Lars G. Warme, ed.
A History of Swedish Literature
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996. Pp. xvi + 584. $55.00
Reviewed by Christopher Hale
This book is volume three in the series A History of Scandinavian Literatures (general editor Sven Rossel), published by the University of Nebraska Press in cooperation with the American-Scandinavian Foundation. Volumes one and two dealt with Danish and Norwegian literature respectively. The present work follows a similar format as the previous ones, being divided into chapters on the various periods and genres, each written by a separate scholar.
The introduction, which includes mention of previously published similar histories, mainly in English, alludes to how Swedish literature began to make an appearance on the international scene from about 1800 and gradually became increasingly recognized abroad through translations. Chapter 1, written by Stephen A. Mitchell, deals with the literature of the medieval period up to 1523 when the Reformation came to Sweden. Mitchell covers the important works of the period and their historical background quite thoroughly, and, fortunately, passes over Eddic and other Old Norse literature which earlier Swedish literary histories tend to include, but which, technically, belong to the history of Icelandic literature.
In the section that covers the period from the Reformation to 1718, the end of Sweden as a great power, James Larson criticizes the frequently held view that Swedish writing in the seventeenth century is poor and lacks culture, because it developed in an absolutist, totalitarian society. Larson claims that the absolutism of this period was far from all encompassing and that Swedish society of the 1600s was more complex than has generally been accepted. James Massingale’s chapter on the Enlightenment and Gustavian Age is a well-written essay, covering the major writers and genres, as well as giving some historical-cultural background. Massingale takes issue with Martin Lamm’s assertion that Dalin was temperamentally weak with an underdeveloped personality, and points to his genuine accomplishments such as publishing his own journal for two years, writing a three-volume history of Sweden, and supporting a political policy of peace in the face of many who frequently favored war.
The Romantic Period, by Bertil Nolin, investigates some of the same authors whom Massingale had already examined in the previous chapter, as well as others. The style of this part is a bit choppy, with short sentences, and doesn’t flow well, but it is unclear whether this is the author’s own style in Swedish or whether it is that of the translator of this chapter. The next chapter, by Birgitta Steene, is divided into three main parts-the period leading up to the Modern Breakthrough, the Modern Breakthrough itself and Strindberg’s postrealistic works. All in all, this is a well-written and interesting chapter, but perhaps a bit more should have been said about Strindberg’s The Dance of Death, and the play Crime and Crimes should at least have been mentioned.
Chapter 6, by Susan Brantly, covers the sixty years from 1890 to 1950 with Rochelle Wright being the author of its last part on working class authors. This whole section stretching over a fairly long period of time seems a bit unwieldy, with the discussion of schools-such as biological determinism, modernism, and proletarianism-having been compressed into one chapter.
Rochell Wright’s chapter “Literature after 1950” is a well-written and intelligible section. It examines a relatively large number of schools and genres quite successfully in a relatively short space. The chapter on women writers by Cheri Register, which covers principal female authors of all periods, argues for a separate reevaluation of women’s literature which is to be to be viewed in a different context from that of male writers. The emphasis of Register’s section “is on features of [women’s] work that illuminate the cultural context of women’s writing or show continuity and interdependence among female writers” (474).
The final chapter gives a survey not only of prose works of literature for children and teenagers, especially those of Astrid Lindgren and Tove Jansson, but also of poetry and picture books written before the 1980s and 90s. The final chapter is followed by a two-part bibliography (General References and Chapter Bibliographies), a notes on the contributors section, and an index.
All in all the book is quite informative, though being a survey, it does not treat any of the authors or periods in real depth. However, it serves a useful function in that both readers who have no previous knowledge of Swedish literature as well as those who are familiar with the subject will find in the book a helpful tool.