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Trollism, Reality Hunger, and Vulnerability. Trolls in film and literature in the 2000’s

  • Adriana Margareta Dancus EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: October 6, 2016

Abstract

Trolls have become increasingly salient in contemporary Nordic film and literature. This article sets up to understand the dissemination of cinematic and literary trolls of the 2000’s by providing a comparative analysis of three contemporary texts: the Norwegian mockumentary Trollhunter (André Øvredal, 2010) and two fantasy novels, Troll: A Love Story by Finnish writer Johanna Sinisalo (2000) and Stallo by Swedish author Stefan Spjut (2012). In addition to comparing contemporary trolls to more established troll conceptualizations from Nordic folklore and children’s literature, I will also analyze trolls in a larger cultural and socio-political context by tying them to aesthetic movements such as the reality hunger in contemporary Scandinavian art and the vulnerability of the contemporary socio-political moment.

Acknowledgements

A version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the International Association of Scandinavian Studies (IASS) held at The University of Agder in Kristiansand in August 2014. I would like to express my gratitude for the participants’ helpful comments as well as for the support and constructive feedback I received from Jan Erik Holst, Øystein Sassebo Bryhni, and Kirstine Kastbjerg.

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Published Online: 2016-10-6
Published in Print: 2016-10-1

© 2016 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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