Subordinate questions in Swedish by 12- and 15- year-old Finnish immersion students

The present study explores how 12- and 15-year-old immersion students (n=75 and n=73) produce subordinate questions in Swedish on a written test. Previous studies are sparse, but they report difficulties with both subject-verb word order and use of the subjunctor om and the subject marker som occurring in these clauses; informants with varying ages and competence levels struggle with similar problems. However, the acquisition order between these two types of constructions, a central theme in this study, has gained less attention. Analyses of the actual data show significant differences with varying effect sizes in accuracy between the different subcategories of subordinate questions and both informant groups. Insertion of grammatical words was mastered by significantly fewer informants than word order. Also, effect sizes were large in these contexts. Older informants do better than the younger ones, but the differences are not always statistically significant, as certain constructions are already mastered at a high level by the younger informants, whereas other constructions are still difficult for the older ones.

«Den verkliga festen, som är dödstyst»

Tranströmer’s prose poem Blåsipporna (“The Liverleafs”) is rather cryptic. By reading the text in the light of Kant’s theory of the sublime and by focusing on its mysterious and paradoxical aspects, this essay seeks to unveil the poem’s hidden eschatology. The poem’s transcendence is the result of the rhetorical and literary devices the poet is using to depict an ecstatic experience. Such an experience is beyond rationality, hence the wording’s irrationality. In addition, the poem addresses silence, as the experience of ecstasy can never be expressed by words. Thus, Blåsipporna is a piece of art and a sacred text at the same time.

With dark humor about a dark future

This article analyses the relationship between black humor and dystopian literature. In dystopia, humor can appear on the surface as language or situational comics, but there is also a deeper link between these two literary phenomena: they confront the reader with an unexpected notion in order to bring him to a critical reflection. There are many dystopias in the Nordic literature that use comic elements. Three of them are discussed in this article: Axel Jensens Epp (1965), Lena Anderssons Duck City (2006) and Kaspar Colling Nielsens Den danske borgerkrig 2018–24 (2013). The analysis shows that classic black humor is enriched with other tragicomic, satirical or surrealistic elements and significantly contributes to the critical tone of the text. In all cases humor is used for the same purpose, and this is a critique of superior power (the so-called superiority theory). Therefore, humor can be considered not only as a stylistic means, but also as a principle of construction of the dystopian works.

Ten years with Norwegian picturebooks in Poland

This paper aims to explore how Norwegian picturebooks published in Poland in the years 2008-2018 are presented in publishers’ blurbs and adult readers’ online reviews. The study is grounded in Scandinavian theory of literature mediation and it makes particular use of the concept of public epitexts. Drawing on research on contemporary Scandinavian picturebooks, the paper identifies the most frequently highlighted aspects of the works discussed in the analysed text corpus. Based on this, the author distinguishes between two strategies of book selection represented among the Polish publishers and attempts to map out an image of the Norwegian picturebooks in the Polish adult audience.

The concept of KÆRLIGHED (love) as represented in data from Old Danish

The article aims to reconstruct the conceptualization of KÆRLIGHED (LOVE) in Old Danish (1100–1515). In the first part of the study, the structure of the concept in Old Danish is analyzed, and parallels are drawn to the modern-day concept of KÆRLIGHED, the most significant differences being registered in the subcategories of PATRIOTISM and ROMANTIC LOVE, as well as in connection with the sense ‘love to do’. In the following parts of the study, the most important aspects and conceptual metaphors of Old Danish KÆRLIGHED are revealed, demonstrating a great influence of Christian values. Lastly, the nouns ælskhugh and kærlikhet are analyzed, and the difference between them is described as a different profiling of the various aspects of KÆRLIGHED, such as JOY and PLEASURE.

