Selma Lagerlöf

The study focuses on the fictional conflict between an ethical and an aesthetical attitude to life arising from the overthrow of traditional social values. In chapter 1, the theoretical starting-points of the dissertation are presented. An analysis of the links to the new aesthetics of the Swedish 1890s, the decadence movement, and to Nietzschean currents is undertaken in chapter 2,  highlighting the novel's aesthetic understanding of life and Lagerlöf's breach with gendered expectations. Chapter 3 argues that the novels narrative structure, characterized by dramatic reversals, corresponds to the insecure living conditions in modernity. The narrator's relation to the reader and to the inner world of the fictional characters are examined in chapter 4. A tension is set up between a mode of writing associated both with the oral tradition and femininity and a modern, narrative technique. The theme of modernization is explored in chapter 5 and is found to be reflected in the dialogue with Goethe's Faust and Mme de Staels Corinne. Gösta Berlings saga carries on the debate about the position of med and women in modernity, but does so in terms of the scope for freedom, knowledge, and individual needs. In its discussion of the novel's resolution, chapter 6 deals with the growing opposition between between an aesthetic attitude to life, related to Nietzsche, and an ethical attitude, spiritually allied to Lutheranism and moral Utopian ideas of the concluding nineteenth century. The dissertation ends in a discussion of the text as an ethical encounter, both between the fictional characters and between reader and text.

When writing the history of authorships, canonical and public sources are given precedence. The professional readers (critics) statements on what is considered the major work of the author are central in this historiography, while letters to the author from the audience, reports in newspapers or magazines about the author’s public appearances or autobiographical accounts of the author are usually left out. In this article the case of Selma Lagerlöf is explored through more peripheral sources: letters, (auto)biographical accounts, reports from different events in women’s magazines and some “minor” texts of the authorship. What links between public and private events and texts appear when these neglected sources are placed in the centre of the analysis and how does this change the narrative of an authorship? I will focus on the the question of women’s rights and conditions in society, revealing themselves to be important both in Lagerlöf’s “minor” texts and in the reception of her authorship, and discuss how Fredrika Bremer’s legacy is visible in Lagerlöf’s life and writing – specifically through the question of women’s citizenship and education as well as women’s role as educators. Only by putting the different sources side by side, the links between history, autobiography and fiction appear, making cultural memories visible and, at the same time, revaluing canonical truths.

From 1917 to 1930, several of Selma Lagerlöf’s literary works that were adapted into films in Sweden were reissued in editions illustrated with film stills. The article analyses these book editions in relation to the cinema souvenir programme, placing them within the double context of Swedish publishing and cinema culture. and argueing that increased expenses associated with World War I generated this finely tuned interaction between book and film production o. Through the lens of media materiality, this particular piece of cross-media print culture questions the boundaries between visual and printed media, unveiling the connections between the ‘golden’ era of ‘quality’ film production in Sweden around the 1920s and the stable impact of Selma Lagerlöf in Sweden through continuous publication and re-publication.

Escritor y traductor chileno, Omar Pérez Santiago, presenta y traduce poemas de la gran poeta escandinava, Karin Boye. Karin Boye tenía una brillantez inimitable. Ella era versátil y destacó en diversos ámbitos con una obra genial que fue realizada en breves, traumáticos y apresurados años. Tenía deseos y vivió una vida intensa y apasionada. Ella fue poeta con un agudo sentido del idioma y su musicalidad, escritora de novelas que aún se leen, crítica literaria, traductora, amante del debate público. Era una mujer de vanguardia con un quemante interés en el sicoanálisis y la pedagogía. Jugó un rol central en la vida cultural de los años 20, 30 y 40.

Much has been written about how Selma Lagerlöf's work was received by reviewers, researchers, colleagues, the popular press, friends, and family. But how, where, and why ordinary people read and used her texts over the years is virtually unknown. This essay is about these people, or rather about the appearances they make in the many thousands of extant letters to Lagerlöf that are held by the National Library of Sweden.  The collection of letters will be described, and the theoretical and methodological issues to be faced when dealing with this kind of material will be discussed. Given the lack of sources useful for understanding the reader in history, the letters to Lagerlöf present an extraordinary opportunity to answer a number of questions about reading in the past.

The purpose of this article is to investigate how Sweden and the idea of “Swedishness” were constructed in the critical reception of the work of Selma Lagerlöf (1858–1940) in France from 1899–1912, and to show how the gender of the author was made significant in this process. In addition to the perception of Lagerlöf as the epitomization of “Swedishness,” two stereotypes were often repeated: the gendered roles of the storyteller and the schoolmistress. I suggest that these attitudes originating from the Swedish reception of her work were recirculated by way of French intermediaries. Furthermore, gender and nationality became intertwined in Lagerlöf’s image in France: Her supposed naivety and humbleness were conditioned by both her origin and her gender.

