What is hidden in Västerbotten's stomach : on Augustine and Torgny Lindgren's Minnen

2014
journal article
article
dc.abstract.enThe article investigates the complex intertextual dialogue between Torgny Lindgren's Minnen (2010) and Augustine's Confessions, from which Lindgren has taken the motto of his autobiography. By using the patristic intertext as a starting point, the investigation intends to show how Lindgren has constructed his image of Västerbotten. The article is divided into four parts. The first part (I), establishes the heuristic principles of the investigation, which adhere to the recent tendency in patristic studies to observe the heterogeneous character of Augustine's world of thought. The second part of the article (II) charts parallels between text and intertext in their portrayal of grace, evil, and man. It emerges that those elements of Lindgren's world view which are particularly closely related to Augustinian theology are also the ones that possess a particularly strong Västerbottnian character. This intertextual affinity can be explained not only with reference to the Lutheran tradition of Västerbotten, but also has to be related to the text's specific structure of memoria, which is unravelled in the remaining parts (III-IV). On the basis of modern cultural anthropological theories of memory, the third part demonstrates that most of the differences between text and intertext can be linked to the cultural memory of modernity, and document the rise and fall of industrial subjectivity. Lindgren embeds his autobiographical version of Västerbotten into the basic structure of modern memory, transforms it into a quasi-subject, and taints it with the symptoms of decay that plague the industrial 'I.' In the same as Western modernity, Minnen draws the majority of its metaphors of dissolution from Augustine's paradigmatic doctrine of sin. The fourth part of the article (IV) aims to analyse the autobiography's mechanisms of substitution. It is argued that these attempt-in analogy to many Western critics of modernity-to counteract the crisis of industrial cultural memory by reviving the Augustinian forms of memoria and creating a synthesis of pre-industrial and industrial. Within the quasi subject of Västerbotten and its wealth of agrarian objects, Lindgren finds adequate metaphorical models for use in his compensatory project of counter-memory. The article concludes by observing that, just as Minnen's productive dialogue with Augustine allows it to recapitulate the history of Western memory, Lindgren's Västerbotten is elevated to the status of a universal symbol of European consciousness and its fate.pl
dc.affiliationWydział Filologiczny : Instytut Filologii Germańskiejpl
dc.contributor.authorBak, Krzysztof - 127169 pl
dc.date.accessioned2015-03-10T09:04:28Z
dc.date.available2015-03-10T09:04:28Z
dc.date.issued2014pl
dc.description.number1pl
dc.description.physical91-142pl
dc.description.publication2,5pl
dc.description.volume8pl
dc.identifier.issn1654-5915pl
dc.identifier.urihttp://ruj.uj.edu.pl/xmlui/handle/item/3638
dc.languageengpl
dc.language.containerengpl
dc.participationBak, Krzysztof: 100%;pl
dc.rights.licenceBez licencji otwartego dostępu
dc.subject.enTorgny Lindgrenpl
dc.subject.enAugustinepl
dc.subject.entheory of memorypl
dc.subject.enmodernitypl
dc.subject.enVästerbottenpl
dc.subtypeArticlepl
dc.titleWhat is hidden in Västerbotten's stomach : on Augustine and Torgny Lindgren's Minnenpl
dc.title.journalJournal of Northern Studiespl
dc.typeJournalArticlepl
dspace.entity.typePublication
dc.abstract.enpl
The article investigates the complex intertextual dialogue between Torgny Lindgren's Minnen (2010) and Augustine's Confessions, from which Lindgren has taken the motto of his autobiography. By using the patristic intertext as a starting point, the investigation intends to show how Lindgren has constructed his image of Västerbotten. The article is divided into four parts. The first part (I), establishes the heuristic principles of the investigation, which adhere to the recent tendency in patristic studies to observe the heterogeneous character of Augustine's world of thought. The second part of the article (II) charts parallels between text and intertext in their portrayal of grace, evil, and man. It emerges that those elements of Lindgren's world view which are particularly closely related to Augustinian theology are also the ones that possess a particularly strong Västerbottnian character. This intertextual affinity can be explained not only with reference to the Lutheran tradition of Västerbotten, but also has to be related to the text's specific structure of memoria, which is unravelled in the remaining parts (III-IV). On the basis of modern cultural anthropological theories of memory, the third part demonstrates that most of the differences between text and intertext can be linked to the cultural memory of modernity, and document the rise and fall of industrial subjectivity. Lindgren embeds his autobiographical version of Västerbotten into the basic structure of modern memory, transforms it into a quasi-subject, and taints it with the symptoms of decay that plague the industrial 'I.' In the same as Western modernity, Minnen draws the majority of its metaphors of dissolution from Augustine's paradigmatic doctrine of sin. The fourth part of the article (IV) aims to analyse the autobiography's mechanisms of substitution. It is argued that these attempt-in analogy to many Western critics of modernity-to counteract the crisis of industrial cultural memory by reviving the Augustinian forms of memoria and creating a synthesis of pre-industrial and industrial. Within the quasi subject of Västerbotten and its wealth of agrarian objects, Lindgren finds adequate metaphorical models for use in his compensatory project of counter-memory. The article concludes by observing that, just as Minnen's productive dialogue with Augustine allows it to recapitulate the history of Western memory, Lindgren's Västerbotten is elevated to the status of a universal symbol of European consciousness and its fate.
dc.affiliationpl
Wydział Filologiczny : Instytut Filologii Germańskiej
dc.contributor.authorpl
Bak, Krzysztof - 127169
dc.date.accessioned
2015-03-10T09:04:28Z
dc.date.available
2015-03-10T09:04:28Z
dc.date.issuedpl
2014
dc.description.numberpl
1
dc.description.physicalpl
91-142
dc.description.publicationpl
2,5
dc.description.volumepl
8
dc.identifier.issnpl
1654-5915
dc.identifier.uri
http://ruj.uj.edu.pl/xmlui/handle/item/3638
dc.languagepl
eng
dc.language.containerpl
eng
dc.participationpl
Bak, Krzysztof: 100%;
dc.rights.licence
Bez licencji otwartego dostępu
dc.subject.enpl
Torgny Lindgren
dc.subject.enpl
Augustine
dc.subject.enpl
theory of memory
dc.subject.enpl
modernity
dc.subject.enpl
Västerbotten
dc.subtypepl
Article
dc.titlepl
What is hidden in Västerbotten's stomach : on Augustine and Torgny Lindgren's Minnen
dc.title.journalpl
Journal of Northern Studies
dc.typepl
JournalArticle
dspace.entity.type
Publication
Affiliations

* The migration of download and view statistics prior to the date of April 8, 2024 is in progress.

Views
1
Views per month
Views per city
Bayreuth
1

No access

No Thumbnail Available