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Chapter 4. Freedom, Identity, and Double Perspectives: Representations of the Migrant Experience in the Novels of Vilhelm Moberg and O.E. Rølvaag
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54 ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ Chapter 4 Freedom, Identity, and Double Perspectives Representations of the Migrant Experience in the Novels of Vilhelm Moberg and O. E. Rølvaag Ingeborg Kongslien The emigrant and immigrant epics written by the novelists Vilhelm Moberg and Ole Edvart Rølvaag respectively have contributed important depictions and interpretations of the Scandinavian emigrant and Scandinavian American immigrant experience. These novels are cultural representations of migrant movements , their historical, sociological, psychological, and existential aspects. They have been widely read over the years on both sides of the Atlantic. Moberg’s books are still read to some extent in the United States as translations but are particularly popular in the Swedish originals, which are very much part of the literary canon in Sweden. Rølvaag is still read in the United States, mainly the first volume of the English version, less so volumes two and three. The original novels in Norwegian are today rarely read. Rølvaag’s epic—in the original Norwegian version a tetralogy consisting of I de dage (1924), Riket grundlægges (1925), Peder Seier (1928), and Den signede dag (1931)—was first published in Norway. He was one of the very few writers of the Norwegian American literary tradition who succeeded in being published in Norway. The series was widely read in Norwegian American communities as well as in Norway for several decades after its publication. After the first two volumes were translated into English and published together as Giants in the Earth (1927), it entered the American literary realm and was recognized as the ultimate depiction of settling on the prairie. It has appeared on high school reading lists for several decades. Frank McCourt’s 1999 novel, ’Tis—a sequel to Angela’s Ashes—chronicled his teaching experience in a New York suburban high school in 1959, where the students read Giants in the Earth as one of their required texts. They are not appreciative though, and call it a boring book about “those depressed Europeans on the prairie.” The other two volumes in the series were translated into English as Peder Victorious and Their Fathers’ God, respectively. Rølvaag had written and published fiction prior to the immigrant epic, but his literary legacy rests on Giants in the Earth, which is the only one of his books that is continually reprinted. Moberg was an established writer and important figure in Swedish literary Freedom, Identity, and Double Perspectives ❖ 55 and cultural life when, after World War II, he turned his attention to the history of emigration from his country. The four-volume novel series—Utvandrarna (1949), Invandrarna (1952), Nybyggarna (1956), and Sista brevet till Sverige (1959)—was an immediate success both with readers and critics, despite some early criticism of his starkly realistic descriptions. Already a highly merited writer at the time he undertook this theme, Moberg published this emigrant epic at the high point of his prolific literary career. The novels were translated into English as The Emigrants, Unto a Good Land, The Settlers, and The Last Letter Home, respectively, and thus acquired an audience outside of Sweden, as well— in particular, of course, in the United States. The emigrant epic belongs to the classical canon of Swedish literature; the English version is also continuously in print. At the turn of the millennium, Utvandrarna was voted the most popular Swedish literary work of the twentieth century. Time, Place, and History Both novel series are based on extensive knowledge about Scandinavian emigration and immigration; both are firmly rooted in historical details as bases for their fictional depiction and interpretation of the migration movement. Rølvaag’s trilogy (as it will be referred to in the following, i.e., the English edition ) was published between 1924 and 1931 and depicts the years 1873 to 1896: June 6, 1873, was the date on the characters’ paper land deed, and the final book takes place during the presidential election of 1896. The place is in the southeastern corner of today’s South Dakota. Historical-documentary aspects essential for character description and plot development are, for example, the grass hopper plague of the mid-1870s, the heavy snowstorms of the winter of 1880–81, the discussions regarding the establishment of the two states, North and South Dakota in 1889, and the elections of 1892 and 1896. Moberg’s tetralogy was published between 1949 and 1959 and depicts the background in Sweden and reasons for the 1850 emigration. It details the years up to 1862, gives glimpses from those years until 1875...