A Literary Annual

“Young Literature & Literature for the Young” are the keywords in this year’s edition of Nordic Literature. Ingmar Lemhagen traces the contours of what seems to be taking shape amongst recent years’ up and coming Scandinavian authors, concluding on the somewhat promising note that, while explanations are impossible, description remains a possibility. And, after a number of articles reviewing literature by younger authors from our various different countries, the Faroese contribution reaches the general conclusion that good art can’t survive on a . imsy ideological basis, for it will constantly be in danger of crumbling away into kitsch and nationalism, like the base of some pretty, sugar-sweet, ideological meringue tart.
Children’s books in Scandinavia are dealt with in all their various aspects, and the recently deceased uncrowned queens of the genre, Astrid Lindgren and Tove Jansson, are given pride of place in this section.Their works have had a major impact world-wide, and both became rôle models, inundated by correspondence from several generations of readers. Nor is the revolt, which these two authors started in their children’s books, by any means over yet: it is highly unlikely that modern Scandinavian children’s books will ever again play a petty bourgeois moralising paedagogical rôle, but on the contrary will doubtless continue to challenge ongoing conventions, heading out towards far more celestial realms of the imagination.
There is also the customary presentation of all the books which have been nominated for the Nordic Council’s Literary Award. This year’s winner, Swedish Eva Ström, confesses that she – perhaps more than anyone else – was surprised by her award, but that it will nevertheless inspire her to be even more courageous in her writing, in fact to be as experimental now as she really wants to be. She has also written an article in praise of writers’ schools, which have otherwise, for a number of years now, been controversial in Scandinavia. We now have a . ourishing generation of authors who feel no shame about having taken courses in creative writing, and who are greeted with respect. And, as her . nal thrust, Eva poses the very relevant question: when – and how – are we going to get a new generation of critics?
This edition of Nordic Literature also contains a variety of articles which fall outside our two major themes: a literary detective from Buenos Aires tracks down some lost Scandinavian literature; in Norway, contemporary authors are denounced as exhibitionists; and in Iceland publishers are no longer content just to wait for good novels to come along, they are commissioning them themselves.
Over the last two years the editorial board has been debating whether Nordic Literature should be issued a couple of times a year, or whether we should actually publish a fully-. edged literary annual. To make our work more pro. table, both in economic terms and in every other way, we have . nally agreed on replacing the periodicals with an annual – which, in addition, is more than twice the size of the previously published periodicals. In this way we reckon we shall be able to give a pretty accurate picture of the latest developments in our latitudes’ literary sphere.
Welcome to our very first annual!

Jógvan Isaksen, Chief Editor