Bohème, August Strindberg), an inclusive, wide-ranging Scandinavian understanding of the relationship between impressionism and literature is advanced. The texts chosen for closer scrutiny disclose this extensive interpretation of impressionist writing: Helena Westermarck’s short story Aftonstämning (Evening Mood) from 1890 is read as an example of interart transposition, Stella Kleve’s novels and short stories are seen as indicative of the narrative modes of a literary impressionism drawing on scenic representation, but also present textual features such as the ‘metonymic mode’ and ‘delayed decoding’, elements that are central to the international approach to impressionist prose. The concluding analysis of fictional impressionists in the works of authors such as Gustaf af Geijerstam, Mathilda Roos, and Georg Nordensvan sketches a many-sided portrait of the impressionist painter while remaining true to this study’s pluralistic approach by including a discussion of K.A. Tavaststjerna’s Impressionisten (The Impressionist) from 1892, whose protagonist is not an artist but a hypersensitive, impressionable subject. This last section also investigates how fiction is used to convey a critical discussion of the means and methods of painterly impressionism, as well as the function of the use of the visual arts in these texts