Swedish Literature

V

Realism and Naturalism

From the middle of the 19th century writers in Sweden became more concerned with social issues. Fiction from this time, which describes life as it is, generally falls into the category of realism. Fredrika Bremer, best known for her novel Hertha (1856; The Four Sisters, 1856), described middle-class life and the legal inferiority of women. Victoria Benedictsson, who wrote under the pseudonym Ernst Ahlgren, exposed the fate of women in a male-dominated society in the novel Pengar (Money, 1885).

The dominating figure of modern Swedish literature was August Strindberg. Although he wrote novels, he is best known as a master of naturalistic drama. (Naturalism, as compared with realism, involves an effort to apply scientific theories to literary discussions of social problems.) Strindberg’s first major play was Mäster Olof (1872; Master Olof, 1915). In the play he treated Sweden’s national heroes Olaus Petri and Gustav Vasa as humans rather than as legends, which at first made the play unacceptable for performance. Nor was the moralistic climate in Sweden easy to break through for Strindberg. His great naturalistic play Fröken Julie (1888; Miss Julie, 1913) was performed in Paris long before its Swedish premiere in 1906. In the play’s sex and class warfare, the lower-class man emerges the victor on both counts.

Strindberg also experimented with new dramatic techniques, resulting in works such as Ett drömspel (1902; A Dream Play, 1912) that inspired expressionist theater (Expressionism). The numerous characters and scenes in A Dream Play are loosely associated as if in a dream. During this period Strindberg wrote a group of works called chamber plays that are notable for their economy of character and setting. Spökssonaten (1907; The Ghost Sonata, 1912) and Pelikanen (1907; The Pelican, 1912) belong to the chamber plays.

The 1890s and early 20th century brought a revival of romanticism and a new interest in Swedish history and rural life. Neoromantics included the poets Gustaf Fröding, Erik Axel Karlfeldt, and Verner von Heidenstam and the novelist Selma Lagerlöf. Fröding’s Gitarr och Dragharmonika (1891; Guitar and Concertina, 1925) contains poetry of both mirth and melancholy. In later poetry he describes his struggle against madness. Karlfeldt idealized closeness to nature and simple life in Fridolins visor (Fridolin’s Songs, 1898); he received the Nobel Prize in literature in 1931. Lagerlöf, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1909, is best known for her historical novel Gösta Berlings saga (1891; The Story of Gösta Berling, 1898) and her children’s tale Nils Holgerssons underbara resa (2 volumes, 1906-1907; The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, 1907). In Gösta Berlings saga she created a romantic hero in a fallen priest who loves pleasure but repents through love. A later children’s writer who won an international audience was Astrid Lindgren, best known for Pippi Långstrump (1945; Pippi Longstocking, 1950).

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Outstanding in the generation after Lagerlöf were the poet Birger Sjöberg; Per August Leonard Hallström, short-story writer, dramatist, and poet; Hjalmar Söderberg, who wrote novels, dramas, and short stories; the poet Bo Bergman; and Hjalmar Bergman, a versatile and psychologically acute novelist.

Among the “proletarian” novelists who portrayed Swedish working-class life were Ivar Lo-Johansson and Vilhelm Moberg, author of four novels about Swedish immigration to America during the 19th century. Moberg’s epics were turned into the motion pictures The Emigrants (1971) and The New Land (1972). Eyvind Johnson and Harry Martinson, who shared the 1974 Nobel Prize in literature, both wrote autobiographical novels. Leading midcentury poets included Erik Lindegren, Gunnar Ekelöf, and Artur Lundkvist. The outstanding figure of the period was Pär Lagerkvist, a poet, dramatist, and novelist whose work is concerned with the erosion of traditional religious and social values in the modern world. Variations on this theme appear in the story Det eviga leendet (1920; The Eternal Smile, 1934) and the autobiographical Gäst hos verkligheten (1925; Guest of Reality, 1936). In Dvärgen (1944; The Dwarf, 1945) he portrayed evil. Humanity’s need for God is the theme of two of Lagerkvist’s most important works, Barabbas (1950; translated 1951) and Sibyllan (1956; The Sibyl, 1958). Lagerkvist was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1951.

Among the major novelists who emerged in the 1940s were Lars Ahlin, Lars Gyllensten, and Stig Dagerman, all of whom combined formal virtuosity with existential themes. Ahlin broke a 20-year silence in 1982 when he published, with his wife, the historical novel Hannibal-segraren (Hannibal-The Victor), an exploration of the dynamics of a man’s search for power. The historical novel, an important element in recent Swedish fiction, was further developed by Birgitta Trotzig and Sven Delblanc. Delblanc is the author of the Hedeby series, published in the 1970s, a brilliant sequence of novels about the transformation of rural Sweden during the 1930s and 1940s.

Also important are Kerstin Ekman’s historical novels beginning with Häxringarna (1974; Witches’ Rings, 1997). Ekman has become one of Sweden’s best-known mystery writers, and mysteries such as Händelser vid vatten (1993; Blackwater, 1995) have gained a wide audience in English translation. Henning Mankell’s popular mysteries featured the fictional Swedish police detective Kurt Wallander in a series published since 1991.

Per Olov Enquist, one of Sweden’s leading contemporary writers, offered a personal perspective on historical events in such novels as Livläkarens besök (1999; The Royal Physician’s Visit, 2001), a tale of madness, power, and love in the court of Danish king Christian VII, and Boken om Blanche och Marie (2004; The Book About Blanche and Marie, 2006), which concerns the relationship between Nobel Prize-winning scientist Marie Curie and her assistant Blanche Wittman, who was poisoned by radiation. The first novel of Göran Tunström to appear in English translation was Juloratoriet (1983; The Christmas Oratorio, 1995), a family saga that begins with a death in the 1930s.

Other writers prominent during the late 1900s wrote novels connected with contemporary social or political problems. P. C. Jersild is known for his grotesque satires about people caught in the welfare-state bureaucracy. His novel En levande själ (1980; A Living Soul, 1988) is about the life of a detached brain. Lars Gustafsson, a poet, novelist, and essayist, earned a doctorate in philosophy. Notable examples of his lyrical philosophical poetry appear in Världens tystnad före Bach (1983; The Stillness of the World Before Bach, 1988). He also writes quiet parables that probe the ability of people to understand the truth about themselves and their lives, as in Kakelsättares eftermiddag (1991; A Tiler’s Afternoon, 1993), which presents the meditations of an aging tile-layer during a day’s work, and Historien med hunden (1993; Tale of a Dog, 1999), which is narrated by a Texas bankruptcy judge.

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