TY - JOUR

T1 - Karen Bixen reads the Olaf Tryggvason saga: Reseption of the saga and narrative strategies in “The Bear and the Kiss”

AU - Ломагина, Анастасия Всеволодовна

PY - 2020

Y1 - 2020

N2 - The article analyses the reception of the Norse sagas in Karen Blixen’s short story“The Bear and the Kiss” written in 1958 with the main focus on the “saga of Olaf Tryggvason”. Drawing on Wolfgang Iser’s reception theory, the article explores the hierarchy ofthe pre-texts that are traceable in the text of the considered story and suggests a systemof markers that are meant to include interaction with the precedent texts. The typologyof markers includes the characters’ names, metaphorical use of mythological or historicalpersonas, the identified cited texts or stories, identical attributes (in this particular text —a glove thrown into a person’s face), the characters’ appearance, and similarity or contrastwith the storyline of the other unidentified text. The analysis shows that there are twopossible effects of the use of references: semantic compression and, conversely, symbolistand Neoplatonic circling around the event, which creates a semantic gap. The reader caneither find himself aware of a riddle yet being unable to understand how the events orreactions fit into the plot or assume the role of an investigator creating his own interpretation of the storyline. The examined strategy of circling around the truth in order toindicate an idea or a fact by using metaphors, comparisons, and allusions in combinationwith Walter Benjamin’s and Edward Forster’s philosophy of oral storytelling allows Blixen’s short stories to fit neatly into the context of European modernism.

AB - The article analyses the reception of the Norse sagas in Karen Blixen’s short story“The Bear and the Kiss” written in 1958 with the main focus on the “saga of Olaf Tryggvason”. Drawing on Wolfgang Iser’s reception theory, the article explores the hierarchy ofthe pre-texts that are traceable in the text of the considered story and suggests a systemof markers that are meant to include interaction with the precedent texts. The typologyof markers includes the characters’ names, metaphorical use of mythological or historicalpersonas, the identified cited texts or stories, identical attributes (in this particular text —a glove thrown into a person’s face), the characters’ appearance, and similarity or contrastwith the storyline of the other unidentified text. The analysis shows that there are twopossible effects of the use of references: semantic compression and, conversely, symbolistand Neoplatonic circling around the event, which creates a semantic gap. The reader caneither find himself aware of a riddle yet being unable to understand how the events orreactions fit into the plot or assume the role of an investigator creating his own interpretation of the storyline. The examined strategy of circling around the truth in order toindicate an idea or a fact by using metaphors, comparisons, and allusions in combinationwith Walter Benjamin’s and Edward Forster’s philosophy of oral storytelling allows Blixen’s short stories to fit neatly into the context of European modernism.

KW - Karen Blixen, reception, Norse sagas, narrative strategy, intertextuality, Walter Benjamin, Edward Forster, aesthetics of symbolism, Friedrich Schiller “The Glove

U2 - 10.21638/11701/spbu21.2020.207

DO - 10.21638/11701/spbu21.2020.207

M3 - Article

VL - 18

SP - 323

EP - 337

JO - СКАНДИНАВСКАЯ ФИЛОЛОГИЯ

JF - СКАНДИНАВСКАЯ ФИЛОЛОГИЯ

SN - 0202-2397

IS - 2

ER -