Nell'aprile del 1932, quando l'Istituto Italiano di Studi Germanici fu inaugurato in occasione delle celebrazioni per il centenario della morte di Goethe, il discorso di Giovanni Gentile faceva riferimento alla creazione di «una casa ospitale agli studi sul mondo germanico», specificando poi: Ed è bastato l'annunzio perché ci venissero incontro privati e governi, pronti ad aiutarci in questo nostro programma di studio: . Molti dei libri che ora vedrete già raccolti nella biblioteca dell'Istituto, ci sono stati offerti da questi amici stranieri e dagli enti che dall'estero si son compiaciuti della nostra iniziativa […]. Qui una ricca biblioteca speciale, che già conta più di 20 mila volumi e centinaia di periodici, sarà aperta al pubblico 1 .

L'espressione «retorica di» ha spesso una sfumatura negativa -retorica della democrazia, retorica della rivoluzione, retorica della conoscenza scientifica -, ma è anche una via normale di riferirsi al modo in cui si parla di qualcosa, il che porta con sé un lessico, una topica, un insieme di metafore lessicalizzate, una precettiva in positivo e in negativo (cosa «non si può dire») 1 . È in questo senso che io parlerò qui di retorica. Per tracciare poi i contorni del concetto di redenzione, vorrei presentare una serie di ambiti in cui l'uomo ha sempre visto un intimo bisogno di redenzione, per segnalare in seguito alcune risposte rintracciabili nell'arte.

Lagerlöfs Jerusalem beskriver den kristna väckelsen som for som en löpeld genom Sverige under andra hälften av 1800-talet och hur den å ena sidan skorrade mot de traditioner och tankesätt som redan fanns ute i byarna, men hur den också svarade mot en längtan och radikalitet som inte riktigt fått utrymme i det gamla bondesamhället. Boken handlar dessutom om andligt ledarskap, dess möjligheter, dess kraft och dess fara. När Svenska kyrkan nu söker sin lutherska identitet är Lagerlöfs Jerusalem en källa att ösa ur. Detta visade Margareta Brandby-Cöster för några år sedan, och i ett betydligt mer begränsat format vill denna artikel påminna om detta nu.

L’œuvre de Selma Lagerlöf suscite actuellement un regain d'intérêt en Suède et à l'international. De son vivant, Lagerlöf a été traduite dans une quarantaine de langues, et depuis 2011 surtout, au moment où son œuvre est passée dans le domaine public, de nouvelles traductions ont été publiées. Grâce au soutien de l'Académie suédoise, de l'Institut suédois et de l’Equipe d’accueil REIGENN (Sorbonne Université), et en collaboration avec la Société Selma Lagerlöf (Selma Lagerlöf-sällskapet), Sorbonne Université organise un colloque à Paris en février 2022 autour de l’œuvre de Selma Lagerlöf.
Les objectifs du colloque sont les suivants :

 diffuser le savoir et la recherche actuelle sur Selma Lagerlöf à la fois en Suède et à l’international ;
 attirer l’intérêt des chercheurs, des traducteurs et des éditeurs francophones sur l’œuvre de Lagerlöf ;
 recueillir le fruit de la recherche francophone et des traductions françaises de son œuvre.

Les intervenants et intervenantes seront invités à réfléchir notamment aux points suivants :

- l’écriture de la biographie dans des contextes culturels différents
- l’historiographie littéraire et les nouvelles approches épistémologiques
- les modalités de l’étude de l’œuvre de Selma Lagerlöf et les nouvelles approches critiques
- la traduction et la diffusion de l’œuvre de Selma Lagerlöf en français

Victoria Benedictsson, Anne Charlotte Leffler och Selma Lagerlöf anses som några av våra största författare. Ändå har deras verk och status ständigt ifrågasatts. Hur kunde en kvinnlig författare göra sin röst hörd i slutet av 1800-talet när hon inte fick verka i det offentliga rummet?
Några av de kvinnliga författarna ifrågasatte det gamla samhället i hopp om en bättre framtid. För detta använde de ofta myter från nordisk folktro. I Osynliga band visar Maria Hansson hur Victoria Benedictsson, Anne Charlotte Leffler och Selma Lagerlöf använde folktron som en mask bakom vilken de kunde formulera sin samhällskritik. De såg folktron både som ett erkännande av en gemensam kultur och som ett vapen i kampen för nya idéer om ett jämställt samhälle. Därmed kringgick de också kritik, eftersom fantastiska inslag ur nordisk folktro var kompatibla med kritikernas föreställningar om en kvinnlig estetik.