Colours, Colour Symbolism, and Social Critique in Halldór Laxness’s Salka Valka
ABSTRACT: Halldór Kiljan Laxness is one of the most successful and renowned authors in all of Iceland. The Nobel Laureate has written many well-known works, one of which is his early novel Salka Valka (1931-1932), a political romance that follows the life of a young girl in a remote Icelandic fishin...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:346de69f9c4241d89f0f4527ea88243f 2023-07-02T03:32:44+02:00 Colours, Colour Symbolism, and Social Critique in Halldór Laxness’s Salka Valka Natalie M. Van Deusen 2009-12-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.29173/scancan33 https://doaj.org/article/346de69f9c4241d89f0f4527ea88243f EN FR eng fre University of Alberta Library https://scancan.net/index.php/scancan/article/view/33 https://doaj.org/toc/0823-1796 https://doaj.org/toc/2816-5187 doi:10.29173/scancan33 0823-1796 2816-5187 https://doaj.org/article/346de69f9c4241d89f0f4527ea88243f Scandinavian-Canadian Studies, Vol 18 (2009) History of Northern Europe. Scandinavia DL1-1180 Language and Literature P article 2009 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.29173/scancan33 2023-06-11T00:34:56Z ABSTRACT: Halldór Kiljan Laxness is one of the most successful and renowned authors in all of Iceland. The Nobel Laureate has written many well-known works, one of which is his early novel Salka Valka (1931-1932), a political romance that follows the life of a young girl in a remote Icelandic fishing village from age ten to age twenty-five. An interesting feature of Salka Valka is Laxness’s use of colours and colour symbolism. While Laxness employs a wide variety of basic and non-basic colour terms throughout the novel to describe various people, objects, and natural phenomena, most interesting is his use of grey as opposed to other colours. Laxness uses grey to portray the dreary life and destitute people in the desolate and remote Icelandic fishing village of Óseyri, which he juxtaposes against colourful descriptions of the vibrant and flourishing lives of wealthy individuals both within and outside the village. This article examines these and Laxness’s other uses of grey as opposed to other colours in Salka Valka, particularly as they relate to the social and economic critique that, as scholars have noted time and time again, define this novel. Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Óseyri ENVELOPE(-13.962,-13.962,64.842,64.842) Salka ENVELOPE(107.800,107.800,67.833,67.833) Scandinavian-Canadian Studies 18 56 70 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English French |
topic |
History of Northern Europe. Scandinavia DL1-1180 Language and Literature P |
spellingShingle |
History of Northern Europe. Scandinavia DL1-1180 Language and Literature P Natalie M. Van Deusen Colours, Colour Symbolism, and Social Critique in Halldór Laxness’s Salka Valka |
topic_facet |
History of Northern Europe. Scandinavia DL1-1180 Language and Literature P |
description |
ABSTRACT: Halldór Kiljan Laxness is one of the most successful and renowned authors in all of Iceland. The Nobel Laureate has written many well-known works, one of which is his early novel Salka Valka (1931-1932), a political romance that follows the life of a young girl in a remote Icelandic fishing village from age ten to age twenty-five. An interesting feature of Salka Valka is Laxness’s use of colours and colour symbolism. While Laxness employs a wide variety of basic and non-basic colour terms throughout the novel to describe various people, objects, and natural phenomena, most interesting is his use of grey as opposed to other colours. Laxness uses grey to portray the dreary life and destitute people in the desolate and remote Icelandic fishing village of Óseyri, which he juxtaposes against colourful descriptions of the vibrant and flourishing lives of wealthy individuals both within and outside the village. This article examines these and Laxness’s other uses of grey as opposed to other colours in Salka Valka, particularly as they relate to the social and economic critique that, as scholars have noted time and time again, define this novel. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Natalie M. Van Deusen |
author_facet |
Natalie M. Van Deusen |
author_sort |
Natalie M. Van Deusen |
title |
Colours, Colour Symbolism, and Social Critique in Halldór Laxness’s Salka Valka |
title_short |
Colours, Colour Symbolism, and Social Critique in Halldór Laxness’s Salka Valka |
title_full |
Colours, Colour Symbolism, and Social Critique in Halldór Laxness’s Salka Valka |
title_fullStr |
Colours, Colour Symbolism, and Social Critique in Halldór Laxness’s Salka Valka |
title_full_unstemmed |
Colours, Colour Symbolism, and Social Critique in Halldór Laxness’s Salka Valka |
title_sort |
colours, colour symbolism, and social critique in halldór laxness’s salka valka |
publisher |
University of Alberta Library |
publishDate |
2009 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.29173/scancan33 https://doaj.org/article/346de69f9c4241d89f0f4527ea88243f |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-13.962,-13.962,64.842,64.842) ENVELOPE(107.800,107.800,67.833,67.833) |
geographic |
Óseyri Salka |
geographic_facet |
Óseyri Salka |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_source |
Scandinavian-Canadian Studies, Vol 18 (2009) |
op_relation |
https://scancan.net/index.php/scancan/article/view/33 https://doaj.org/toc/0823-1796 https://doaj.org/toc/2816-5187 doi:10.29173/scancan33 0823-1796 2816-5187 https://doaj.org/article/346de69f9c4241d89f0f4527ea88243f |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.29173/scancan33 |
container_title |
Scandinavian-Canadian Studies |
container_volume |
18 |
container_start_page |
56 |
op_container_end_page |
70 |
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1770272383023710208 |