‘Á Kálfskinni’: Sagas and the Space of Literature
Abstract The “space of literature” is a metaphor for literature introduced by the French writer and critic Maurice Blanchot to express the specificity of literary discourse, which says what otherwise cannot be said. In this it produces a community around the unsayable. This ability to say something...
| Published in: | European Journal of Scandinavian Studies |
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| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | unknown |
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Walter de Gruyter GmbH
2017
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| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/ejss-2017-0009 http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/ejss.2017.47.issue-1/ejss-2017-0009/ejss-2017-0009.xml https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/ejss-2017-0009/pdf |
| Summary: | Abstract The “space of literature” is a metaphor for literature introduced by the French writer and critic Maurice Blanchot to express the specificity of literary discourse, which says what otherwise cannot be said. In this it produces a community around the unsayable. This ability to say something previously unsaid makes literature to some extent akin to scientific inquiry. In the last decades, research in Old Norse-Icelandic studies has not focussed on this aspect of the saga literature. The study of the sociological conditions for literary production in medieval Iceland can explain why the self-conscious pursuit of literary expression resulted in the emergence of a unique literary genre, the Saga about early Icelanders ( |
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