Author: Johanne Elster Hanson

In her essay ‘What Makes A Good Writer?’, Zadie Smith writes of the literary cliché: ‘What is a cliché except language passed down by Das Mann, [Heidegger’s term for ‘the indeterminate “they” that hang over your shoulder’] used and shop-soiled by so many before you, and in no way the correct jumble of language for … Continue reading A giant dot

Knut Hamsun detested England. To the Nobel laureate, the island in the west embodied modernity at its worst: industrialism, materialism, the uprooting of mankind from its rural past. The only thing that could match the intensity of his Anglophobia was his admiration for fascist strongman leaders. Hamsun and his wife Marie remained staunch supporters of … Continue reading Blood, soil, and tinned foods

A year ago, I was given the chance to leaf through Roald Dahl’s mother’s book of Norwegian fairytales. The slim volume, held in the Roald Dahl archive in Great Missenden, was published in 1909 and contained 14 stories collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe. The stories’ morbid blend of the frightening and the … Continue reading Ugh! It smells like a Christian man in here!

Hvorfor skrives det så mye om krigen? Den norske krigslitteraturkanon vokser seg større for hver bokhøst, og vi blir tilsynelatende aldri ferdige med alle krigens aspekter – til det var samfunnskollapsen for total. Sett gjennom krigsårenes sotete linse blir derfor hver historie interessant, hvert vanlige liv uvanlig. «Tiden var ekstraordinær», skriver historiker Mari Jonassen i … Continue reading Det lille store mennesket

«Så velkjente de er, disse skikkelsene. Når man ser dem sitte i den varme, mørke salen, kledd i dress og uniform, synes det hele så uunngåelig. Vi vet hva som vil skje, skjønt de gjør det ikke.» Slik beskriver Nicholas Shakespeare det som senere skulle bli kjent som Norge-debatten i det britiske Underhuset. I ettertid … Continue reading Skjebnetimen

England har en lang tradisjon for teater som reflekterer «the state of the nation» – nasjonens tilstand. Det siste århundret har alt fra Rupert Murdochs medieimperium til bruken av isolasjon i fengsel blitt lagt under den teatralske lupen, og da kritikeren Michael Billington ga ut bok om britisk teater i etterkrigstiden, var tittelen nettopp State of … Continue reading Englands død

The history of the Norwegian term ‘jøssing’ is as curious and complicated as the political situation that birthed it. First used in 1941 as a snide characterisation of Norwegians sympathising with the British war effort, the word took on a different meaning as the Second World War progressed. Norway was invaded by German forces on … Continue reading Jøssing

I England går en fireukers lockdown mot slutten. Teatrene i hovedstaden vil fra 2. desember kunne åpne for sosialt distanserte forestillinger, men mange frykter at den forestående koronavinteren vil drive en allerede sterkt presset sektor mot bristepunktet. Det er ikke bare i Richard III at Storbritannia opplever en «winter of discontent»; årsskiftet 1978-1979 var preget … Continue reading Vårt tunge mismots vinter

The literary map is full of iconic writers virtually unknown to the English-speaking world. In Norway, Inger Hagerup is considered one of our finest twentieth-century poets, with more than twenty publications under her belt, but the very nature of her work seems to have made it all but untranslatable – until now.  Born in 1905, … Continue reading When Mount Galdhopiggen moved by almost an inch

‘A friendship can be among the most important events in a life,’ Graham Greene wrote in his second memoir, ‘and a way of escape’. In this volume, fittingly titled Ways of Escape, Greene also described his meetings and correspondences with the Norwegian writer Nordahl Grieg. Although they met only three times, Grieg ended up making … Continue reading Ways of Escape