Series A: Scandinavian Literary History and Criticism
1 primary work
Book 24
This study examines the work of six women prose writers of the 1930s, placing them for the first time within the broader context of European and American literary modernism. These writers - Stina Aronson, Karen Blixen, Karo Espeseth, Hagar Olsson, Cora Sandel and Edith Oberg - have been doubly marginalized. Their work has long been viewed as anomalous within the Scandinavian literary canon, but, apart from Karen Blixen, it also remains marginalized from examinations of women writers produced outside Scandinavia. This is a 'connective study' which examines the literary strategies, preoccupations, and responses to changes in society shared across national boundaries by these writers. They all sought inspiration from foreign literature and culture, and made themselves literal or figurative exiles from their homelands. Themes in their work include representations of consciousness, hybridity, and experimentation with literary forms. Each writer's work exhibits a strong sense of ambiguity, which takes many forms and challenges received notions about identity.