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Ever since the shibboleth narrative in the Book of Judges, the consequences of linguistic passing or non-passing have been demonstrated in literature. The article analyzes so-called “broken” or accented speech in terms of embodied and affectively charged nodes of linguistic entanglements: between belonging, affect, proficiency, ownership as well as inclusion and exclusion. The function of accented speech is in turn shown to be highly contextual, depending on socio-historical and cultural settings, as demonstrated in the article’s three case studies: E.T.A. Hoffmann’s “Der Sandmann” (1816), K. A. Tavaststjerna’s En patriot utan fosterland (1986), and Vilhelm Moberg’s Nybyggarna (1956).

Under strecket-artikel om Moritz Basslers studie "Populärer Realismus. Vom International Style gegenwärtigen Erzählens” (C.H. Beck 2022)

Scandinavian societies have historically, and problematically, been understood as homogeneous, when in fact they have a long history of ethnic and cultural pluralism due to colonialism and territorial conquest. After World War II, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway all became destinations for an increasingly diverse stream of migrants and asylum seekers from war-torn countries around the globe, culminating in the 2015-16 "refugee crisis." This multidisciplinary volume opens with an overview of how the three countries' current immigration policies developed and evolved, then expands to address how we might understand the current contexts and the social realities of immigration and diversity on the ground. Drawing from personal experiences and theoretical perspectives in such varied fields as sociology, political science, literature, and media studies, nineteen scholars assess recent shifts in Scandinavian societies and how they intertwine with broader transformations in Europe and beyond. Chapters explore a variety of topics, including themes of belonging and identity in Norway, the experiences and activism of the Nordic countries' Indigenous populations, and parallels between the racist far-right resurgence in Sweden and the United States. Contributors: Ellen A. Ahlness, Julie K. Allen, Grete Brochmann, Eric Einhorn, Sherrill Harbison, Anne Heith, Markus Huss, Peter Leonard, Barbara Mattsson, Kelly McKowen, Andreas Önnerfors, Elisabeth Oxfeldt, Tony Sandset, Carly Elizabeth Schall, Ryan Thomas Skinner, Admir Skodo, Benjamin R. Teitelbaum, Sayaka Osanami Törngren, Ethelene Whitmire.

Från 1929 fram till sin död 1935 var författaren Kurt Tucholsky (1890–1935) i huvudsak bosatt i Sverige. I Hedlandet utanför Mariefred skrev han under några sommarmånader sin skoningslösa satir över Weimarrepubliken, Tyskland, Tyskland över allt (1929) som retade gallfeber på nazisterna, den reaktionära högern och den revolutionära vänstern. Två år senare utkom romanen Gripsholms slott, en berättelse om kärlek och vänskap i sommaridyllen Mariefred som samtidigt lät ana en europeisk kontinent på väg mot ännu en katastrof. I Utsikt över Gripsholms slott berättar Markus Huss historien om Tucholskys tid i Sverige med utgångspunkt i hans texter och kärleksrelationer. Fram träder bilden av en motsägelsefull, språkligt lekfull och politiskt sylvass antinazistisk författare vars liv och verk fortsätter att fascinera nya generationer av läsare.

How can sign language be rendered in written literary form? What can such a literary rendering teach us about the social dimensions and aesthetic productivity of a language, which in this case demands intermedial translation? How does the thematisation and use of sign language play into the vernacular-cosmopolitan dynamic of world literature? The essay addresses these questions by turning to the German author and ethnographer Michael Roes's Die Laute (2012). In this novel, a young Yemenite musical genius, Aziz, loses his hearing and is forced to learn the local variety of sign language in the city of Aden. The characterisation of sign language is shown to oscillate between two poles: as a uniform linguistic entity, beyond any specific international, national or subnational framework, and as a variety of vernacular practices, linked to specific socio-geographical spaces. The analysis displays how the novel's metalinguistic reflections on the specificities of sign language on part of the protagonist prompts the reader to consider the text as a translation of a sign language original. Sign language in terms of a vernacular, ritualized practice, is shown to be used as a tool for aesthetic renewal, inviting the reader to imagine sign language as poetic practice.

This collection showcases a multivalent approach to the study of literary multilingualism, embodied in contemporary Nordic literature. While previous approaches to literary multilingualism have tended to take a textual or authorship focus, this book advocates for a theoretical perspective which reflects the multiplicity of languages in use in contemporary literature emerging from increased globalization and transnational interaction. Drawing on a multimodal range of examples from contemporary Nordic literature, these eighteen chapters illustrate the ways in which multilingualism is dynamic rather than fixed, resulting from the interactions between authors, texts, and readers as well as between literary and socio-political institutions. The book highlights the processes by which borders are formed within the production, circulation, and reception of literature and in turn, the impact of these borders on issues around cultural, linguistic, and national belonging. Introducing an innovative approach to the study of multilingualism in literature, this collection will be of particular interest to students and researchers in literary studies, cultural studies, and multilingualism.

The “Introduction” presents a new approach to literary multilingualism by demonstrating it as a phenomenon that emerges as a result of interactions between authors, texts and readers, as well as literary and political institutions on different societal levels. It emphasizes the practices and processes of linguistic borders, as opposed to a notion of multilingualism as a stable entity, identifiable by analysing texts against a set of fixed criteria. The “Introduction” also provides an overview of research on literary multilingualism in the last decades, including emerging new directions. The chapter concludes by providing a novel theoretical framework for the study of literary multilingualism, demonstrating how linguistic borders are actively formed in the production, circulation and reception of literature, and that processes of “bordering” have large-scale effects on conceptions of literature and its value.

Trycksak framtagen för Humanistiska fakultetens 100-årsjubileum.

This chapter examines the work of the Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer, who is widely known around the world and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2011. It argues for the need to re-examine canonical works of Nordic literature from the perspective of literary multilingualism, in order to achieve a better historical understanding and aesthetic appreciation of them. Markus Huss also addresses the concept of literary multilingualism itself, calling for an expanded notion that includes multimodal dimensions, such as visual and aural components. Following these two aims, Huss analyses Tranströmer’s long poem Östersjöar. En dikt (Baltics), demonstrating how its overarching theme of the border connects to a focus on the acoustic and visual dimensions of language. He underscores the importance of the acoustic sphere of literary multilingualism, which he claims to be a fundamental component of a multidimensional understanding of literary multilingualism.

The article proposes a new multimodal approach to literary multilingualism, with special attention devoted to how readers with different language skills partake in making literary multilingualism happen. It presents a critical assessment of previous scholarship on literary multilingualism, which we claim is characterized by monolingual assumptions and a problematic division between mono- and multilingual literature. As a continuation of the theoretical argument, multimodal readings of three contemporary poets Cia Rinne, Caroline Bergvall and Ralf Andtbacka are presented. Instances of contemporary multilingual poetry, the article concludes, can help us to critically scrutinize notions of clear-cut linguistic borders, as well as to study the intricate dynamics between the acoustic and visual aspects of literary multilingualism.

Translation from Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles