Song Lyrics and Literary History

Gunilla Hermansson is Professor of Comparative Literature at University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Her research is primarily devoted to Nordic romantic, early avant-garde and modernist literature and the problems and possibilities of literary history. Her most recent books are Swedish Women’s Writing on Export (2019, co-author) and Exploring Nordic Cool in Literary History (2020, co-editor).

This book tells an exciting and eye-opening literary history of Julia Nyberg’s well-known and beloved song, “Vårvindar friska” from 1828. Gunilla Hermansson breaks new ground for literary history by delving into the story of a popular song. The study of literature needs fresh eyes, new ideas and approaches that cut across familiar ways of thinking. With Song Lyrics and Literary History, the reader is rewarded with a very well-written and surprising narrative, and with thought-provoking discussions on new paths for the old discipline of literary history.

• List of figuresAcknowledgementsIntroduction: Song lyrics and literary history· Exploring the cultural history of a poem-meant-to-be-sung – challenges and choices1. The usability of ‘Vårvindar friska’· Julia Nyberg as Euphrosyne· Romanticism, folk songs and the productive reception of the past· The poem and its procreativity· The early reception and a snowball effect2. Performing the nation: Male appropriations· New elites and levelling fraternities· Poetry and song in cooperation and competition· The politics of performing the nation· Masculine freshness on tour· A shared effort3. Railways and lyrics connecting the nation· Poetry and railways· The order of participation · Royalism and old bones· Tegnér cut up and adapted· Three concerts and a fountain4. Making it over there: Migration and identity building· Travelling poetry, travelling songs· Newspaper evidence: A unique landscape of uses· Organized Swedish singing in America and live performances· Supporting Swedishness5. Carry me back: Folk songs, racechanges and the making of national canons· Racechanges and racism in Swedish America· National art and fantasies of home · ‘Vårvindar friska’ and plantation songs· There’s no place like home: Transatlantic exchanges6. Working women: International stars and Nordic femininity· Going to Hollywood· The way it really was: Lost innocence in the West· Kyrkjebø and the demands of the market· Work, sex and Nordic femininity7. Investing in the future: Advertising and consumer culture· Spring desires and the ritualization of consumption· Lonely hearts: the economy of personal happiness· Promoting and expanding Swedishness with lyrics and cars8.Textual transformations· Translating as tinting: Professionals versus amateurs· For better, for worse: Healthy children and merry drinkers· Translation-adaptations: Poetry and popular songs· Fan translations, machines and childhood recollections9. Nazi and ultra-nationalist appropriations – and the limits of (mis)use· Appropriation strategies – and legal limits· The instability and power of texts – and conceptual limits 10. Song lyrics and ‘Vårvindar friska’ as a challenge to literary history· The endurance of poetry, orality and aurality in the modern era· The importance of song lyrics for a social account of literary history· Invented traditions connecting past, present and future· Reading, listening and performing: The interdependence of music and literature · Possible literary histories, concepts and models to think byNotesBibliographyIndex