Det norske litterære Feminapolis 1880-1980: Skram, Undset, Sandel og Haslunds byromaner—mot en ny modernistisk genre by Janke Klok (review)

Janke Klok's dissertation, Det norske litterære Feminapolis 1880-1980, with the subtitle Skram, Undset, Sandel og Haslunds byromaner—mot en ny modernistisk genre, is a rare and utterly welcome event in Scandinavian studies since the book is published in the Netherlands (Barkhuis Publishing) and written in Norwegian (but includes a comprehensive English summary). The dissertation was defended for the doctoral degree in Groningen, March 2011 and is a strong reminder of the important research in and teaching of Norwegian literature going on in academic institutions outside of Norway.

Klok's contribution is on the one hand an informed, scholarly, and well supported discussion of (mainly) canonized female authors' byromaner (city novels) and on the other hand, a solid effort to reevaluate and reinforce their influence on the genre. (A discussion of its being a genre or not is included in the introductory chapter.) Her intention is to advocate the viability of the concept of "Feminapolis" in order to illuminate the city as it is described by female authors and utilized by female fictional characters.

The work draws on extensive scholarly readings in Skram, Undset, and Sandel, and less attention accorded to Haslund, thereby arguing that the latter is a more important author than has been previously recognized. Maybe Klok is right, since Haslund with her piercing descriptions of female, urban life in Oslo of the 1940s, '50s, and '60s introduced new motifs and views into Norwegian literature. Although as a fiction writer, she hardly matches the other three in style and quality, Klok argues well for including Haslund in her material.

The novels in focus are Amalie Skram's Constance Ring (1885), Lucie (1888), Fru Inés (1891), and Forraadt (1892); Sigrid Undset's Fru Marta Oulie (1907), En fremmed (1914), and Jenny (1911); Cora Sandel's Kranes Konditori (1946), Kjøp ikke Dondi (1958), and the Alberta trilogy (1926-1939); and Ebba Haslund's Det hendte ingenting (1948), Hvor går du Vanda? (1960), and Døgnfluens lengsel (1984). The cities described move from Christiania (Oslo) to Rome, Constantinople (Istanbul), Lausanne, and London and thus cover a period that saw their immense growth and modernization.

Feminapolis draws on earlier analyses of the city in literature, notably classic studies by Walter Benjamin, Georg Simmel, and Deborah Parson; however it also draws on the well-written contribution to the topic by Tone Selboe (Litterære vaganter). Klok argues that the female authors add substantial qualities to the representation of the modern city in literature and that their descriptions direct the reader's attention to other aspects of city life than those made by male authors. Constructions of the modern urban space are in her view inevitably gendered, and the development of the modern city is closely tied to gendered experiences and expressions.

In addition to close readings of selected novels, Klok's intention is to investigate the representation of the "city and gender" perspective in literary histories written after 1885 (the year of the publication of Skram's Constance Ring, the first novel in the collection of material). In this way, the book is on the one hand an attempt at new readings of partly canonized novels, and on the other a critical exploration of influential literary histories. Its main quality is perhaps exactly the informative value of these combinatory efforts, where the reader gains an overview of the research and historical presentations (or not) of the authors and their novels.

What are the results of this study? One conclusion is that the literary cities in Skram, Undset, Sandel, and Haslund are used to undermine the bourgeois culture of which they were a part. The female critique is even revolutionary, according to Klok, and it is seen as an expansion of the criticism in the travel letters by Camilla Collett. These female texts are full of resistance to the prevailing order and...