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26 - The Region as an In-between Space: Tomas Tranströmer’s Östersjöar and the Making of an Archipelagic Nordic Literature

from Part IV - Cartographic Shifts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2021

By
Dan Ringgaard
Edited by
Debjani Ganguly
Debjani Ganguly
Affiliation:
University of Virginia
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Summary

The essay examines the concept of regional literature with Scandinavia as an example. Advocating for regional literature as a promising working space between the too smooth space of globality and the overly strict confines of national literature, the essay suggest the archipelago as a concept that keeps the region open to the world and yet assembled, heterogenous and recognizable at the same time. After a discussion of the concept it is developed further by way of a reading of Swedish Nobel Prize-winner Tomas Tranströmer’s 1979 long poem Östersjöar (The Baltics). On the basis of the reading and with recourse to previous discussion the essay ends by suggesting six imperatives for working with regional literature.

Keywords

Regional literatureScandinavian literatureIsland studies (or Archipelago?)Tomas TranströmerWorld literature (if world literature is too broad a term for the bookperhaps: Poetry)
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of World Literature , pp. 495 - 510
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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