Reykjavík Grapevine - 26.08.2016, Síða 46

Art Festival46The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 13 — 2016
In an interview with the Icelandic
Literature Center, you suggest
that the Icelandic population finds
short fiction to be an inferior form.
Do you feel that short fiction is
becoming less stigmatized?
I certainly hope so. We produce a
lot of short stories in our writing
program, so I hope that the stigma
is not as much of a problem as it
used to be. Still, publishers com-
plain that short stories are harder
to sell, but that’s not just in Ice-
land—that’s a problem everywhere.
But the short story is a very im-
portant form; it can do a lot in a
few words and encompass a world
in a few pages. I have done my best
to promote the form through my
own work and through transla-
tions, and my most recent project
has involved collecting short sto-
ries from around the world. The
North American volume was pub-
lished in April this year, and the
Latin American one will probably
be published next year.
You’ve translated authors from
Amy Tan to J.M. Coetzee. What is
it like to reimagine such a diverse
range of works in a language that
has remained largely unchanged?
Translators are very important
in maintaining the Icelandic lan-
guage and trying to keep it up to
date. It requires a fair bit of en-
ergy to maintain the language,
and there are indications that the
young generations are not willing
to use all this energy on Icelandic.
Some feel like we should just adopt
English or at least aim at becom-
ing bilingual.
But there is something about
the Icelandic environment that
does something to all of us. I come
from the north, near a small fjord. I
sometimes say that the mountains
wrote my books. They shaped my
frame of mind. There’s some force
of nature that determines how we
react to influences, how we adjust
to and assimilate them.
To what extent does literature
influence everyday life in Iceland?
In Iceland, fiction is often read as
nonfiction. So my two books about
the character Egill were a reac-
tion to that manner of reading. I
was trying to bring this charac-
ter into the contemporary scene,
and [because of his name], there
is always an intertextual connec-
tion between the modern and the
ancient. While I was putting Egill
through various modern situa-
tions, I was also trying to echo the
Sagas.
At the same time, I created a
character who was very similar
to myself in certain ways. Egill
was born at the same time as me
and also went to America to study.
The result was that a few years
ago, ‘The History of Icelandic Lit-
erature’ confused me with Egill.
They assumed that I had gradu-
ated from a writers’ workshop in
the US—which I never did, though
I did take some courses at Iowa.
So I was consciously working on
this blend between fact and fic-
tion, and in the end, I myself had
become fiction.
At the same time, you talk about
prose being “the wallpaper of the
soul.” How do you stay authentic
to yourself while also trying to blur
the line between fact and fiction?
I make a point of being true to
emotional content because I want
to write literature that the reader
can relate to. You often see Ice-
landic authors trying to escape
their emotions—maybe because
we are so few, and maybe because
Icelanders have a tendency to read
fiction as nonfiction. The results
are often not so pleasant. So as a
young man, I decided that I was
going to be true to my emotions.
In that respect, more or less ev-
erything I write is autobiographi-
cal because I try to transfer my
emotions into the text. I may start
out with something based on what
happened to me. Then the possi-
bilities take over, and I make the
jump into fiction.
This interview was conducted in
English at the University of Ice-
land on June 28, 2016. It has been
edited for concision and clarity.
Full interview: voxtur.wordpress.com
Rúnar Helgi Vignisson is an author,
translator, and associate professor of
Creative Writing at the University of
Iceland.
Ariel Chu is a senior English major
and Summer 2016 Wilmers Fellow at
Williams College, United States.
“The Mountains
Wrote My Books”
An Interview with Rúnar Helgi Vignisson
Words ARIEL CHU Photo KRISTINN INGVARSSON
The Assembly
of the
Hyper boreans
Freyskatla, 1993, raddskúlptúr / voice sculpture, M
agnús Pálsson
Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir (IS)
dj. f lugvél og geimskip (IS)
Helgi Örn Pétursson (IS)
Jesper Fabricius (DK)
Luke Fowler (UK)
Magnús Pálsson (IS)
Nora Joung (NO)
Ragnar Kjartansson (IS)
Styrmir Örn Guðmundsson (IS)
The Narrative Collection init iated by
Chris toph Büchel (CH)
Curator Gavin Morrison
Co-curator Ráðhildur Ingadóttir
AN EVENT PROGRAM RUNS ALONGSIDE
THE EXHIBITION, WITH PERFORMANCES
AND A SCREENING.
OPEN DAILY FROM 12-18, WEDNESDAYS
FROM 12-20. GUIDED TOUR FOR GROUPS
CAN BE ARRANGED.
Skaft fell – Center for Visual Art, East Iceland
Austurvegur 42, Seyðisf jörður, www.skaft fell.is
Jun 4.– Sep 18. 2016
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