Runic inscriptions and a few poetic fragments
suggest that pre-Christian Sweden possessed a poetic tradition similar
to that of contemporary Iceland. The conversion to Christianity in the
11th century and the subsequent introduction of the Latin alphabet facilitated
the development of a native literature. The first important works in Swedish
were the provincial laws, recorded in the 13th century, whose narrative
style reflect epic and poetic conventions. Continental chivalric literature
was introduced in the beginning of the 14th century through translations
collected in the Eufemiavisor. Of greater literary value was the historical
romance Erikskrönikan ("The Chronicle of Erik") from the same period.
In addition to the secular literature in the vernacular, there was a substantial
body of religious writing in Latin. Most famous are St. Bridget's (1303-1373)
visions dealing with religious and political matters collected in Revelationes
Celestes (1492). Nationalistic sentiment inspired Bishop Thomas (d.
1443) to write his poem "Frihetsvisan" ("The Song of Liberty"), the earliest
example of mature poetry in Swedish.
In 1541, with Olaus Petri's (1493-1552)
translation of the Bible, the language assumed a distinct national character.
Johannes Messenius and Magnus Olai Asteropherus wrote dramatic works, but
their plays are far from the quality of European Renaissance drama. The
poets were more successful. These included Lars Wivallius (1605-1669),
who praised nature and liberty, and the religious poets Jesper Swedberg
and Haquin Spegel. Most important was George Stiernhielm, known for his
allegorical-didactic epic Hercules (1658), about a young man's choice between
Mrs. Pleasure and Mrs. Virtue. The poetic tradition continued with Lars
Johansson (pseud. Lucidor, 1638-1674) whose drinking songs, wedding poems,
and religious poetry were published after his death in Helicons blomster
(1688; "The Flowers of Helicon").
The
Age of Enlightenment
In this era of materialism and utilitarianism,
a modern Swedish language was established primarily in Olof von Dalin's
(1708-1763) periodical Then Swänska Argus (1723-1734) modeled
after the British The Tatler and The Spectator . It contained moralizing
but entertaining writing on domestic and politicial matters of the day.
Two scientists also contributed to the letters: the scientist and mystic
Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) wrote religious visions flavored by his
erotic temperament, and the botanist Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778) published
travelogues based upon his journeys throughout Sweden. Again, poets created
the most enduring literature. Gustav Philip Creutz (1731-1785) wrote Atis
och Camilla (1761) in graceful verse following classical ideals, and Hedvig
Charlotta Nordenflycht (1718-1763), transformed the woes of her own life
into passionate poetry. Johan Henrik Kellgren (1751-1795) began his career
as a radical materialist and ended it as a pre-romantic poet with a vision
of love as a power transforming the physical world. Anna Maria Lenngren
(1754-1818) wrote idyllic, satirical poetry about middle class domestic
life.
The greatest poet of the 18th century was
Carl Michael Bellman (1740-1795). His best known collection of poems,
Fredmans epistlar (1790), celebrates drink, love, and death. His lower
class, decrepit characters are given a mythical aura transcending their
social misery.
Romanticism. The romantic movement was inspired by German
idealistic philosophy, notably Schelling's pantheism. The leader of the
romantics was Per Daniel Amadeus Atterbom (1790-1885), whose play Lycksalighetens
ö (1824; "Isle of Bliss") is the most representative product of the
new movement. Most popular was Esaias Tegnér's (1782-1846) national
epic Frithiofs Saga (1820-1825), which is about love and honor among
the Vikings. The tradition of religious poetry was furthered by Johan Olof
Wallin (1779-1839), Sweden's greatest writer of hymns. The most gifted
of the romantic poets was Erik Johan Stagnelius (1793-1823). Erotic and
religious features merge in his collection of poems, Liljor i Saron (1821;
"Lilies of Sharon"), whose theme is the struggle between flesh and spirit.
His later work, inspired by folklore, has a tone of touching simplicity
as in "Näcken" ("The Neck"). Carl Jonas Love Almqvist (1793-1866)
started as a romantic in his prose work Amorina (1822), attacking the Church,
conventional morals, and marriage. He turned realist in the 1830's and
wrote short stories about the virtuous qualities in the common and poor
peoples. In his novel Det går an (1838; Sara Videbeck , 1919), he
advocated feminist ideas.
