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Genkendelse og ønsket om at glemme. Anagnorisis i Morten Borgersens Jeg har arvet en mørk skog (2012) og Wencke Mühleisens Kanskje det ennå finns en åpen plass i verden (2015)

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Published/Copyright: July 6, 2023
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European Journal of Scandinavian Studies
From the journal European Journal of Scandinavian Studies Volume 53 Issue 1

Abstract

This article examines the use of the narrative concept anagnorisis, or recognition, in two recent Norwegian novels, Morten Borgersen’s Jeg har arvet en mørk skog and Wencke Mühleisen’s Kanskje det ennå finns en åpen plass i verden. In both novels, the protagonist suddenly discovers their father’s secret history connected with their conduct during World War II. This revelation causes a new insight into their own and their family’s history and identity, and this in turn brings about feelings of shame and confusion. By using anagnorisis as a narrative device, the novels explore the gradual and ambivalent acceptance of a new identity and negotiations with social and personal expectations tied to being a descendent of a perpetrator.

Keywords: Morten Borgersen; Wencke Mühleisen; anagnorisis; 2. verdenskrig; perpetrator postmemory; hauntologi
Corresponding author: Henrik Torjusen, Department of Foreign Languages and Translation, Universitet i Agder, Kristiansand, Norway, E-mail:

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Published Online: 2023-07-06
Published in Print: 2023-04-25

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Articles
  3. Raum- und zeitsemantische Oppositionen als Analysekriterium: Beispiellektüren skandinavischer Gedichte (Staffeldt, Ibsen, Christensen, Tranströmer)
  4. Genkendelse og ønsket om at glemme. Anagnorisis i Morten Borgersens Jeg har arvet en mørk skog (2012) og Wencke Mühleisens Kanskje det ennå finns en åpen plass i verden (2015)
  5. Ekokritiska perspektiv i Maria Parrs Keeperen og havet
  6. The Fleece of the Ram
  7. Mnemonic ‘Boundary Objects’ and Postcolonial Restitution
  8. Precursors of Sociolinguistic Typology
  9. The Gender Incongruency Effect in L3 Swedish due to Imperfect Gender Acquisition in L2 German
  10. Book Reviews
  11. Ebba Hjorth (Hauptherausgeberin), Henrik Galberg Jacobsen, Bent Jørgensen, Birgitte Jacobsen, Laurids Kristian Fahl: Dansk Sproghistorie
  12. Frode Ulvund: Religious Otherness and National Identity in Scandinavia, c. 1790–1960: The Construction of Jews, Mormons, and Jesuits as Anti-Citizens and Enemies of Society
  13. Anne Klara Bom: H. C. Andersen som kulturelt ikon
  14. Philipp Wagner: Chronotopische Insularitäten. Zur Inseldarstellung in den skandinavischsprachigen Literaturen um 1900 und der Gegenwart
  15. Erik Zillén: Fabelbruk i svensk tidigmodernitet. En genrehistorisk studie
  16. Carolin Löher: Dachmarke Literatur. Die Literaturvermittlungsinstitution Literaturhaus in Deutschland und Skandinavien
  17. Jürgen Hiller: Der Literaturpreis des Nordischen Rates
  18. Gunilla Hermansson/Jens Lohfert Jørgensen: Exploring NORDIC COOL in Literary History
  19. Yves Lenzin: Isländersagas. Verschriftlichung und Politisierung
https://doi.org/10.1515/ejss-2022-2029
Keywords for this article
Morten Borgersen; Wencke Mühleisen; anagnorisis; 2. verdenskrig; perpetrator postmemory; hauntologi

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Articles
  3. Raum- und zeitsemantische Oppositionen als Analysekriterium: Beispiellektüren skandinavischer Gedichte (Staffeldt, Ibsen, Christensen, Tranströmer)
  4. Genkendelse og ønsket om at glemme. Anagnorisis i Morten Borgersens Jeg har arvet en mørk skog (2012) og Wencke Mühleisens Kanskje det ennå finns en åpen plass i verden (2015)
  5. Ekokritiska perspektiv i Maria Parrs Keeperen og havet
  6. The Fleece of the Ram
  7. Mnemonic ‘Boundary Objects’ and Postcolonial Restitution
  8. Precursors of Sociolinguistic Typology
  9. The Gender Incongruency Effect in L3 Swedish due to Imperfect Gender Acquisition in L2 German
  10. Book Reviews
  11. Ebba Hjorth (Hauptherausgeberin), Henrik Galberg Jacobsen, Bent Jørgensen, Birgitte Jacobsen, Laurids Kristian Fahl: Dansk Sproghistorie
  12. Frode Ulvund: Religious Otherness and National Identity in Scandinavia, c. 1790–1960: The Construction of Jews, Mormons, and Jesuits as Anti-Citizens and Enemies of Society
  13. Anne Klara Bom: H. C. Andersen som kulturelt ikon
  14. Philipp Wagner: Chronotopische Insularitäten. Zur Inseldarstellung in den skandinavischsprachigen Literaturen um 1900 und der Gegenwart
  15. Erik Zillén: Fabelbruk i svensk tidigmodernitet. En genrehistorisk studie
  16. Carolin Löher: Dachmarke Literatur. Die Literaturvermittlungsinstitution Literaturhaus in Deutschland und Skandinavien
  17. Jürgen Hiller: Der Literaturpreis des Nordischen Rates
  18. Gunilla Hermansson/Jens Lohfert Jørgensen: Exploring NORDIC COOL in Literary History
  19. Yves Lenzin: Isländersagas. Verschriftlichung und Politisierung
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