Critical Approaches to Sjón

Critical Approaches to Sjón: North of the Sun is the first English-language book-length study of the works of the Icelandic contemporary poet, Sigurjón Birgir Sigurðsson, who is considered by some to be Iceland's most distinctive and multifaceted contemporary author.

Critical Approaches to Sjón: North of the Sun is the first English-language book-length study of the works of the Icelandic contemporary poet Sjón (Sigurjón Birgir Sigurðsson, b. 1962), who is considered by some to be Iceland's most distinctive and multifaceted contemporary author. This collection of essays introduces readers to Sjón's rich body of writing and its transmedial and stylistic range, cultural breadth, thematic diversity, and intellectual depth. Essays in the volume have been brought together from around the world and cover Sjóns's beginnings as a neo-surrealist performance artist and poet (translated into over 20 languages), his career as a novelist (translated into over 30 languages), and his collaborations with translators, singer-songwriters, film directors, and other writers. Approaches range from the narratological, historical, ethical, epistemological, and mythological to theoretical methodologies such as thing theory, queer theory, disability studies, and ecocriticism.

Autorentext

Linda Badley is Professor Emerita of English and Film Studies at Middle Tennessee State University.

Úlfhildur Dagsdóttir is an Icelandic literature scholar.

Gitte Mose is Associate Professor Emerita at the University of Oslo.

Inhalt

List of Figures

List of Contributors

Acknowledgements

A Note on Translation

Introduction

Linda Badley, Úlfhildur Dagsdóttir, and Gitte Mose

Part I: The Voices of Sjón

1. The Pleasures and Challenges of Recreating Sjón's Voice

Victoria Cribb

2. The Author is In: Moonstone, Authorship, Reading, and Intertextuality (or The Boy Who Became a Story)

Úlfhildur Dagsdóttir

Part II: Surrealism

3. Oh! Sjón, the Poet 1978****1986

Erik Skyum-Nielsen

4. Sjón's Nuclear Dystopia: Reflections on Stálnótt, Medúsa, and Johnny Triumph's Musical Career

Jón Karl Helgason

5. Beneath the veil of happenings: Sjón, the Norse Visionary of Surrealism's Deep History

Delia Ungureanu

Part III: Transmedia, Miscellanea

6. Moonstone: The Cinema that Always Was

Janica Tomi

7. Sjón at the Movies

Björn Nordfjörd

8. The Drop Tower, the Roller Coaster, the Whirling Cups: Sjón-Miscellanea and Things

Gitte Mose

Part IV: History, Ethics, Politics, and Storytelling

9. Sjón and the Long Icelandic Medieval Past

Carolyne Larrington

10. Transnational and Counter-Memorial Practices: Antisemitism, Nationalism, and the Second World War in Sjón's Works

Gunnþórunn Guðmundsdóttir

11. The Narratable Self: Natality and the Politics of Storytelling in CoDex 1962

    Anne Fogarty

Part V: Queer Ecologies: Hybridity, Disability, Ecopoetics

12. The End of the World as We Know It: Queerness and Utopias in Sjón's Poetry and Prose

Asta Kristin Benediktsdóttir

13. Human-Animal Bodies in The Blue Fox and CoDex1962

Avril Tynan

14. Sjónian Ecopoetics

Linda Badley

Epilogue: Sjón in His Own Voice

Appendix: A Chronology of Sjón's Life and Writings

Index