Independent People
Novel about a sheep farmer's struggle for independence in Iceland.
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Guðbjartur Jónsson, called Bjartur of Summerhouses in the narrative, is a sheep farmer whose quest for autonomy drives the plot.[1] Laxness's receipt of the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature was influenced by this novel along with several other major works.[2]
Making and release
Bjartur has just made the first payment on his own farm after eighteen years working as a shepherd for a bailiff he detests.[1] The author's ironic appraisal is expressed in the novel's title and chapter titles like "Free of Debt" and "Years of Prosperity"[3] The popular Icelandic poet Hulda wrote the two-volume novel Dalafólk as a reaction to Independent People.[4] Hulda's work presents an idealized picture of old manorlike farmsteads, in contrast to Laxness' bleak view of rural life.[4]
Dillard noted that the greatest Scandinavians' work shows opposing strains of lyricism and naturalism.[5] In a 1997 review, Annie Dillard described Independent People as satisfying two criteria at once: "a mythic tale -- cum Marx."[5]
What the cited sources add
The thematic analysis of the title's irony comes from Svetlana Nedelyaeva-Steponavichiene's 1972 article in Scandinavica.[3] The reaction by Hulda is documented in Stefán Einarsson's 1957 A History of Icelandic Literature.[4] Annie Dillard's review appeared in The New York Times on 20 April 1997.[5] The 1999 Harvill Press translation by J.A. Thompson is the edition used for the plot summary.[1]
References
- Wikipedia, "Independent People" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Halldór Laxness, Independent People, trans. by J.A. Thompson (London: Harvill Press, 1999), p. 13. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Independent People" (CC BY-SA 4.0) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Independent People" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Svetlana Nedelyaeva-Steponavichiene, "On the style of Laxness' Tetralogy", Scandinavica, 1972 supplement, p. 72. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Independent People" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Stefán Einarsson, A History of Icelandic Literature, New York: Johns Hopkins for the American Scandinavian Foundation, 1957, OCLC 264046441, p. 280. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Independent People" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dillard, "Hard Times in Ultima Thule", The New York Times, 20 April 1997 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Independent People (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Independent People (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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