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. v–x
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Table of contents
List of contributors
List of figures
Acknowledgements
Preliminary bibliographic notes
Volume introduction
Linda Haverty Rugg
Karin Sanders
Figures of affect
Figures of affect
MelancholyMelancholy
Karin Sanders
Nordic Noir: Insanity and imagination in Melancholy literature
Kjersti Bale
Lyrical melancholia in Swedish literature
Anders Olsson
Figures of affect
AnxietyAnxiety
Karin Sanders
Anxiety as a creative force and limit: Pär Lagerkvist, Birgitta Trotzig, and Lars Norén
Carin Franzén
Imaginary Edens and Inner Hells: Anxiety and the imaginary in Danish literature
Jakob Bøggild
Figures of affect
ShameShame
Karin Sanders
Faces of Shame in Danish and Norwegian literature: From Saxo
to Karl Ove Knausgård
to Karl Ove Knausgård
Gorm Larsen
Figures of need
Figures of need
IntoxicationIntoxication
Linda Haverty Rugg
Intoxication in Scandinavian literature
Lars Lönnroth
The traveling Figure of intoxication in Finnish literature
Kati Launis
The Word is the Drug: Intoxicating Swedish poetries
Jesper Olsson
Figures of need
FoodFood
Linda Haverty Rugg
Tantalizing food: Figures of fasting and freedom
Mads Julius Elf
Food and Famine in Norwegian literature
Henning Wærp
Real and Symbolic Food in Finnish Literature
Siru Kainulainen
Figures of need
BeliefBelief
Linda Haverty Rugg
The Locus of truth: From religious to literary confession
Thomas Götselius
The secularist tone and narrator in Nordic literature
Thomas A. DuBois
Freethinkers and figures of faith in Nordic literature of the nineteenth century
Dean Krouk
Figures of need
SexSex
Karin Sanders
Sex in Nordic literature 1870–2000
Janet Garton
Transformations of the strong woman
Kukku Melkas
Gender, sexuality, and violence in Finnish literature, 1970s–2010s
Sanna Karkulehto
Figures of need
WorkWork
Linda Haverty Rugg
Creativity in Old Norse literature
John Lindow
Creativity and work in Swedish working-class literature
Anna Williams
Work as a socially and politically invested figuration in Finnish literature
Jussi Ojajärvi
Figures of detachment
Figures of detachment
HomeHome
Mark B. Sandberg
Trouble at Hjarðarholt: The figure of the home/interior in Old Norse literature
Carl Olsen
Disfiguring the home
Mark B. Sandberg
The Coziness and Grimness of the Nordic welfare home
Anne-Marie Mai
Figures of detachment
ExileExile
Linda Haverty Rugg
Exile in Finnish literature
Jyrki Nummi
Exile in Faroese literature
Malan Marnersdóttir
“No prophet is accepted in his own country”: Modernity and exile
in Nordic literature
in Nordic literature
Susan Brantly
Figures of detachment
SuicideSuicide
Linda Haverty Rugg
Suicide and the Sagas
Terry Gunnell
The broken heart of modernity: Suicide in Modern Scandinavian literature
Lisbeth Larsson
Figures of detachment
SolitudeSolitude
Karin Sanders
Scenes of solitude
Dan Ringgaard
Solitude and loneliness
Lisbeth Wærp
Figures of detachment
SilenceSilence
Karin Sanders
Revaluations of silence: Configuring reticent protagonists in Old Norse
and related texts
and related texts
Jonas Wellendorf
“En svensk tiger”: Silence and spoken violence in Scandinavian literature
Ulf Olsson
The silence of groups: Re-thinking “The Silent Finn”
Pietri Ruuska
Embodied figures
Embodied figures
ChildrenChildren
Linda Haverty Rugg
The Autonomous child in Scandinavian children’s literature
Kristin Ørjasæter
Innocents abroad: The autonomous child in Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales
Julie Allen
Dreaming childhood, dreaming society: The autonomous child in the welfare state
Karin Nykvist
Vitalism, oblivion, and youth in turn-of-the-century Danish literature
Anders Ehlers Dam
Growing up in concrete: Literary figurations of Scandinavian housing projects
Jon Helt Haarder
Embodied figures
StrangersStrangers
Karin Sanders
Strangers and other others in Early Johannes V. Jensen
Jan Rosiek
Strangers among us
Olli Löytty
Embodied figures
CommunityCommunity
Nathaniel Kramer
Christopher Oscarson
Folklore, community, and the individual
Timothy Tangherlini
Configuring the proletarian collective
Christopher Oscarson
From individual to community: Collective narration in three Nordic novels
Nathaniel Kramer
Epilogue
