7.5 Swedish literature
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This article is from the Nordic countries FAQ, by Antti Lahelma and Johan Olofsson, with numerous contributions by others.
7.5 Swedish literature
Swedish writing dates back to 11th-century runic inscriptions, but actual
literature originated in the Catholic Middle Ages. Saint Birgitta
(1303-1373) wrote her Revelations, which became internationally known, in
Latin. Another important work from the 14th century is the Erikskrönikan,
which recounts historical events in poetic form. Most medieval Swedish
writings served nonliterary purposes, with the exception of the folk
ballads.
Gustav Vasa's reformation of the church contributed to a cultural decline in
the 16th century. However, of vital importance to the development of the
Swedish language were Olaus Petri's Bible translations of 1526 and 1541.
Another important 16th century work, although in Latin, was Olaus Magnus's
Historia De Gentibus Septentrionalibus (History of the Nordic Peoples,
1523). During this period there also appeared Sweden's first lyric poet,
Lars Wivallius. Another significant early poet is Georg Stiernhelm in the
1600's.
The 18th century, a period of enlightenment, was dominated by prose. Only
toward the close of the century, during the reign of Gustaf III, did other
genres emerge in the wake of French cultural influence. Noteworthy is Carl
Michael Belmman's rococo ballads. Emmanuel Swedenborg's mystical visions
influenced many authors and thinkers around Europe and prompted the
Swedenborgian religion that still exists.
Erik Johan Stagnelius's Neoplatonism, Esaias Tegner's and Erik Gustaf
Geijer's glorification of the nation's past, and Abraham Viktor Rydberg's
idealistic liberalism all reflect the philosophical orientation of Swedish
19th-century romanticism. Carl Jonas Love Almqvist, initially a mystic and
romantic, came later to herald new trends of realism in prose works
characterized by social awareness. The Finland-Swedish poet Johan Ludvig
Runeberg, with his heroic and romantic poetry, had enormous influence in the
Swedish speaking literary circles. But the most important figure of the
century was, however, August Strindberg (1849-1912), Sweden's greatest
writer and the father of modern Swedish drama and fiction. Moving in his
later plays from naturalism to dreamlike symbolism, Strindberg foreshadowed
expressionism. A novelist and playwright, he defied social convention by
writing dramas of sexual conflict and psychological torment, drawn largely
from his personal life. His plays are now esteemed as classics of the modern
stage. Important works include e.g the Red Room (Röda Rummet), Olaus Petri
and Inferno.
The socially opinionated prose writers of the 1880s were succeeded by a new
wave of romantics, who preferred verse and emphasized the past (Selma
Lagerlöf) and the countryside (Erik Axel Karlfeldt). About 1900, Hjalmar
Söderberg published exquisite short stories set in the streets of Stockholm;
but the novelists of the next decade favored small-town Sweden. Modernism
was introduced in the 1920s by the Finno-Swedish poets Edith Södergran,
Gunnar Björling, and Elmer Diktonius, and it was affirmed in Pär
Lagerqvist's innovative dramas and Gunnar Ekelöf's surrealistic poetry. A
new social class of self-educated country writers entered Sweden's literary
world in the 1930s, among them the 1974 Nobel laureates Harry Martinson and
Eyvind Johnson.
Sweden managed to avoid the world wars, but its literature from the 1940s
(Erik Lindegren, Karl Vennberg) reflects the general postwar depression. The
feeling of pessimism and guilt worsened during the following decades because
of the Vietnam War and Third World problems. An intense questioning of
literature's social function and a mistrust of language found many literary
expressions -- from "new simplicity" and "concreteness" in poetry, to
documentaries in prose, but the stories of Astrid Lindgren stand out with
their delighting humor and humanity. Swedish literature of the end of the
1970s was characterized by a new trust in the word and a new delight in
traditional fictio writing.
For electronic versions of some of the works of Nordic literature, see the
collection of Project Runeberg:
* <http://www.lysator.liu.se/runeberg/>
* <ftp://ftp.lysator.liu.se/pub/runeberg>
* gopher.lysator.liu.se ; path: /project-runeberg
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