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Realism,
Naturalism, and Neoromanticism
From the middle of the 19th century, writers
became more concerned with social issues. Fredrika Bremer (1801-1865),
best known for her novel Hertha (1856; The Four Sisters , 1856), described
middle class life and the injustice of women's legal inferiority. Her travelogues
from the United States in the middle 1850's were widely appreciated. Victoria
Benedictsson (pseud. Ernst Ahlgren, 1850-1888) exposed the fate of woman
in a patriarchal society in the novel Pengar (1885; "Money"). The works
of Viktor Rydberg (1825-1895) fluctuated between romanticism, in his novel
Singoalla (1857; Singoalla, A Medieval Legend , 1903), and, in his poetry,
indignation over the brutal egotism of industrialism.
The dominant figure in modern Swedish literature
is August Strindberg (1849-1912). His novel Röda Rummet (1879;
The Red Room , 1913) is about the hypocrisy of the Church and the corruption
in business and bureaucracy. Other notable works by him include his autobiographical
tetralogy Tjänstekvinnans son (1886-1887; Son of a Servant , 1913)
and Hemsö borna (1887; The People of Hemsö , 1959), a humorous
novel about intrigues for money and love in a fishing community. In two
collections of short stories, Giftas (1884-1886; Married, 1917) he argued
that economic and biological factors prevent both men's and women's liberation.
In Inferno (1897; trans. 1968) he described the crisis that transformed
him from a heretic into a religious man.
But it is as a dramatist that Strindberg
is best known. His first major play was Mäster Olof (1872; Master
Olof , 1915). He treated the national heroes Olaus Petri and Gustav Vasa
as humans rather than legends, which at first made the play unacceptable
for the theater. Nor was it easy for Strindberg to break through the moralistic
climate in Sweden to have his great naturalistic play Fröken Julie
(1888; Miss Julie , 1913) performed or even published. The play was received
enthusiastically in Paris long before its Swedish premier in 1906. Strindberg
projected his personal conflicts into the play's sex and class warfare,
from which the stronger on both counts, the lower-class man, emerges victorious.
To the play belongs its equally famous preface, articulating a theory of
naturalistic drama and a demand for unity in time, place, and action. The
naturalistic Fadern (1889; The Father , 1907) belongs to the same period.
After the Inferno, however, Strindberg experimented with new dramatic techniques,
resulting in the type of drama that inspired the expressionist theater.
Best known among Strindberg's plays from this period is Ett drömspel
(1902; A Dream Play , 1912) with the Schopenhauerian leitmotif "Man is
to be pitied." A Dream Play is orchestrated with numerous characters
and scenes following each other loosely connected as in a dream. During
this period Strindberg also wrote a group of works called the "Chamber
Plays," which utilized great economy of character and setting. To the Chamber
Plays belong Spöksonaten (1907; The Ghost Sonata , 1912) and Pelikanen
(1907; The Pelican , 1912). Strindberg was a prolific writer who also produced
poetry, essays, and tales.
A neoromantic reaction was begun in the
1890's, exemplified by the poetry of Gustav Fröding (1860-1911). His
Gitarr och Dragharmonika (1891; Guitar and Concertina , 1925) contains
poetry of both mirth and melancholy. In later poetry he describes his struggle
against madness. Erik Axel Karlfeldt (1864-1931; Nobel Prize, 1931) idealized
closeness to nature and simple life in Fridolins visor (1898; "Fridolin's
Songs"). His later poetry was more complex and demoniac. Best known from
this period is Selma Lagerlöf (1850-1940; Nobel Prize, 1909) whose
novels were often based on folklore. In Gösta Berlings saga (1891;
trans. 1918) she created a romantic hero in the fallen priest who loves
pleasure but repents through love.
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The
20th Century
The novel became increasingly popular in
the 20th century. The feminist tradition continued with Elin Wägner's
(1882-1949) Pennskaftet (1910; "The Pen Holder"). Representing the bourgeois
novel was Hjalmar Söderberg (1868-1941), who expressed the prevailing
literary "decadent" mood in the lyrical disillusionment of Martin Birks
ungdom (1901; Martin Birck's Youth , 1930), and in his short stories. Hjalmar
Bergman (1883-1931) displayed comic genius in Markurells i Wadköping
(1919; God's Orchid , 1924) and penetrating psychology in Chefen fru Ingeborg
(1924; The Head of the Firm , 1936) about a middle-aged woman's passion
for a younger man. In his last novel, Clownen Jac (1930; "Jack, the
Clown"), Bergman comments ironically on himself as an artist.
