Closeness and Harmony: A Study of the Nature Writing of Erik Rosenberg and Sven Rosendahl

The aim of this study is to analyse different kinds of nature writing by Erik Rosenberg and Sven Rosendahl. The investigation pays attention to two of the leading Swedish nature writers, and in addition it examines some important theoretical issues considering this kind of artful prose writing with factual claims. This kind of literature is mainly overlooked in Swedish literary studies.

The mix of literary form and facts is very interesting. Among the questions that will be considered are what artfulness really means in this context, how the borders between fact and fiction are drawn, and what the references to real places imply. Differences between genres in the works of the two authors will be described, and the writing subject’s relation to the world of the text will be investigated.

I will use theoretical means from genre theory, narrative theory, and stylistics, and participate in a dialogue with ecocritical scholars. An open-minded multidisciplinary attitude is helpful, and valuable facts can for example be received from biology and the history of ideas. Close reading and analytic descriptions of specific texts will be frequent used methods, together with some comparative analyses. The works of the two authors will be related to a tradition of nature writing, and to their contemporary context of protection of the environment.