Nelly Sachs feierte Karin Boye (1900-1941) als »leidenschaftliche Verschwenderin ihrer Seelenkräfte«, der »Schweden einige seiner schönsten Gedichte zu verdanken hat« und Peter Weiss setzte ihr im dritten Band seiner »Ästhetik des Widerstands« ein literarisches Denkmal. Am bedeutendsten ist sie als bildmächtige Lyrikerin der Sehnsucht, der Nacht, des Unbewussten und nicht zuletzt des Coming-out. Sie verdient ihren Platz neben anderen Ikonen des 20. Jahrhunderts wie Anna Achmatova, Sylvia Plath oder Ingeborg Bachmann. Ihr lyrisches Gesamtwerk erscheint nun erstmals auf Deutsch.
Karin Boye Book order (chronological)
October 26, 1900 – April 24, 1941
Karin Boye was a Swedish writer whose poetic voice explored the depths of human experience, often touching upon themes of pain and movement. Her novels frequently offered astute social commentary, with one notable work presenting a chilling vision of a dystopian society and the perils of enforced truth. Boye's literary legacy lies in her powerful exploration of psychological landscapes and her prescient warnings against encroaching authoritarianism.
Crisis
- 192 pages
- 7 hours of reading
Malin Forst is a precocious, devout twenty-year-old woman attending a Stockholm teachers' college in the 1930s. Confounded by a sudden crisis of faith, Malin plunges into a depression and a paralysis of will.
Kallocain
- 192 pages
- 7 hours of reading
A pioneering work of dystopian fiction from one of Sweden's most acclaimed writers Written midway between Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four, as the terrible events of the Second World War were unfolding, Kallocain depicts a totalitarian 'World State' which seeks to crush the individual entirely. In this desolate, paranoid landscape of 'police eyes' and 'police ears', the obedient citizen and middle-ranking scientist Leo Kall discovers a drug that will force anyone who takes it to tell the truth. But can private thought really be obliterated? Karin Boye's chilling novel of creeping alienation shows the dangers of acquiescence and the power of resistance, no matter how futile. Translated with an introduction by David McDuff