目录:
政治写作
对1940年代和1950年代的文学作品的反应与艺术形式和个人生活方式息息相关，1960年代是诗歌和小说对政治和社会的承诺时期。经常发生的话题是经常遭受严厉攻击的越南战争和瑞典福利国家。戈兰·帕尔姆（GöranPalm）的对话语言诗描述了日常现实，他是最早突破1950年代诗歌惯例的人之一，而戈兰·索内维（GöranSonnevi）的诗作《越南越战》（Om kriget i Vietnam）（1965；《越战》）则颇具影响力。呼吁年轻一代采取行动。在坚持追求社会正义的同时，索内维（Sonnevi）后来又转向知识分子的神秘主义，并将主题扩展到爱情和存在问题。独立的抒情诗继续由ÖstenSjöstrand和TomasTranströmer等作家创作，后者是隐喻的大师，也是20世纪后期瑞典最重要的诗人之一。比尔吉塔·特罗齐格（Birgitta Trotzig）在她的小说中有力地表达了罗马天主教给生活带来的折磨。
萨拉·里德曼（Sara Lidman）的著作就是朝着政治取向的文学运动（后来又远离政治取向的文学）运动的例子。在1950年代，她是瑞典最具创造力的小说家之一，但为了参加当时的政治辩论，她随后停止创作小说。然而，在1970年代后期之后，利德曼（Lidman）回到创作文学领域，创作了一系列关于生活在瑞典北部偏僻社区的小说。 Sven Lindqvist经历了类似的过程。经过一段刻苦的写作，他在《恩斯卡雷斯·达博格》（Enälskaresdagbok，1981年；《情人的日记》）中读了一本或多或少的自传小说。持怀疑态度的知识分子和实验者拉斯·吉伦斯滕（Lars Gyllensten）通过他的小说表达了对所有意识形态的不信任。为了寻求一种更符合道德的生活方式，他经常使用历史人物，例如Sokratesdöd中的苏格拉底（1960；“苏格拉底之死”），以及传奇人物，例如“我在我与唐·胡安”中的唐·胡安（1975；“在唐·胡安的影子” ）—探索对生活的不同态度，而只放弃一切；他作品中剩下的就是开放的重要性。直到20世纪末，政治写作在瑞典一直持续存在，但是它变得更具想象力，并且与紧迫事件无关。例如，在埃夫特·弗洛登（Efter floden）发生的毁灭性核战争之后（1982年；洪水之后），杰瑟尔德PC（PC Jersild）描绘了令人震惊的文明图画。他之前曾通过州兽医机构和医院里的寓言证明了自己在科幻小说中的才华。在他多层次的，经常是虚构的小说中，拉尔斯·古斯塔夫森（Lars Gustafsson）抨击瑞典的官僚福利社会，他抱怨说，瑞典以平等主义的名义扼杀了这种独特的社会。他以部分自传的《 Sprickorna i muren》（1971–78；“墙中的裂缝”）而闻名，并因其丰富而广泛的作品而被他的《神曲》称为“神曲”。在其中，主角从他的童年地狱发展到癌症晚期患者缓解疼痛的私人天堂。
True to the 1960s’ distrust of fiction, authors such as Per Olof Sundman and P.O. Enquist turned to pseudodocumentary reporting that left the reader to draw conclusions and make judgments. Sundman, in prose reminiscent of the Icelandic sagas, and Enquist, in a politically conscious manner (as in Legionärerna [1968; The Legionnaires]), demonstrated the impossibility of objective narration. The step—which Enquist himself took in his later works—from noncommittal documentary prose to the historical novel, the dominant prose genre of the 1980s and’90s, was a short one. Documents, while still the basis for fictional stories, no longer constituted the story itself. Also, writers used such narrative techniques as multiple narrators and intentional interruptions of narrative flow to retain the possibility of a range of interpretations. One such writer was Sven Delblanc, a philosophical thinker and brilliant prose stylist. In a series of novels charting the history of his childhood region, Delblanc provided a fascinating, albeit unidealized, portrait of rural Swedish society prior to World War II. His later Samuel tetralogy, which might be considered a psychohistory, traced his family’s harsh fates in Sweden and Canada in the hope of detecting meaning in a seemingly meaningless struggle for survival. Delblanc also has made use of large-scale allegory, and there is sometimes an almost mystical intensity apparent in his work.
The Swedish countryside of the past has been the setting for Torgny Lindgren’s novels, such as Ormens väg på hälleberget (1982; Way of a Serpent). He, however, was primarily interested in questions of power, oppression, and the nature of evil. Likewise, many of Göran Tunström’s novels are firmly anchored in his home region of Värmland. Originally a lyric poet, Tunström wrote prose rich in fantasy and humour and with a close affinity to music, as in Juloratoriet (1983; The Christmas Oratorio). His novels marked a return to the joy of storytelling.
Feminism, another manifestation of the politically and socially aware 1960s, brought forth a number of women writers who focused on the significance of the lives of seemingly insignificant women. Kerstin Ekman, initially a writer of detective novels, came to prominence with her meticulously documented Katrineholm series, which chronicled the lives of women in small-town Sweden. Another author who shed light on the underprivileged and socially defenseless, this time in the nation’s capital, was Heidi von Born. She approached her characters with empathy and psychological acumen. Agneta Pleijel, also an accomplished poet, found many of her subjects in history. The primary concerns in her novels are ethics, love, the role of art, and individual responsibility (as in Lord Nevermore [2000]). Other Swedish women authors at the turn of the 21st century were Sigrid Combüchen and Carina Burman, both writing historical novels, and the poets Eva Runefelt and Katarina Frostensson.
Lars Norén, regarded by many as the greatest Swedish playwright since Strindberg, has dealt with the love-hate relationships of modern dysfunctional families in emotionally powerful and sombre plays spiced with absurd humour, such as Natten är dagens mor (1982; “Night Is Mother to the Day”). Norén’s characters, like those of Strindberg, seem hopelessly locked into their closed family hell. In later works Norén left the home behind to explore the world of the “unseen”—prisoners, drug addicts, and those housed in institutions. He has, to the dismay of many, brought such people onstage to perform in his dramas, thus obliterating all borders between reality and fiction. Other successful dramatists include Enquist and Pleijel.
