*
What else is there to say?
That Ulven, like every other self-respecting author, was an avid reader of Donald Duck.
That, ditto, he loved sad songs.
And that these extremes, which aren’t extremes at all, but are really one and the same thing, when you come right down to it — namely, a weakness for slapstick comedy and a streak of the melancholy — might give a pretty good picture of what Ulven stood for.
And I think that every great body of work has an aura, which can be difficult to pin down at times, but which nonetheless surrounds the body of their texts, a sum, perhaps, of their individual components, a sum of the writer’s distinct linguistic approach, a gleam of what might be called authority or originality, their unmistakable way of writing, which sooner or later transforms their last name into an adjective, so that one can ultimately talk about the Beckettian, the Célinean, the Bernhardesque, etc.
And I think that the greatest honor an author can achieve is to reach adjectival status.
And I think that the Ulvenesque has an aura that will shine for decades, no, for centuries to come.
STIG SÆTERBAKKEN, 2012
ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND THE TRANSLATOR
Widely considered one of the greatest postwar poets in Norway, TOR ULVEN (born in 1953) was also one of its greatest innovators in prose, influencing countless other fiction writers, not least Jon Fosse and Stig Sæterbakken. Ulven committed suicide in 1995.
KERRI A. PIERCE translates from German, Danish, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Norwegian, and Swedish. She is the translator of Lars Svendsen’s A Philosophy of Evil, Mela Hartwig’s Am I a Redundant Human Being?, and other works available from Dalkey Archive Press.
NORWEGIAN LITERATURE SERIES
The Norwegian Literature Series was initiated by the Royal Norwegian Consulate Generals of New York and San Francisco, and the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Washington, D.C., together with NORLA (Norwegian Literature Abroad). Evolving from the relationship begun in 2006 with the publication of Jon Fosse’s Melancholy, and continued with Stig Sæterbakken’s Siamese in 2010, this multi-year collaboration with Dalkey Archive Press will enable the publication of major works of Norwegian literature in English translation.
Drawing upon Norway’s rich literary tradition, which includes such influential figures as Knut Hamsun and Henrik Ibsen, the Norwegian Literature Series will feature major works from the late modernist period to the present day, from revered figures like Tor Ulven to first novelists like Kjersti A. Skomsvold.
NOTES
1 Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation, Vol. 1, trans. E. F. J. Payne (New York: Mineola, Dover, 1966) 185–86.