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Pär Lagerkvist

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Pär Lagerkvist
Lagerkvist in 1951
Lagerkvist in 1951
Born(1891-05-23)23 May 1891
Växjö,Sweden
Died11 July 1974(1974-07-11)(aged 83)
Stockholm,Sweden
Occupationpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, short story writer
Notable awardsNobel Prize in Literature
1951

Pär Fabian Lagerkvist(23 May 1891 – 11 July 1974) was a Swedish author who received the1951 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Lagerkvist wrote poetry, plays, novels, short stories, and essays of considerable expressive power and influence[citation needed]from his early 20s to his late 70s. One of his central themes was the fundamental question of good and evil, which he examined through such figures asBarabbas,the man who was freed instead of Jesus, andAhasuerus,theWandering Jew.As a moralist, he used religious motifs and figures from theChristiantradition without following the doctrines of achurch.

Biography and works[edit]

Lagerkvist was born inVäxjö(Småland). He received a traditional religious education – he would later say, with little exaggeration, that he "had had the good fortune to grow up in a home where the only books known were the Bible and the Book of Hymns". In his teens he broke away from Christian beliefs, but, unlike many other writers and thinkers in his generation, he did not become vehemently critical of religious beliefs as such. Though he was politically a socialist for most of his life, he never indulged in the idea that "religion is the opium of the people". Much of his writing is informed by a lifelong interest in man and his symbols and gods, and in the position of Man (both as individual and mankind) in a world where the Divine is no longer present, no longer speaking.[citation needed]

In his early years Lagerkvist supported modernist and aesthetically radical views, as shown by his manifestoOrdkonst och bildkonst(Word Art and Picture Art,1913) and the playDen Svåra Stunden( "The Difficult Hour" ).[1]

One of the author's earliest works isÅngest(Anguish,1916), a violent and disillusioned collection of poems. His anguish was derived from his fear of death, theWorld War,and personal crisis. He tried to explore how a person can find a meaningful life in a world where a war can kill millions for very little reason. "Anguish, anguish is my heritage / the wound of my throat / the cry of my heart in the world." ( "Anguish", 1916.) "Love is nothing. Anguish is everything / the anguish of living." ( "Love is nothing", 1916.) This pessimism, however, slowly faded, as testified by his subsequent works,Det eviga leendet(The Eternal Smile,1920), the autobiographical novelGäst hos verkligheten(Guest of Reality,1925) and the prose monologueDet besegrade livet(The defeated Life,1927), in which the faith in man is predominant. FromThe Eternal Smileon, his style largely abandoned the expressionist pathos and brusque effects of his early works and there was a strong striving for simplicity, classical precision and clean telling, sometimes appearing close to naivism. The content, however, was never truly naive. A Swedish critic remarked that "Lagerkvist andJohn the Evangelistare two masters at expressing profound things with a highly restricted choice of words ".[citation needed]

Ten years afterÅngest,Lagerkvist married for the second time, a union which was to provide a pillar of safety in his life until the death of his wife forty years later.Hjärtats sånger(Songs of the Heart) (1926) appeared at this time, bearing witness to his pride and love for his consort. This collection is much less desperate in its tone thanÅngest,and established him as one of the foremost Swedish poets of his generation.[citation needed]

His prosenovellaBödeln( "The Hangman", 1933), later adapted for the stage (The Hangman,1933; play, 1934), shows his growing concern with thetotalitarianismand brutality that began to sweep across Europe in the years prior to World War II.Nazismwas one of the main targets of the work andDer Stürmerresponded with a very dismissive review. Criticism againstFascismis also present in the playMannen utan själ(The Man Without a Soul,1936).

In September 1940 Lagerkvist was elected a member of theSwedish Academy,succeedingVerner von Heidenstamon chair 8 in December the same year.[2]

Lagerkvist's 1944 novelDvärgen(The Dwarf), a searching, ironic tale about evil, was the first to bring him positive international attention outside of the Nordic countries. The work was followed in 1949 by the unusual, lyrical playLåt människan leva(Let Man Live).

Barabbas(1950), which was immediately hailed as a literary masterpiece (by fellow Nobel laureateAndré Gide,among others) is probably Lagerkvist's most famous work. The novel is based on aBiblicalstory. Jesus ofNazarethwas sentenced to die by the Roman authorities immediately before the JewishPassover,when it was customary for the Romans to release someone convicted of a capital offense. When the Roman procuratorPontius Pilateoffers to free either Jesus or Barabbas (a convicted thief and murderer), a Jerusalem mob demands the release of Barabbas, who later watches Jesus as he bears the cross to Golgotha, witnesses the crucifixion, and then spends the rest of his life trying to understand why he was chosen to live rather than Jesus. Amoviebased upon the novel was filmed in 1961, withAnthony Quinnplaying the title role.

