Jonas Thente

1. What is good literary criticism?

The simplest description is: it is the task of the critic to find out what a text wants to achieve, and then to assess how well it has managed to do that. That is the basic concept. In addition to that, there are a number of criteria which must be fulfilled, but they can rarely be applied in one single review. In English, there are different concepts such as 'critique' and 'criticism', where the former is perhaps closer to the Swedish term 'kritik' while the latter comes close to something that would be considered literary research in Swedish. The word 'kritik' in Swedish usually refers to reviews and literary criticism in daily newspapers, and the critic must keep in mind that it is a genre of journalism. It follows that a certain measure of pure entertainment, a good sense of style and accessibility are all part of good criticism in dailies -- which is not to be confused with highly specialized scholarly texts. The ideal is a review which works simultaneously as an introduction for a new reader and as an in-depth analysis for an enthusiast.

2. Which one of your own reviews do you like best?

No idea. It feels as if each review is actually a short chapter of a single long text on the nature of fiction.

3. What do you like to read yourself?

I'm in the happy position that I can often choose to write about the things I like reading myself. Aside from that, there are five books on my bedside table that I can never quite seem to let go of: Nightwood by Djuna Barnes, the short stories of Dylan Thomas, the Complete Poems of T S Eliot, The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa and Lone Sloane by Philippe Druillet.

Jonas Thente
born 1964, began his career as a critic at Nordvästra Skånes Tidningar . Via Idag , which no longer exists, and Sydsvenska Dagbladet he ended up as assistant arts editor at Göteborgs-Posten and since 1999 he has been editor and literary critic at Dagens Nyheter . In addition to criticism for newspapers, he has written many essays about contemporary Swedish fiction, for instance in the journal 90-tal . Jonas Thente is one of the younger critics who has really made an effort to follow young writing, at a suitable distance. His literary criticism is characterized by an unfailing sense of style and a wealth of associations, with an awareness, above all, of English-language literature and popular culture.