Norwegian Literature Einar Vannebo, 16.07.02

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Norwegian LiteratureEinar Vannebo, 16.07.02

• Pre Viking Age (3000BC-750AD)
• Viking Age (750-1050)
• Middle Ages Literary Old Norse (1050-1370)
• Reformation/Humanism (1500s)
• Baroque (1600s)
• Enlightenment (1700s)
• Romanticism (1830s-1870)
• Realism (1870s)
• Naturalism (1880s)
• Neo-Romanticism/Symbolism (1890s)
• Neo-Realism (1905-40)
• Political radicalism/psychological realism
  (1920-40)
• Post-World War II(1945-2002)

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Pre-Viking Age (3000BC-750AD)

• Rock carvings
• Runes Futhark
• older version 24 letters (200
  inscriptions)
• younger version 16 letters (65
  inscriptions)

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Viking Age (750-1050)

• Christianity
• National kingdom (Saint Olav)
• Norwegian/Icelandic common heritage

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Middle Ages Literary Old Norse (1050-1370)

• Eddic poetry (written down after 1270)
• Hàvamàl - practical morality
• Voluspà cosmology
• Skaldic poetry courtly poetry
• Literature in the service of the Church
• - Religious verse
• - Saints lives
• - Sermons
• Laws

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Literary Old Norse ct

• Historical literature
• - Kings sagas Snorri Sturluson
  Heimskringla
• - Family sagas (approx 30)

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Medieval oral literature

• Ballads
• - Dream Ballad
• Legends
• Folk tales

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Reformation/Humanism (1500s)

• Church under the sovereignty of the King
• Service in the vernacular
• Bible
• Hymns

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Baroque (1600s)

• Hymns
• Ministers submitted reports to the King about the
  conditions in their district
• Petter Dass (1647-1707)

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Enlightenment (1700s)

• Belief in reason, science, progress
• Ludvig Holberg (1684-1754)
• - Poet, novelist, moral philosopher
• - playwright 26 comedies
• (Molière of the North)
• - Jeppe on the Hill

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Romanticism (1830s-1870)

• Idealism
• Artist genius
• History growth
• Soul of the nation
• 1814 National independence
• - Henrik Wergeland (1808-45)
• Creation, Man and Messiah

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National Romanticism 1840-1870

• Quest for national identity
• Orientation to the past
• - National history P.A. Munch
• - Folk tradition Asbjørnsen and Moe
• - Language Ivar Aasen
• National breakthrough
• History and folk tradition repository of motifs
  for contemporary authors
• - Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832-1910)
• - Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906)

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Realism 1870s

• Modern breakthrough
• Take up contemporary problems for discussion
• Social, representative types
• Plays, novels
• The four great authors
• Bjørnson, Ibsen, Alexander Kielland, Jonas Lie
• Poetocracy

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Naturalism 1880s

• Heredity and environment
• - Amalie Skram (1846-1905)
• The People of Hellemyr
• - Arne Garborg (1852-1928)
• Peasant Students

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Neo-Romaticism/Symbolism 1890s

• Complex characters rather than social types
• Irrationality, the unconscious
• New style poetic, break with normal syntax
• - Knut Hamsun (1859-1952)
• Hunger, Pan, Growth of the Soil

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Neo-Realism (1905-40)

• Interaction social setting/human psychology
• Local setting, literary mapping of Norway
• Quest for national identity 1905
• Emphasis on moral and religious values
• Epic literature historical novels
• - Sigrid Undset (1882-1949)
• Kristin Lavransdatter
• - Olav Duun (1876-1939)
• The People of Juvik

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Political radicalism/psychological realism 1920s -

• Inspired by Freudianism and Marxism
• - Sigurd Hoel (1890-1960)

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Post World War II

• Psychological realism (1945-65)
• - Sigurd Hoel Meeting at the Milestone
• - Johan Borgen Lillelord-trilogy
• Modernism (mid 1960s -)
• Profile group Dag Solstad
• Social Realism
• Feminist literature (1970s -)
• - Dag Solstad
• - Bjørg Vik

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Post World War II

• Fantastic literature
• Language conscious literature (1980s)
• - Kjartan Fløgstad
• - Jan Kjærstad
• The eternal life of the narrative (1990s -)
• - Biographies
• - Novels exploring roots and cultural traditions
• Herbjørg Wassmo, Roy Jacobsen,
• Lars Saabye Christensen