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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© 2016 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Die Trollfrau als kultureller Katalysator in der Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra
- Telling True Lies. Metanarration, Intertextuality and (Un)reliability in Holberg’s Iter subterraneum
- Ingvar Ambjørnsens hytte-noir
- Trollism, Reality Hunger, and Vulnerability. Trolls in film and literature in the 2000’s
- Conceptual relations in the semantic domain of Swedish dimensional adjectives
- Reviews
- Karl G. Johansson/Else Mundal (Hg.):Riddarasǫgur. The Translation of European Court Culture in Medieval Scandinavia
- Wolfgang Krause:Schriften zur Runologie und Sprachwissenschaft
- Ellen Rees:Ibsen‘s Peer Gynt and the Production of Meaning
- Christian Berrenberg:„Es ist deine Pflicht zu benutzen, was du weißt!“ Literatur und literarische Praktiken in der norwegischen Arbeiterbewegung 1900–1931
- John Ole Askedal et al. (Hg.):Norsk grammatikk. Riksmål og moderat bokmål
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Die Trollfrau als kultureller Katalysator in der Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra
- Telling True Lies. Metanarration, Intertextuality and (Un)reliability in Holberg’s Iter subterraneum
- Ingvar Ambjørnsens hytte-noir
- Trollism, Reality Hunger, and Vulnerability. Trolls in film and literature in the 2000’s
- Conceptual relations in the semantic domain of Swedish dimensional adjectives
- Reviews
- Karl G. Johansson/Else Mundal (Hg.):Riddarasǫgur. The Translation of European Court Culture in Medieval Scandinavia
- Wolfgang Krause:Schriften zur Runologie und Sprachwissenschaft
- Ellen Rees:Ibsen‘s Peer Gynt and the Production of Meaning
- Christian Berrenberg:„Es ist deine Pflicht zu benutzen, was du weißt!“ Literatur und literarische Praktiken in der norwegischen Arbeiterbewegung 1900–1931
- John Ole Askedal et al. (Hg.):Norsk grammatikk. Riksmål og moderat bokmål