In 1951 Pär Lagerkvist was awarded theNobel Prize in Literature"for the artistic vigour and true independence of mind with which he endeavours in his poetry to find answers to the eternal questions confronting mankind.".[3]He had first been proposed for the prize in 1947.[4]Following the publication ofBarabbas,Lagerkvist had been one of the favourites to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950.[5]In 1951 the Nobel committee for literature received nine nominations for Lagerkvist, including nominations from the French authors and previous laureatesAndré GideandRoger Martin du Gard,and theSwedish Academydecided to award him the prize.[4]

Lagerkvist died inStockholmin 1974 at the age of 83, his wife having died in 1967.

Works[edit]

Short Story Collections[edit]

  • Människor(People) (1912)
  • Två sagor om livet(2 Tales of Life) (1913)
  • Järn och människor(Iron and People) (1915)
  • Det eviga leendet(The Eternal Smile) (1920) - 3 stories
  • Onda sagor(Wicked Tales) (1924)
  • Kämpande ande(Fighting Spirit) (1930)
  • I den tiden(In the Terms) (1935)

Novels[edit]

  • Gäst hos verkligheten(Guest of Reality) (1925)
  • Den svåra resan(The Difficult Journey) (written c. 1926, published 1985)
  • Själarnas maskerad(The Masquerade of Souls) (1930)
  • Bödeln(The Executioner) (1933)
  • Dvärgen (The Dwarf)(1944)
  • Barabbas(1950, filmed in1953,1961,and2012)
  • Sibyllan(TheSibyl) (1956)
  • Ahasverus död(The Death of Ahasuerus) (1960)
  • Pilgrim på havet(Pilgrim on the Sea) (1962)
  • Det heliga landet(The Holy Land) (1964)
  • Mariamne(1967)


Prose and poetry

  • Ordkonst och bildkonst(1913)
  • Motiv(1914)
  • Ångest(1916)
  • Kaos(1919)
  • Den lyckliges väg(1921)
  • Hjärtats sånger(1926)
  • Det besegrade livet(1927)
  • Vid lägereld(1932)
  • Den knutna näven( "The Clenched Fist", 1934)
  • Genius(1937)
  • Den befriade människan(1939)
  • Sång och strid(1940)
  • Hemmet och stjärnan(1942)
  • Aftonland( "Evening Land", 1953)
  • Antecknat(diaries and notes, 1977)

Theatre

  • Sista mänskan,play ( "The Last Man", 1917)
  • Den svåra stunden,three one-act plays ( "The Difficult Hour", 1918)
  • Teater(1918)
  • Himlens hemlighet,play ( "The Secret of Heaven", 1919)
  • Den osynlige,play ( "The Invisible One", 1923)
  • Han som fick leva om sitt liv,play ( "The Man Who Lived his Life Over", 1928)
  • Konungen,play ( "The King", 1932)
  • Bödeln,play ( "The Hangman", 1933)
  • Mannen utan själ,play ( "The Man Without a Soul", 1936)
  • Seger i mörkret,play ( "Victory in the Dark", 1939)
  • Midsommardröm i fattighuset,play ( "Midsummer's Dream in the Workhouse", 1941)
  • De vises sten,play ( "The Philosopher's Stone", 1947)
  • Låt människan leva,play ( "Let Man Live", 1950)

English translations[edit]

  • "Literary Art and Pictorial Art" [Ordkonst och bildkonst], Rainbow Press, 1991,ISBN0-9518535-0-3.
  • "The Dwarf" [Dvärgen], Hill and Wang, 1958,ISBN0-374-52135-2.
  • "Barabbas", Vintage, 1989,ISBN0-679-72544-X.
  • "The Sibyl" [Sibyllan], Vintage, 1963,ISBN0-394-70240-9.
  • "The Death of Ahasuerus" [Ahasverus död], Vintage, 1982,ISBN0-394-70820-2.
  • "Evening Land" [Aftonland], translated byW. H. Audenand Leif Sjöberg; Wayne State University Press, 1975; Souvenir Press, London, 1977,ISBN0814315429.

References[edit]

  1. ^"Par Lagerkvist | Swedish author".Encyclopedia Britannica.Retrieved2017-08-02.He became involved with socialism and soon began to support artistic and literary radicalism, as demonstrated in his manifesto entitled Ordkonst och bildkonst (1913; "Literary and Pictorial Art" ). In Teater (1918; "Theatre" ), the three one-act plays Den Svåre Stunden ( "The Difficult Hour" ) illustrate a similar modernist viewpoint.
  2. ^"Lagerkvist, Pär".Svenska Akademien.
  3. ^"The Nobel Prize in Literature 1951".nobelprize.org.
  4. ^ab"Nomination Archive - Pär Fabian Lagerkvist".nobelprize.org. April 2020.
  5. ^Håkan Möller "Pär Lagerkvist,Barabbasand the Nobel Prize for Literature "Journal of World Literature 1 2016, p.505
  • Fulvio Ferrari, introduction to Italian edition ofGäst hos verklighetenandDet eviga leendet,Oscar Narrativa #1242, Mondadori, Milan, June 1992
  • Everett M. Ellestad, "Lagerkvist and Cubism: A Study of Theory and Practice," Scandinavian Studies 45 (1/1973), S. 38–53.

External links[edit]

Cultural offices
Preceded by Swedish Academy,
Seat No.8

1940–1974
Succeeded by