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By: Luc Angelini Naja Marie Aidt’s 2019 book When Death Takes Something From You Give It Back (hereafter DTS) depicts the tumultuous and painful experience of grief in a raw and unabashed fashion. This paper addresses how the style of Aidt’s text influences her portrayal of grief. Specifically, I examine elements of style by drawing on Lilian Rösing’s 2017 chapter “Style”. This essay also draws on relevant literature from the field of counselling regarding bibliotherapy to address the power of affect in literature and its posited beneficial effects. I argue that Aidt’s stylistic choices typify her text as a grief memoir which induces powerful affective response in the reader to depictions of trauma and grief; hence the text serves as a therapeutic outlet to the bereaved reader.
By: Ikra Aziz According to Rigney, memory is embodied in human subjects, and this mental attachment to certain ideas helps shape key cultural standpoints in literature.1 Nils-Aslak Valkeapää’s poem ‘558’ uses poetry profoundly; simple, yet resounding language and well-written descriptions of his culture and land are used to convey the message of his home; one could say that his memory is creating a work that accurately depicts and produces a positive outlook on the Sámi people. ‘558,’ uses the sense of memory, alongside place, to construct a representation of Valkeapää’s own personal experience as a Sámi man, which is also used to establish direct reference to Sámi culture and lifestyle. This is especially critical as the idea and culture of the Sámi people has been overlooked and stigmatized throughout history. Nils-Aslak Valkeapää’s’s poem ‘558’ in The Sun, My Father is a critical piece of literature for understanding experiences as a Sámi individual in a post-colonial world. With identity being a main focus of the poem, he uses a distinct style of writing, formatting, and overall approach to poetry to create a long-lasting experience for the reader.
By: Frida Schölde Abstract: In this essay, I will explore the idea of the introspective retreat from the external in an attempt of the self to escape to the fictional or a mode of narration from the threat of harm or death. Two narratives will be used to exemplify this cognitive retreat from the physical: first, the song “Snake Pit Poetry” by Einar Selvik and Hilda Örvarsdóttir which retells the poem written by Ragnar Lodbrok when captured in a snake pit, nearing death. The second is the story of Brothers Lionheart by Swedish children’s literature author Astrid Lindgren depicting the fictional narrativization and consequential mapping of the landscape of Nangijala told by Jonathan to his younger brother Karl, nicknamed Skorpan, who is dying of tuberculosis. The art of storytelling will be explored as a spatial escape to channel the overwhelming feeling of looming death; literalising trauma serves to place the very real threat of danger into the cognitive sphere where the narrator alone has control over it versus the lack of control in the real, tangible sphere. I will explore these themes within “Snake Pit Poetry” and Brothers Lionheart mainly through Bertrand Westphal’s Geocriticism and Robert Tally’s writings, both of which exemplify a need for theories of spatiality in literature – especially narratives that parallel the real and the fictional with a focus on the malleability of the cognitive sphere, which serves as the bridge between the real space and the fictional space.
By: Luka Lukic deBakker Abstract: The chapter “The Enormous Plastic Sausage” in The Summer Book by Tove Jansson employs plant names to reinforce the chapter’s core idea that nature can sustain itself without interference from humans, and that by creating artificial hierarchies which place humanity above natural ecosystems as opposed to presenting it as a component piece no more important than any other, one risks catastrophic consequences for the entire ecosystem, humanity included. Jansson achieves this effect by using plant names to differentiate between the plants native to the island where The Summer Book takes place, and the invasive species newly introduced in “The Enormous Plastic Sausage,” and then by likening the disruption of this ecosystem to the widely negatively perceived history of imperialism in Finland by way of the names assigned to the plants in this chapter, both those native to the island, and those which disrupt the ecosystem by way of human interference.
By: Alex Hewlett Bowbrick Sweden stands out as one of few European nations to have stayed on the sidelines through the Cold War, and as such it has and continues to occupy a relatively marginal place within the story of a divided continent on the edge of war. What is quite fascinating about it during this period was its policy of neutrality, which was not grounded in any international law and thus continually under the scrutiny of foreign parties trying to assess the credibility of its claim to remain neutral.1 The object of this paper is not to praise or condemn Sweden’s commitment to neutrality but rather to examine the degree to which Sweden honored its claims to remain neutral between the NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Sweden met its own definition of neutrality based on freedom from military alliances, however its economic and ideological connections to the Western powers and continual discomforting appeasement of the USSR showed that it was decidedly oriented towards the Western powers if push came to shove. First this essay will examine what neutrality meant to Sweden and what it hoped to achieve with this stance. With the concept and reasoning of neutrality established, Sweden’s economic position and dependence on Western nations such as the United States and West Germany will be explored as a reason for Western orientation. The last part of this essay will examine how the stark contrast between Sweden’s diplomatic interactions with the West versus those with the Soviet Union showed a preference towards the West.
By: Gabrielle Fisher Within old Norse literature, gender plays an important role as women and men seem to have complementary roles that are forbidden to bleed into one another lest survival be jeopardized. Although there is much debate surrounding the specific role of women within the pre-Christian Viking era, the general consensus is that women took on roles in the domestic realm, were responsible for settling in new locations, maintained culture, functioned as a source of counsel, and embodied all aspects of spirituality. Lastly, and arguably the most controversial, was women’s roles in old Norse society as warriors. In comparison, men were expected to complement the female roles through their main purpose of providing and protecting through being warriors, farmers, traders, crafters, and travelers. Despite women embodying more domestic roles, they were not viewed as less important than their male counterparts; they were viewed as vital contributions responsible for the people’s survival and were regarded as having very separate, but having roles of equal importance to their male counterparts. An exemplary example of this gendered separation is seen through the facet of spirituality and how it’s depicted within old Norse literature. Hence, the purpose of this analytical piece lies in the specific exploration of magic, spirituality, and the socio-historical contexts of gender that follow this heavily gendered aspect of daily life. A specific focus will be lent to how these facets relate to major Norse literary works such as The Saga of the Volsungs and the Vinland Sagas due to the context they provide.
By: Viktoria Jarner Literature often celebrates the natural world, as nature is the one universally limitless inspiration. Human creativity and expression have been linked to nature since the beginning and are intrinsic to our social biology. With Sweden’s vast landscapes of mountains, forests, fields, coastlines, and archipelagoes, Swedish literature has come to be known for reflecting the pride of a nation whose culture is rooted in the harmony and appreciation of the natural elements. Across novels and poems, this sentimentality of nature is evident in the careful lyricism of nature as an entity. Nature is characterized with beauty and agency and is beyond the demands and desires of people.
By: Delaney Westby Abstract: Many Christmas stories play with the boundaries of reality and fantasy to inspire hope in their audience. Hans Christian Andersen’s short story “The Little Match Girl” shares this tension between worlds that commonly exists in Christmas stories, and can be classified as part of the fantastic genre according to Todorov’s definition. The fantastic elements of the story include the two worlds presented to the reader, one natural and one supernatural; the emotion the tension between the worlds provokes in the reader; and particularly the ambiguity of the ending. The fantastic elements of Andersen’s story allow the reader to engage with it better because the reader is forced to choose which world they want to believe in. This hesitation between two worlds, and the choice left to the audience of what to believe, has become a staple in Christmas movies, including The Santa Clause, Miracle on 34th Street, and The Polar Express.
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