This project begins by observing the fact that the motif of heim (the New Norwegian word for home) appears constantly in Nynorsk literature’s beginnings and well into the modern breakthrough. This motif has hardly been commented on, aside from its definition as a symbol of topographical place, to where one belongs or returns, or from where one departs. Yet, out of this fixed meaning, heim develops a second meaning that becomes a primary symbol in poetry and prose. It is this second meaning which this thesis argues is paramount to the literature of Nynorsk.
Not only is this symbol unique to this corpus, but the Nynorsk texts I examine are in fact constituted by the continually present concept and symbol of heimen, the home. The conception of home, therefore, expresses not simply lived space, but mankind, the world, the nation, the universe, heaven or hell, good or evil, futurism, modernism, expressionism, Heimat and the Fatherland, the uncanny, joy and the soul of humanity. These various definitions and allegories are visible in the works of, among many others, Aasen, Vinje, Garborg, Sivle, Ørjasæter, Nygard and Uppdal.
That the meaning of heim is articulated in such an array of conceptual notions – the geographical, the metaphysical, the philosophical, the mythological, the national, the religious, the metaphorical – illustrates that its meaning is couched beneath several layers. This project therefore looks to map how the meaning of home, as a concept, travels across time periods, linguistic changes, artistic periods and ideological differences.
Further reading
The project is affiliated with the NTNU-based project ImagiNation 1814-1905: Mapping the Imagined Geographies of Norway.