Nordic Literature: A comparative history
Volume II: Figural nodes
e-Book – Open Access
ISBN 9789027243522
Nordic Literature: A comparative history is a two-volume comparative analysis of the literature of the Nordic region. Bringing together the literature of Finland, continental Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Sápmi), and the insular region (Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands), each volume of this two-volume project adopts a new frame through which one can recognize and analyze significant nodes of literary practice. Stretching existing notions of temporally linear, nationally centered literary history, this approach allows questions of internal regional similarities and differences to emerge more strongly. This second volume, Figural nodes, devotes its attention to the prominent figural clusters in literature by Nordic writers from medieval to contemporary times. Organized around various figurations of affect, need, detachment, and embodiment, this volume examines the productive historical contingency of the “North” as a literary space through nationally juxtaposed and comparative synthetic analysis.
[Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages, 38] Expected December 2026. xix, 914 pp. + index
Publishing status: In production
© John Benjamins B.V. / Association Internationale de Littérature Comparée
To be made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].
Table of Contents
- List of contributors | pp. xi–xii
- List of figures | pp. xiii–xvi
- Acknowledgements | pp. xvii–xviii
- Preliminary bibliographic notes | pp. xix–xx
- Volume introductionLinda Haverty Rugg and Karin Sanders | pp. 1–17
- Figures of affect
- Figures of affect: Melancholy
- MelancholyKarin Sanders | pp. 21–29
- Nordic Noir: Insanity and imagination in Melancholy literatureKjersti Bale | pp. 30–44
- Lyrical melancholia in Swedish literatureAnders Olsson | pp. 45–64
- Figures of affect: Anxiety
- AnxietyKarin Sanders | pp. 66–74
- Anxiety as a creative force and limit: Pär Lagerkvist, Birgitta Trotzig, and Lars NorénCarin Franzén | pp. 75–90
- Imaginary Edens and Inner Hells: Anxiety and the imaginary in Danish literatureJacob Bøggild | pp. 91–104
- Figures of affect: Shame
- ShameKarin Sanders | pp. 106–112
- Faces of shame in Danish and Norwegian literature: From Saxo to Karl Ove KnausgårdGorm Larsen | pp. 113–131
- Figures of need
- Figures of need: Intoxication
- IntoxicationLinda Haverty Rugg | pp. 135–141
- Intoxication in Scandinavian literatureLars Lönnroth | pp. 142–155
- The traveling figure of intoxication in Finnish literatureKati Launis | pp. 156–169
- The word is the drug: Intoxicating Swedish poetriesJesper Olsson | pp. 170–196
- Figures of need: Food
- FoodLinda Haverty Rugg | pp. 198–206
- Tantalizing food: Figures of fasting and freedomMads Julius Elf | pp. 207–225
- Food and famine in Norwegian literatureHenning Howlid Wærp | pp. 226–245
- Real and symbolic food in Finnish literatureSiru Kainulainen | pp. 246–258
- Figures of need: Belief
- BeliefLinda Haverty Rugg | pp. 260–266
- The locus of truth: From religious to literary confessionThomas Götselius | pp. 267–284
- The secularist tone and narrator in Nordic literatureThomas A. DuBois | pp. 285–297
- Freethinkers and figures of faith in Nordic Literature of the nineteenth centuryDean Krouk | pp. 298–313
- Figures of need: Sex
- SexKarin Sanders | pp. 315–322
- Sex in Nordic literature 1870–2000Janet Garton | pp. 323–343
- Transformations of the strong womanKukku Melkas | pp. 344–355
- Gender, sexuality, and violence in Finnish literature, 1970s–2010sSanna Karkulehto | pp. 356–371
- Figures of need: Work
- WorkLinda Haverty Rugg | pp. 373–378
- Creativity in Old Norse literatureJohn Lindow | pp. 379–393
- Creativity and work in Swedish working-class literatureAnna Williams | pp. 394–407
- Work as a socially and politically invested figuration in Finnish literatureJussi Ojajärvi | pp. 408–434
- Figures of detachment
- Figures of detachment: Home
- HomeMark B. Sandberg | pp. 437–452
- Trouble at Hjarðarholt: The figure of the home/interior in Old Norse literatureCarl Olsen | pp. 453–471
- Disfiguring the homeMark B. Sandberg | pp. 472–489
- The Coziness and Grimness of the Nordic welfare homeAnne-Marie Mai | pp. 490–504
- Figures of detachment: Exile
- ExileLinda Haverty Rugg | pp. 506–513
- Exile in Finnish literatureJyrki Nummi | pp. 514–536
- Exile in Faroese literatureMalan Marnersdóttir | pp. 537–550
- “No prophet is accepted in his own country”: Modernity and exile in Nordic literatureSusan C. Brantly | pp. 551–561
- Figures of detachment: Suicide
- SuicideLinda Haverty Rugg | pp. 563–568
- Suicide and the SagasTerry Gunnell | pp. 569–591
- The broken heart of modernity: Suicide in Modern Scandinavian literatureLisbeth Larsson | pp. 592–609
- Figures of detachment: Solitude
- SolitudeKarin Sanders | pp. 611–619
- Scenes of solitudeDan Ringgaard | pp. 620–636
- Solitude and lonelinessLisbeth P. Wærp | pp. 637–655
- Figures of detachment: Silence
- SilenceKarin Sanders | pp. 657–665
- Revaluations of silence: Configuring reticent protagonists in Old Norse and related textsJonas Wellendorf | pp. 666–683
- “En svensk tiger”: Silence and Spoken Violence in Scandinavian LiteratureUlf Olsson | pp. 684–698
- The silence of groups: Re-thinking “The Silent Finn”Petri Ruuska | pp. 699–709
- Embodied figures
- Embodied figures: Children
- ChildrenLinda Haverty Rugg | pp. 713–724
- The autonomous child in Scandinavian children’s literatureKristin Ørjasæter | pp. 725–739
- Innocents abroad: The autonomous child in hans christian andersen’s fairy talesJulie K. Allen | pp. 740–752
- Dreaming childhood, dreaming society, dreaming Sweden: The autonomous child in the welfare stateKarin Nykvist | pp. 753–769
- Vitalism, oblivion, and youth in turn-of-the-century Danish literatureAnders Ehlers Dam | pp. 770–781
- Growing up in concrete: Literary figurations of Scandinavian housing projectsJon Helt Haarder | pp. 782–793
- Embodied figures: Strangers
- StrangersKarin Sanders | pp. 795–801
- Strangers and other others in early Johannes V. JensenJan Rosiek | pp. 802–812
- Strangers among usOlli Löytty | pp. 813–828
- Embodied figures: Community
- CommunityNathaniel Kramer and Christopher Oscarson | pp. 830–844
- Folklore, community, and the individualTimothy R. Tangherlini | pp. 845–869
- Configuring the proletarian collectiveChristopher Oscarson | pp. 870–888
- From individual to community: Collective narration in three Nordic novelsNathaniel Kramer | pp. 889–907
- EpilogueMark B. Sandberg | pp. 909–914