Being reborn into the new family

Every child brought up outside the biological family suffered a loss, some of them were lucky to be “born again’’ for another family who accepted them with love. The experiences of children in this situation often remain secretive and emotions suppressed. In this case, literature can become a way of therapy, both for the author and the reader who perceive through the novel their emotions that were not previously named. After many years, two Finnish writers Anu Mylläri and Riitta Jalonen decided to reveal their stories. Anu Mylläri, born in Bangladesh, was adopted by a family of Finnish farmers, while Riitta Jalonen included in her novel autobiographical plots related to the admission of a new child to her family. I will present the image of the “second birth” and the associated emotions from the perspective of the child on the basis of the autobiography of Anu Mylläri Adoptoitu (Adopted, 2006) and the autobiographical novel Kuka sinut omistaa (Who Owns You, 2013) by Riitta Jalonen. The aim of the article is thus to present these perspectives with relation to the bibliotherapeutic values of the mentioned literary works.

Conceptual metaphors for visual/auditory perception in Swedish

This study aims to illustrate how visual and auditory perception are conceptualized in Swedish and what differences there are between them. Previous studies often discuss perception in relation to the oppositely directed motions between the perceiver and the object perceived. In the Perceiver-as-Source type, perception occurs when our eyes/gaze reach the object perceived. In the Perceived-as-Source type, perception takes place when sense stimuli reach the perceiver. The data show two differences between visual and auditory perception. First, we find more metaphorical expressions for visual perception than for auditory perception. Second, we also find that, while visual perception has a stronger connection to the Perceiver-as-Source type, auditory perception is more strongly connected to the Perceived-as-Source type. These two differences are explained by the function of the perceptual organs.

Between entertainment and education

This paper addresses a phenomenon of the international success of Swedish female writers in the 19th century. I have focused on the Polish translations of Marie Sophie Schwartz’s works, which became extremely popular in the 1860’s and 1870’s, judging from the number of books translated in comparison to other Swedish bestselling writers. One of the most important issues for Schwartz was emancipation, specifically women’s right to education, employment and economic autonomy. Her novel Emancipation Frenzy was translated into Polish in 1865 and 1876. Both translations differ as to the accuracy in rendering the emancipation message. The earlier translation tends to omit or soften the author’s radical opinions on emancipation, which flattens the novel’s progressive message. The later one is closer to the original and articulates emancipation claims more faithfully. This probably has to do with the fact that the Polish emancipation debate was already more developed in the 1870s. That seems to confirm a fundamental thesis of Translations Studies that translation not only communicates the message of the source text but also comprises an inscription of the host culture’s current standards and needs. Thus, the novels by Schwartz were initially read as popular literature, and over time they were perceived as socially engaged literature (Tendenzroman), which corresponded to the Polish nationalistic program.

Det Ambivalente Kvindebillede I Danske Ordsprog

The aim of the paper is to identify the image of a woman coded in Danish proverbs. The basis of my research is the assumption that proverbs convey knowledge of how societies perceive the reality and that proverbs are used as interpretative mechanisms. This is mainly achieved thanks to the repetitive nature of proverbs. Simultaneously proverbs force certain perception of the world upon societies and promote certain values. The image of a woman in the Danish language is composed by two stereotypes, a negative and a positive one. The image is a combination of contradictions. On one hand there is admiration for features such as care, motherhood, life experience and, hard work, but on the other hand women are submitted to discrimination and harsh social pressure. Women are depicted as talkative, dominating, evil, vain, unpredictable, unrestrained. They face pressure to get married, take good care of their looks, or be exemplary housewives. The analysis of Danish proverbs gives a possibility to observe how much women’s social status, character and the perception of women by the society have changed throughout the centuries and how these changes have influenced the language we use and the reality that the language depicts.

”In Memory of the Snow Queen” – Hans Christian Andersen Recalled and Retold

The main focus of the present paper is the so-called “intertextual revision”, explored as one of the most recent and innovative strategies employed while reviving the legacy of the Danish fairy-tale classic Hans Christian Andersen. In order to illustrate this practice, I discuss a short story entitled Travels with the Snow Queen (2001), by an American writer Kelly Link, which is a reworking of Andersen's worldfamous fairy tale The Snow Queen (1844). Link’s take on Andersen’s tale represents one of the leading directions within revisionary fairy-tale fiction, inspired by feminism and gender criticism. The analysis is centered around the narrative strategies employed by the author in order to challenge the gender logic incorporated into Andersen’s account, as well as the broader fairy-tale tradition it belongs to.