Åpen tilgang(side 13-34)
av Thorstein Norheim & Aasta Marie
Bjorvand Bjørkøy
Sammendrag
Abstract
This article gives an introduction to the concept of honour,
which is explored theoretically, with references to the most prominent
researchers in the field, as well as historically, in order to reveal
the concept’s main transformations in Scandinavian culture. In addition,
the article gives a short introduction to the rest of the articles
in the book.
Part 1: History of the decline of honour culture in the West
Åpen tilgang(side 37-56)
av Jon
Gunnar Jørgensen
Sammendrag
Abstract
This article examines the prevailing honour code in two Old Norse
sagas, namely one saga about early Icelanders, the saga of Gisle
Sursson, Gisla saga Súrssonar and one dealing with
events from a late medieval society, the saga of Torgils and Havlide, Ϸorgils saga
ok Hafliða. Jørgensen shows how honour functions as a driving
force behind human actions, but also how the honour code changes
with the transition from the old honour culture to the nascent Christian
society.
Åpen tilgang(side 57-80)
av Simen Syvertsen
Sammendrag
Abstract
This article gives a detailed examination of honour performances
in another saga about early Icelanders written in the 13th century.
Although the old and masculine honour code is strongly expressed,
the saga – as it is written in a period of transition – also contains
Christian values, which produce a more ethically oriented and individualized
honour concept.
Åpen tilgang(side 81-94)
av Torfi
H. Tulinius
Sammendrag
Abstract
It has long been recognized that the mechanisms of an honour-based society
are expressed in the narrative form of the Íslendingasögur, or Sagas
about early Icelanders as they are called. These sagas were written
in the thirteenth century but the events described are supposed
to have taken place in the ninth and tenth centuries. I will briefly
discuss the findings of several scholars on this question and then
widen the discussion to the contemporary sagas which were composed
in the same period but relate contemporary events. Though the latter
sagas are more bound by detail and reality in what they describe,
they also reveal the same structures of revenge. They also reflect the
concerns of a society which is going through an exceptionally violent
period in its history. Some of the texts show a deep understanding
of the effects of trauma on the human psyche. In the main part of
my paper, I will suggest how this understanding finds expression
in the more literary compositions of the Sagas of Icelanders, some
of which may be understood as efforts to reconstruct a troubled
identity in traumatic times.
Åpen tilgang(side 95-102)
av Jan
Erik Rekdal
Sammendrag
Abstract
Rekdal presents a reading of one Old Irish King saga, Echtra
Fergusa maic Léti. Rekdal concentrates on an important
honour motive in literature: how honour and shame are connected
to the human face and bodily descriptions. Rekdal interprets the tale
as an exposition of the meaning and implications of honour-price:
The fact that the honour price of a person refers to a word for
face underscores how central both face and façade are to honour
and to shame; a king whose face is tarnished is no longer fit to rule
his kingdom.
Part 2: The individualisation of the concept of honour
Åpen tilgang(side 105-128)
av Per
Thomas Andersen
Sammendrag
Abstract
This article presents how Christianity acquired the notion of
honor and that internal honor played as important a role as external
honor – at least in the culture of Chivalry and the Victorian gentleman
culture. The revaluation in Christian cultures of internal honor
leads to the individualization of Western cultural values as well
as the decline of Western honor culture. Andersen stresses that
modern warfare more or less puts an end to honor culture in the
West.
Åpen tilgang(side 129-144)
av Anne-Marie Mai
Sammendrag
Abstract
This article has the conceptions of honour in Henrik Ibsen’s A
Doll’s House (1879/1889) as its springboard, includes the
concept of honour in Thit Jensen’s novels about the modern, emancipated
woman Gerd. Det tyvende Aarhundredes Kvinde (Gerd.
Woman of the 20th century, 1918) and Aphrodite fra Fuur (Aphrodite from
Fuur, 1925), then focuses on the concept of honour in Suzanne Brøgger’s collection
of essays Kærlighedens veje og vildveje (Love’s
Paths and Pitfalls, 1975) and compares it with Pablo Llambías’ rewriting
of the work from a male point of view in Kærlighedens veje
og vildveje (Love’s Paths and Pitfalls, 2009).
Åpen tilgang(side 145-169)
av Mads
Breckan Claudi
Sammendrag
Abstract
With a historical and cultural approach to literature and poetry,
Claudi demonstrates the English writer Thomas Carlyle’s influence
on individual authors, e.g. Kristofer Uppdal, but also how it inspired
a collective of poets, including Tore Ørjasæter and Olav Nygard.
Claudi indicates that such an individual and person-oriented progressive
movement as the chief cult eventually came into discredit in the
wake of both World War II and changed conceptions in modern research
of how history develops.
