Per Thomas Andersen

Story and Emotion: A Study in Affective Narratology

In this book perspectives from affective narratology are applied to study emotional structures in literary works of Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky, Ibsen, Hamsun, J.P. Jacobsen, Schoenberg and Knausgaard. Based on perspectives from literary studies, philosophy, cognitive psychology, neurobiology and media studies, professor Per Thomas Andersen analyzes characters in the novels, temporal and spatial aspects of the narratives, sources of emotional impulses and different ways in which the streams of affects turn out to be as important as events in the narrative style of the chosen authors. Per Thomas Andersen is professor of Scandinavian Literature at the University of Oslo.

Karl Ove Knausgaard and the Transformation of Honor Culture in Late Modern Welfare States

The six-volume novel, My Struggle (2009–2011), by the Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgaard has been received with great enthusiasm in many parts of the world. This article analyzes the novel and its reception from the historical perspective of traditional honor culture coming to an end in some late modern welfare states. Focusing on shame and dishonor, the article situates the autobiographical project in a contemporary moment granting the author the freedom to write himself out of traditional honor groups and into new “floating” honor groups, like that of the celebrities of our time.

KOSMOPOLITISK IDENTITET ELLER GLOBALISERT FREMMEDGJØRING

ABSTRACT In this article I argue that Scandinavian literature in the last 25 years is characterized by an exploration of postmodern conditions for identity construction. My point of departure is that the posttraditional society of late modernity can be described as a community experiencing deep unrest in the two ”nests” which provided most people with feelings of belonging and security in the traditional modern epoch, i.e. the nuclear family and the nation. I analyze two Norwegian novels, Jan Kjærstads´ Forføreren (1993) and Dag Solstads´ Armand V. Fotnoter til en uutgravd roman (2006), as examples of how postnational and cosmopolitan constellations influence both our individual lives and our collectively imagined communities. I focus on what I call click and dragnationalism, XL-nationalism, the one-man-nation and postnational war.