The Ocean in Contemporary Norwegian Literature

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse the way in which the ocean is depicted in several contemporary Norwegian literary works. The analysed volumes are Mandø (2009), by Kjersti Vik, the so-called Barrøy Chronicles, by Roy Jacobsen (2013-2020), Shark Drunk (2015), by Morten Strøksnes, and The End of the Ocean (2017), by Maja Lunde. This research is situated at the intersection between ecocriticism and new materialist theories. In this sense, it draws extensively on approaches such as Serenella Iovino and Serpil Oppermann’s material ecocriticism, as well as on more recent scholarship that integrates literary theory with new materialist thought. Building on Juha Raipola’s critique of material ecocriticism, this article argues that if the behavior of the more-than-human world remains inaccessible to humans, it can only be approached through speculation. Speculation becomes particularly relevant when it comes to literature, as, according to Kerstin Howaldt and Kai Merten, it celebrates human finiteness. The human characters in the selected volumes seek connection with the more-than-human world by projecting human stories onto placeswhere they are clearly absent: some read whales as planets, other interpret the movement of waves as a sea chantey. Most of the times, these characters are fully aware of the insurmountable rift between them and the nonhuman environment they inhabit, and this is what engenders the speculation in the first place.