Studia Islandica - 01.06.1986, Blaðsíða 286

SUMMARY
1
Ást og útlegð (Love and Exile) deals with Icelandic fiction from 1850 to
1920. This monograph is not a literary history in the usual sense of the term;
instead, it attempts to define the structure of the literary period by analyz-
ing the world created in a set of texts and by examining their salient
patterns, relationships and contrasts. The general thesis is that a specific
myth, the myth of love, is a core element in the world of the texts, and that
its rise and decline are thus important clues to their meaning.
If the first Icelandic novels are compared, a surprising degree of uniform-
ity manifests itself; new works virtually grow out of earlier ones, and the
same ideas preoccupy one author after another. Characteristically, the ar-
tistic tension is generated by the conflict between order and chaos. This fic-
tion portrays a static, rigid society and individuals who try to break loose
from its constraints, try to live — persons who marshal play, laughter and
love against the existing order, threatening its balance from within. That
conflict — between repression and passion, between the exercise of power
and rebellion - is a key feature of Icelandic prose literature from 1850 to
1920. The plot generally involves the struggle of lovers against a hostile en-
vironment and their victory or defeat. Attempting to define the obsession
which permeates these works, the monograph examines the order unifying
them, as well as the chaos which, nonetheless, coexists with that order. Ad-
mittedly, the latter is mainly a surface feature - but one giving rise to the
fertile chaos inspiring modern Icelandic literature.
The inner structure of the basic conflict resulting from iove in specific
works is examined; the thematic structure and the narrative structure are
discussed together because their relationship determines the position of a
work in the system of literature, as is made clear. This analysis shows that
three structures are prevalent in Icelandic fiction from 1850 to 1920. The
first of these is characterized by static realities, acceptance of the socio-
economic order, and a conservative Christian outlook on life — while the
second focuses on opposition to the established order and struggle against
it. These polarities are linked by the third structure, which is equally in-