Abstract
The “space of literature” is a metaphor for literature introduced by the French writer and critic Maurice Blanchot to express the specificity of literary discourse, which says what otherwise cannot be said. In this it produces a community around the unsayable. This ability to say something previously unsaid makes literature to some extent akin to scientific inquiry. In the last decades, research in Old Norse-Icelandic studies has not focussed on this aspect of the saga literature. The study of the sociological conditions for literary production in medieval Iceland can explain why the self-conscious pursuit of literary expression resulted in the emergence of a unique literary genre, the Saga about early Icelanders (Íslendingasögur). This group of sagas projects on a particular temporal and spatial construct, that of Iceland during the Settlement and Conversion periods, the unspoken concerns of their time of writing, the Sturlung age and its aftermath.
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© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Scolding the Skald: The Construction of Cultural Memory in Morkinskinna’s Sneglu-Halla þáttr
- What did the Future hold for them? Different Types of Foreshadowing in Various Saga Genres
- Spieler oder Schachfigur? Schach als epistemologisches Modell bei Solvej Balle
- Beundring og opposisjon. Forholdet mellom Knut Hamsun og Johannes V. Jensen
- Når forfatteren snakker med. Metalepsis og disclosure i Karen Blixens fortællinger
- „Henne ensam lagen fällde“. Zur literarischen Verhandlung der Kindstötung und der Frage nach der (Mit-)Schuld der Väter
- Changierender Artist. Zu Carl Larssons Positionierung im bildkünstlerischen und literarischen Feld
- Saga Conference
- Sagas and Space – Thinking Space in Viking Age and Medieval Scandinavia
- ‘Á Kálfskinni’: Sagas and the Space of Literature
- Runes and Verse: The Medialities of Early Scandinavian Poetry
- The Mind’s Eye: The Triad of Memory, Space and the Senses in Old Norse Literature
- Mythical and Metaphorical Landscapes in Skaldic Poetry
- Book Reviews
- Klaus Düwel:Runica minora. Ausgewählte kleine Schriften zur Runenkunde
- Lasse Mårtensson:Skrivaren och förlagan: Norm och normbrott i Codex Upsaliensis av Snorra Edda
- Lill-Ann Körber, Ebbe Volquardsen (eds.):The Postcolonial North Atlantic. Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands
- Jenny Wikström:Fotografiet bleknar, hon försvinner. Materia, begär och Gilles Deleuzes litteraturfilosofi i Henry Parlands ’Sönder’
- Michael Schäfer/Werner Schäfke:Sprachwissenschaft für Skandinavisten. Eine Einführung
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Scolding the Skald: The Construction of Cultural Memory in Morkinskinna’s Sneglu-Halla þáttr
- What did the Future hold for them? Different Types of Foreshadowing in Various Saga Genres
- Spieler oder Schachfigur? Schach als epistemologisches Modell bei Solvej Balle
- Beundring og opposisjon. Forholdet mellom Knut Hamsun og Johannes V. Jensen
- Når forfatteren snakker med. Metalepsis og disclosure i Karen Blixens fortællinger
- „Henne ensam lagen fällde“. Zur literarischen Verhandlung der Kindstötung und der Frage nach der (Mit-)Schuld der Väter
- Changierender Artist. Zu Carl Larssons Positionierung im bildkünstlerischen und literarischen Feld
- Saga Conference
- Sagas and Space – Thinking Space in Viking Age and Medieval Scandinavia
- ‘Á Kálfskinni’: Sagas and the Space of Literature
- Runes and Verse: The Medialities of Early Scandinavian Poetry
- The Mind’s Eye: The Triad of Memory, Space and the Senses in Old Norse Literature
- Mythical and Metaphorical Landscapes in Skaldic Poetry
- Book Reviews
- Klaus Düwel:Runica minora. Ausgewählte kleine Schriften zur Runenkunde
- Lasse Mårtensson:Skrivaren och förlagan: Norm och normbrott i Codex Upsaliensis av Snorra Edda
- Lill-Ann Körber, Ebbe Volquardsen (eds.):The Postcolonial North Atlantic. Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands
- Jenny Wikström:Fotografiet bleknar, hon försvinner. Materia, begär och Gilles Deleuzes litteraturfilosofi i Henry Parlands ’Sönder’
- Michael Schäfer/Werner Schäfke:Sprachwissenschaft für Skandinavisten. Eine Einführung