Åpen tilgang(side 170-186)
av Mikkel Bruun Zangenberg
Sammendrag
Abstract
The initial purpose of this article is to explore the variegated
negotiations of notions of ‘honour’ in an historical setting, and
a multitude of generic registers, extending from Cervantes to Al-Qaeda,
and by implication Daesh/The Islamic State. The second, but central
aim is to suggest that a specific, affective logic is at work across apparently
widely different works and phenomena, namely the way in which failed intersubjective
or political recognition results in various types of metaphoric
and literal warfare, in the hope of gaining ‘honour’.
Part 3: Honour in the late modern welfare state
Åpen tilgang(side 189-216)
av Thorstein Norheim
Sammendrag
Abstract
The novel is read as a literary dystopia and an honour narrative
by suggesting that the misanthropy in the novel and the Marcussian
repressive tolerance of the welfare state, are dystopian expressions
of the lack of traditional honour culture. The novel tries to oppose
this by its main plot: the depiction of the two protagonists’ radical and
rebellious resistance work. This is seen as a utopian initiative,
promoted by the need to revitalise a kind of traditional honour
culture.
Åpen tilgang(side 217-233)
av Cecilie Takle
Sammendrag
Abstract
This article portrays the coherence of ethics and the dichotomy
honour/shame, and she shows how the fantastic in literature is highly
relevant in exploring ethics in literature. Takle’s argument is
supported by examples from the Norwegian trilogy The Raven
Rings (2013–2015) by Siri Pettersen and the Shamer
Chronicle (2000–2003) by Lene Kaaberbøl. Takle also demonstrates
why the fantasy genre may play an important educational role for
the individual and for democracy.
Åpen tilgang(side 234-248)
av Peter Simonsen
Sammendrag
Abstract
This article provides a reading of Charlotte Strandgaard’s collection
of poetry, No Man’s Land (2015), as a piece of
Danish welfare state poetry. This collection of poetry articulates
certain anxieties associated with maintaining one’s honour as an elderly
woman in the contemporary welfare state that embraces economic values
of speed, efficiency, growth and (re)productivity. In the welfare
state the elderly are kept out of traditional functions. In a utilitarian
sense, they feel useless, and it becomes difficult to ‘age with
honour’ in the sense of maintaining their sense of dignity as an effect
of maintaining their personal autonomy.
Åpen tilgang(side 249-274)
av Aasta
Marie Bjorvand Bjørkøy
Sammendrag
Abstract
Uniform treatment of the elderly (those over 65) is neither worthy
nor fair. This article examines how the elderly are depicted as
well as treated in the short story ‘Ingenting hendt’ (2000) by Bjarte
Breiteig and the novel Så høyt var du elsket (2011)
by Nikolaj Frobenius. Bjørkøy presents what forms of honour are
addressed in these literary texts, and what existential issues may
arise when we grow old, retired and sick in the Norwegian welfare
state.
Åpen tilgang(side 275-295)
av Johanne Walle Jomisko de Figueiredo
Sammendrag
Abstract
This article discusses the problems that arise in the encounter
between an intact honour culture (Pakistani) and a weakened honour
culture (Norwegian). In the novel Izzat (1996)
honour performances are largely connected to the question of gender,
and de Figueiredo examines particularly the conflict unfolding in
the relationship between father and daughter.
Åpen tilgang(side 296-322)
av Nasim Karim
Sammendrag
Abstract
Honour-related violence is the subject of this article, which
is based upon Nasim Karim’s Master’s thesis in jurisprudence, Partnerdrap
– familietragedie eller æresdrap (2015). Karim discusses
sentencing in partner homicides. This article supplements Figueiredo’s
contribution. The two murder cases Karim discusses take place in
locations in Norway, and both murders are committed by the spouse. Nevertheless,
the first case is designated as an honour killing, while the other
case is referred to as a family tragedy.
What is honour, and how does it affect our lives? In contemporary Western cultures, honour seems to have lost its dominant role as a key concept for denoting central dynamics of human life, both individually and socially. In the Scandinavian countries, a slow revolution has taken place throughout history from the strong Norse honour culture to the post-war egalitarian and equality-oriented welfare society which appears to be an after-honour culture. What are the reasons for this weakening, and what are its consequences? Are we living with new forms of honour, and what does it mean to live in an after-honour culture?
The focal point and chief target of the discussions is literature, primarily Scandinavian, but also other textual expressions. The book is aimed at readers interested in literature, but the topic is interdisciplinary and should therefore appeal to a wider audience.
This volume emanates from the project After Honour, initiated by the research group Literature and Affect at Institute of Scandinavian Studies, University of Oslo. The 15 articles are written by scholars from Norway, Denmark and Iceland: Per Thomas Andersen, Aasta Marie Bjorvand Bjørkøy, Mads B. Claudi, Johanne Walle Jomisko de Figueiredo, Jon Gunnar Jørgensen, Anne-Marie Mai, Thorstein Norheim, Nasim Karim, Jan Erik Rekdal, Peter Simonsen, Simen Syvertsen, Cecilie Takle, Torfi H. Tulinius and Mikkel Bruun Zangenberg.
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