Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie occidentale

Journal | Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie occidentale
Monographic journal issue | 59 | Supplemento | 2025

Case di carta, castelli in aria, fucine di parole. Architetture nelle lingue e letterature nordiche

open access | peer reviewed
    edited by
  • Andrea Meregalli - Università degli Studi di Milano, Italia - email
  • Camilla Storskog - Università degli Studi di Milano, Italia - email
  • Francesca Turri - Università degli Studi di Milano, Italia - email
Abstract

This volume investigates some of the ways in which literature makes use of architecture by exploring buildings, constructing spaces, and configuring structural scaffoldings in narratives. With focus on literary texts from the Nordic countries, the contributions explore themes, authors, and genres from the Middle Ages to the contemporary age along three main axes of research. The first section (“Case di carta”) investigates stories that revolve around specific buildings or architectural elements, such as Strasbourg Cathedral in Jens Baggesen’s Labyrinten (1792‑93), the connection between psyche and real or metaphorical architectures in August Strindberg’s Taklagsöl (1906) and Lars Gustafsson’s En kakelsättares eftermiddag (1991), the tension between tradition (peat houses) and modernity (concrete buildings) in Halldór Laxness’s Sjálfstætt fólk (1934‑35), architectural space as social space in Bjarte Breiteig’s urban novel Tøyeneffekten (2021). The second theme (“Castelli in aria”) involves both natural and metaphysical dimensions, such as the construction of sacred spaces by drawing on mystical models in Nitida saga, celestial structures modelled on terrestrial experience in Emanuel Swedenborg’s visions – a source of inspiration for Strindberg’s Inferno (1897) and Ockulta dagboken (1896‑1908) – and the reflection on subjectivity that takes its cue from a corner of nature in Søren Kierkegaard’s writings. The third axis (“Fucine di parole”) explores structural elements in literary genres, involving the debate on the Icelandic sagas, as in the case studies devoted to narrative structure in Finnboga saga ramma or the topos of the feasting hall in Egils saga einhenda and Kjalnesinga saga. It also takes into account the role of the city of Babylon in some versions of the medieval chivalric poem Floire et Blancheflor as well as dystopian perspectives in Niklas Natt och Dag’s historical crime novel 1793 (2017).

Keywords Subjectivity • Flores och Blanzeflor • High Middle Ages • Curator • Oslo • Rural architecture • Mysticism • Vernacular architecture • Egils saga einhenda • Vision literature • Living • Existentialism • Cathedral of Notre-Dame of Strasbourg • Giants • Chivalric literature • Dofri • ‘Post-Classical’ Íslendingasögur • Baroque • Identity • Construction • Stockholm • Occultism • Medieval Icelandic literature • Tiler • Medieval translation • Nitida saga • Troll • Tøyeneffekten • Building • Iceland • Kjalnesinga saga • Swedish literature • Labyrinten • Theory of literature • Gothic • Gentrification • Finnboga saga ramma • Edifying • Eighteenth-century Sweden • Dystopia • Parody • Mandalic architecture • Genre • Íslendingasögur • Architecture • Aesthetics • Halldór Laxness • Reception Studies • Floire et Blancheflor • Swedish Crime Fiction • Textual transmission • Post-migration Literature • Concrete • Riddarasögur • Bjarte Breiteig • Jens Baggesen

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/AnnOc/2499-1562/2025/13 | Published May 27, 2025 | Language en, it

Copyright © Andrea Meregalli, Camilla Storskog, Francesca Turri. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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