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Living precariously means to live without having control over your own life, being exposed and in the power of others (Haarder, Schwartz & Simonsen 2018: 188). In this article I compare the precarity that characterises both young and older persons, and I claim that they have in common the feeling of being superfluous. I explore short stories by Norwegian authors Jan Kristoffer Dale and Bjarte Breiteig with an emphasis on the following questions: what are the consequences of being superfluous and living precariously? And how is this challenge dealt with in literature and in life? I argue that problems connected to entering adult working life may generate the same issues as entering life as pensioner, since without a meaningful job, our prospect of a good and dignified life is weakened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A paper which examines the Nordic aspects in "Morgan Kane," a series of Norwegian Western by Louis Masterson, is presented. Topics covered include how Masterson adapted the Western genre that is aligned with the preferences of Norwegian readers, increasing amount of social realism in the series, comparison of the Western produced by Masterson with the U.S. Western and similarities between a Nordic Western and Nordic Noir.

This article conceptualizes Kjartan Flogstad's novel Crense Jakobselv as a literary site in the public process of collective remembering. Fløgstad's stated intention for this novel was to challenge the received Norwegian memory of Nazism as an 'unrefined' mass phenomenon and to emphasize instead its basis in the cultured and educated elite. Drawing on James W. Wertsch's work on the term 'collective memory' in the humanities and social sciences, the article explains the novel's memory project and its contemporary political significance. After critically examining the novel's portrayal of a connection between Nazism and bourgeois humanist culture, I look into aspects of its controversial reception. While acknowledging the flaws identified by some critics, I propose that Flogstad's ultimate aim is to promote a more self-critical use of political memory and history in the public sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on the study of literary works in Latin language composed in Norway to understand the cultural impact of Latin in Norway. The topics discussed include parameters to limit the scope of Norwegian medieval Latin works, various collection of Norwegian works in Latin Such as Diplomatarium Norvegicum and use of Latin for ecclesiastical purposes.

An analysis of Karl Ove Knausgård's essay "My Struggle" is presented. Topics covered include how Knausgård uses several important concepts from Kierkegaard's philosophy and how Knausgård proposes an ethical standard that creates a tension between the ideal that novel establishes and the reality of the life of the novel's protagonist Karl Ove.

The article focuses on the authorship and political ideology of Norwegian author Knut Hamsun. It states that Hamsun's polemical attacks on the cultural life of the U.S. in 1889 and his postwar memoir "På gjengrodde stier" are ideological bookends for Hamsun's writings. It mentions that Hamsun's relationship to the social, political, urban, and technological senses of 'modernity' was reactionary. It comments that Hamsun was an unrepentant believer in political ideals he held in common with the hierarchy of the Third Reich and mentions that Hamsun considered himself a political prisoner in postwar Norway.

The article focuses on Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen's play "Peer Gynt." It states that while Ibsen called "Peer Gynt" formless, the play is tightly structured and focuses on a central dramatic conflict between Peer as he is and as he was meant to be. It suggests that the play is a modern morality play and concerns itself more with ethics than religion. It comments on metaphoric representations of various characters in the play, such as the lunatics which represent total self-absorption while the trolls would be the extreme opposite of self-sufficiency. It suggests that the play's end deliberately does not bring closure and that the ambiguities are left unresolved to preserve the uncertainty of the audience to Peer and his fate.

The article discusses the novel "Pan: Af Løjtnant Thomas Glahns Papirer" by Knut Hamson and its protagonist Lieutenant Thomas Glahn, a tourist. It discusses the colonialist implications of Hamsun's focus on tourism, noting the sexual economy of the narrative. The article refers to commentary on tourists and colonialism in literature by John Urry and Robert J. C. Young, respectively. It notes that Glahn's residence in the so-called heterotopia of a cabin enables him to express a tourist gaze and fantasize about colonial and sexual domination.