Ritið : tímarit Hugvísindastofnunar - 01.01.2020, Page 268
„ALLSKONAR NÚTÍmAHELVÍTI“
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insights can be gleaned, both in terms of Laxness’ career and Icelandic theater his
tory in the 20th century. Such a project could be undertaken in a variety of ways, but
here the reception history of Laxness’ second play, Silfurtúnglið, will be employed as
a case study. The reception of the play will be examined in conjunction with certain
intentional textual correlatives, and that these need to be accounted for in order
to grasp the various logics at play in the play’s long history. The correlatives most
relevant to this article are those having to do with genre and genre conventions and
intertextuality. With respect to genre, it will be maintained that the play resists easy
categorizations, going so far as to actively undermine the discourse of genre coher
ence and specificity. Here, the notion of the melodramatic imagination is of consid
erable importance. As to considerations of intertextuality, the text will be placed in
a relationship to the theatrical aesthetics of Bertolt Brecht. Both correlative spheres
will then be shown to be of fundamental import when it comes to the reception of
Silfurtúnglið, and the evaluation of its meaning(s), address and the general herme
neutic work required of the text.
Keywords: Halldór Laxness, Icelandic theater, melodrama, Bertolt Brecht, reception
studies
Björn Þór Vilhjálmsson
Lektor í almennri bókmenntafræði og kvikmyndafræði
Íslensku og menningardeild
Hugvísindasviði Háskóla Íslands
Sæmundargötu 2
IS102 Reykjavík, Ísland
btv@hi.is