In the late 1920's a group of self-educated
writers from the lower classes emerged, the "proletarian" authors. The
most prominent was Ivar Lo-Johansson (b. 1901) whose novels about poor
farmworkers helped improve their condition. He was still active in the
1970's, publishing collections of short stories about man's sins and a
series of autobiographies, notably Pubertet (1978; "Puberty"). Others were
Jan Fridegård (1897-1968) and Moa Martinsson (1890-1964). Eyvind
Johnson (1900-1976; Nobel Prize, 1974) came from the same class but his
novels had a more cosmopolitan direction. They are recognized for their
modern narrative technique. Notable among them are the tetralogy Romanen
om Olof (1934-1937; first part trans. as 1914, 1970), the Krilon trilogy
(1941-1943), and Strändernas svall (1946; Return to Ithaca , 1952).
Another important proletarian author was Wilhelm Moberg (1898-1973), known
for novels and plays critical of society and for his epics about the emigrants
to America.
A group of five poets appeared in 1929,
representing modernistic yet also primitivistic trends. Most important
was Harry Martinson (1904-1978; Nobel Prize, 1974), also a major novelist
and essayist. Spökskepp (1929; "Ghostship"), Passad (1945; "Trade
Winds"), and Tuvor (1976; "Tussocks") provide a good cross section of his
poetic development. Existential anxiety triggered by World War II
is reflected in the poetry of Erik Lindegren (1910-1968), whose Mannen
utan väg (1942; The Man Without a Way , 1969) stands as a milestone
for the "new poetry" of alienated man. Other important poets were Artur
Lundkvist (b. 1906), Karl Vennberg (b. 1910), and Gunnar Ekelöf (1907-1968).
Contemporary trends are displayed in Tomas Tranströmer's (b. 1931)
nature poems and in Goran Sonnevi's (b. 1939) poems of political awareness.
Lars Gustafsson (b. 1936), also a major novelist, writes outstanding lyrical
philosophical poetry, notably in Världens tystnad efter Bach (1983;
"The Silence of the World After Bach"). Sonja kesson (1926-1977) represents
modern feminist poetry.
The central figure in 20th-century Swedish
literature is the poet, dramatist, and novelist Pär Lagerkvist (1891-1974;
Nobel Prize, 1951). His major theme is the modern world stripped of traditional
religious and social values. Variations on this theme can be found 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 portrays evil. Man's need for God is the theme
of two of Lagerkvist's finest works, Barabbas (1950; trans. 1951) and Sibyllan
(1956; The Sibyl , 1958).
In the middle 1940's, a new aesthetic for
the novel was advocated by the writer Lars Ahlin (b. 1915). Om (1946; "If,
About, Around") with an intriguing narrative technique belongs to his major
work. Ahlin broke a long silence in 1982 when he published, with his wife,
Hannibal-segraren ("Hannibal-The Victor"), an exploration of the dynamics
of a man's search for power. Other important novelists are Stig Dagerman
(1923-1954), Lars Gyllensten (b. 1921), Per Olof Sundman (b. 1922), and
Birgitta Trotzig (b. 1929). The modern trend toward incorporating contemporary
history with fiction to create a literature of reportage is represented
by Sara Lidman (b. 1922) and Per Olof Enquist (b. 1934), who is also an
important dramatist. Much contemporary literature continues to seek material
from the past. A masterpiece in this tradition is Sven Delblanc's (b. 1931)
Hedeby series (published in the 1970's) about Sweden before and during
World War II. Also important are Kerstin Ekman's (b. 1933) historical novels
beginning with Häxringarna (1974; "The Witches Rings"). The most recent
trend in Swedish literature is found in the writings of P. C. Jersild (b.
1935), who mixes social satire about inhuman bureaucracy with fantastic
elements, notably in Djurdoktorn (1973; The Animal Doctor , 1975) and En
levande själ (1980; "A Living Soul") about the life of a detached
brain.
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