2000
First Published
4.14
Average Rating
184
Number of Pages
Tarjei Vesaas' fame as one of Norway's and Scandinavia's greatest fiction writers of the 20th century has often overshadowed his achievement as a poet. This revised bilingual selection presents, in finely honed translations, forty six poems that reveal the distinctive sensibility and voice of Vesaas the poet. In a groundbreaking introductory essay, Roger Greenwald explores why Vesaas' work has eluded many attempts at critical analysis and how it challenges received notions of modernism. A collage of excerpts from Vesaas' writings about himself and his work supplies helpful background and gives some sense of the man behind the work. Vesaas emerges from this volume as a lyric and meditative poet of uncommon depth, who renders states of being beyond the reach not only of discourse, but of most poetry as well.
Avg Rating
4.14
Number of Ratings
42
5 STARS
33%
4 STARS
48%
3 STARS
19%
2 STARS
0%
1 STARS
0%
goodreads
Author
Tarjei Vesaas
Author · 15 books
Tarjei Vesaas was a Norwegian poet and novelist. Written in Nynorsk, his work is characterized by simple, terse, and symbolic prose. His stories often cover simple rural people that undergo a severe psychological drama and who according to critics are described with immense psychological insight. Commonly dealing with themes such as death, guilt, angst, and other deep and intractable human emotions, the Norwegian natural landscape is a prevalent feature in his works. His debut was in 1923 with Children of Humans (Menneskebonn), but he had his breakthrough in 1934 with The Great Cycle (Det store spelet). His mastery of the nynorsk language, landsmål (see Norwegian language), has contributed to its acceptance as a medium of world class literature.
