Power and Expression in Scandinavian Literature and Art

FAIN: FA-53439-07

Arnold Weinstein
Brown University (Providence, RI 02912-9100)

I will complete my book on Scandinavian literature. By taking the well-known concept of “Breakthrough” (or “Genombrott”) – a term used by Georg Brandes as early as 1883 to identify the social virulence and critical agenda we today associate with a generation of writers such as Ibsen, Björnson, Jacobsen, Strindberg and Hamsun – and reconceiving it so as to illuminate its indwelling violence and boundary-smashing power, I hope to bring a body of fascinating works (literature, children’s books, painting, film) to the attention of a broader literary public. My book is at once an “Introduction” to some of the boldest literary and artistic performances in Scandinavia and also as a scholarly study that will engage specialists in this field.