Norwegian Literature
This page covers Norwegian literature. McKee Library's collection includes numerous titles by Norwegian authors. We have included a selection of these titles in our reading list, linked below. The resources below cover the general topic, however, more information is available if you search for individual authors by name in the databases.
- Norwegian Literature Reading ListA Norwegian literature reading list. This is not an exhaustive list, rather a list of titles available in McKee Library's collection.
Research and Reference
- National Archives of NorwayThe National Archives of Norway is an independent government authority under the Ministry of Culture, and comprehend the National Archives, eight regional state archives (statsarkivene), the Sámi Archives and the Norwegian Health Archives.
The National Archives of Norway is an independent government authority under the Ministry of Culture, and comprehend the National Archives, eight regional state archives (statsarkivene), the Sámi Archives and the Norwegian Health Archives. - The National Museum’s library and archiveThe National Museum's library and archive manages an extensive collection of art historical literature and unique archival material related to Norwegian art, the museum's art collection and institutional history. The library is open to everyone, welcome!
Streaming Media
- The Danish PoetCan we trace the chain of events that lead to our own birth? Is our existence just coincidence? Do little things matter? The narrator of The Danish Poet considers these questions as we follow Kasper, a poet whose creative well has run dry, on a holiday to Norway to meet the famous writer, Sigrid Undset. As Kasper's quest for inspiration unfolds, it appears that a spell of bad weather, an angry dog, slippery barn planks, a careless postman, hungry goats and other seemingly unrelated factors might play important roles in the big scheme of things after all. Oscar winner for Best Short Animation, 2007.
- Henrik Ibsen (A Concise Biography)This overview of Henrik Ibsen's life and writing from the Famous Authors series contextualizes Ibsen's upbringing in tight-knit, strictly religious communities in isolated Norway. As a young man, he left his family home in a desire to break away from the staid and religious environment, and worked toward university and made friends that supported his talents. While he failed to pass matriculation exams in Oslo, he began to publish plays and continued to meet intellectual friends who supported his work, which led to a job as a theater director in Bergen. Ibsen eventually moved to Rome—where he met his publisher, Frederick Hegel, and began to gain some success—then later moved to Germany. The video discusses the way Ibsen's plays about small communities and everyday human drama, like A Doll's House and Hedda Gabler, changed the theater for years to come.
Author's Works & Perspectives
Sophie's World
"One day when Sophie comes home from school, she finds two questions in her mail: Who are you? and Where does the world come from? Before she knows it, she is pondering all the great questions of Western philosophy (from the Greeks to Kant, to Marx and Freud) with a mysterious mentor. But Sophie is also receiving a separate batch of equally unusual letters. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up in Sophie's world? To solve this riddle, Sophie uses her new knowledge of philosophy, but the truth is far stranger than she could have imagined."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
The Bookseller of Kabul
With The Bookseller of Kabul, award-winning journalist Asne Seierstad has given readers a first-hand look at Afghani life as few outsiders have seen it. Invited to live with Sultan Khan, a bookseller in Kabul, and his family for months, this account of her experience allows the Khans to speak for themselves, giving us a genuinely gripping and moving portrait of a family, and of a country of great cultural riches and extreme contradictions. For more than 20 years, Sultan Khan has defied the authorities--whether Communist or Taliban--to supply books to the people of Kabul. He has been arrested, interrogated, and imprisoned, and has watched illiterate Taliban soldiers burn piles of his books in the street. Yet he had persisted in his passion for books, shedding light in one of the world's darkest places. This is the intimate portrait of a man of principle and of his family--two wives, five children, and many relatives sharing a small four-room house in this war ravaged city. But more than that, it is a rare look at contemporary life under Islam, where even after the Taliban's collapse, the women must submit to arranged marriages, polygamous husbands, and crippling limitations on their ability to travel, learn and communicate with others.
Ibsen's Selected Plays
The Norton Critical Edition includes five major plays spanning Ibsen's long career in recent translations by Brian Johnston (Peer Gynt, The Wild Duck, and The Master Builder) and Brian Johnston and Rick Davis (A Doll House and Hedda Gabler). The translation of Peer Gynt appears for the first time in this Norton Critical Edition. "Backgrounds" gives students an understanding of Ibsen's creative process with selections from his correspondence and other writings. Twenty-seven documents have been collected and arranged by play, with a section of autobiographical writings at the end. Ibsen's plays continue to provoke diverse commentary. "Criticism" includes nineteen of the most important responses to Ibsen's work, among them essays by Bernard Shaw, Sandra Saari, E. M. Forster, Hugh Kenner, and Joan Templeton. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.