Cover not available

In:Nordic Literature: A comparative history: Volume II: Figural nodes
Edited by Steven P. Sondrup, Mark B. Sandberg, Nathaniel Kramer, Christopher Oscarson, Linda Haverty Rugg and Karin Sanders
[Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages 38] 2026
► pp. 113–131

Faces of shame in Danish and Norwegian literature

From Saxo to Karl Ove Knausgård

This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Article outline
  • The history of shame
  • Modern shame: Aksel Sandemose
  • Shame and the civilizing process
  • The Figwort family
    • The Model
  • Genre and shame
  • The rhetoric of shame: Min kamp and the representation of everyday shame
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Works cited
References (34)
Works cited
Behrendt, Poul. Fra skyggerne af det vi ved: Kunst som virkelighedsproduktion. København: Rosinante, 2019.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. Midnatssolen på Dramaten: Dobbeltkontrakten 2020 hos Karl Ove Knausgård. Hellerup: Forlaget Spring, 2021.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Elias, Norbert. Über den Prozess der Zivilisation. Basel: Haus zum Falken: 1939.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. The Civilizing Process. Revised edition. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 2000.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Giddens, Anthony. Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hammann, Kirsten. Fra smørhullet. København: Gyldendal, 2004.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Holberg, Ludvig. Jeppe of the Hill; Comedies by Holberg. Trans. Oscar James Campbell Jr. and Frederic Schenck. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1914. 1–50.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. Jeppe paa Bierget; Ludvig Holbergs skrifter. Version 2.14. [URL]. Accessed 22 June 2022.
Ibsen, Henrik. Vildanden; Henrik Ibsens skrifter. Vol. 8. Eds. Vigdis Ystad et al. Oslo: Aschehoug, 2009. 7–234.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. The Wild Duck; Hedda Gabler and Other Plays. Ed. Tore Rem. Trans. Deborah Dawkin and Erik Skuggevik. London: Penguin Books, 2019. 1–106.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kjellqvist, Else-Britt. Rött och vitt: Om skam och skamlöshet. Stockholm: Carlsson, 1993.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Knausgård, Karl Ove. Min kamp. 6 vols. Oslo: Forlaget Oktober, 2009–11.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Knausgaard, Karl Ove. My Struggle. Trans. Don Bartlett. 6 vols. Brooklyn: Archipelago Books, 2012–18.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kondrup, Johnny. Erindringens udveje: Studier i moderne dansk selvbiografi. København: Amadeus, 1994.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Larsen, Gorm, and René Rasmussen. “Shame and Guilt: Introduction.” Shame on you: A literary perspective on shame and guilt. Ed. Gorm Larsen and René Rasmussen. Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark, 2021. 7–31.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lasch, Christopher. The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations. New York: Norton, 1978.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy. New York: Norton, 1995.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lewis, Helen Block. The Role of Shame in Symptom Formation. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum Associates, 1987.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lewis, Michael. Shame: The Exposed Self. New York: Free Press, 1992.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martinsen, Deborah A. Surprised by Shame: Dostoevsky’s Liars and Narrative Exposure. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2003.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Piers, Gerhart, and Milton B. Singer. Shame and Guilt: A Psychoanalytic and a Cultural Study. American Lecture Series 171. Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas, 1953.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ramnefjell, Geir. “Jeg er venner med de jeg vil være venner med.” Dagbladet. 20 November 2009.
Ranch, Hieronymus Justesen. Karrig Niding. København: Gyldendal, 1988.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Saabye Christensen, Lars. Maskeblomstfamilien. Oslo: Cappelen, 2003.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. Modellen. Oslo: Cappelen, 2005.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. The Model. London: Arcadia, 2007.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sandemose, Aksel. En flyktning krysser sitt spor: Espen Arnakkes kommentarer til Janteloven 1955. Oslo: Aschehoug, 1999.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. A Fugitive Crosses his Tracks. Trans. Eugene Gay-Tifft. New York, A. A. Knopf, 1936.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Saxo Grammaticus. Gesta Danorum: The History of the Danes. Vol. 1. Ed. Karsten Friis-Jensen. Trans. Peter Fisher. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Taylor, Charles. The Ethics of Authenticity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wessel, Johan. Kierlighed uden Strømper; Comiske fortællinger. Oslo: Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, 1996.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wurmser, Léon. The Mask of Shame. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. “Shame: The Veiled Companion of Narcissism.” The Many Faces of Shame. Ed. Donald L. Nathanson. New York: The Guilford Press, 1987. 64–92.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wyller, Trygve, Ed. Skam: Perspektiver på skam, ære og skamløshet i det moderne. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget, 2001.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue