Chair no. 4 - Anders Olsson

Literary historian and writer.
Elected: 2008.

In the course of his research, Anders Olsson has delved into the fundamentals of the development of modern literature. He is moreover a leading expert on the poetry of Gunnar Ekelöf.

Anders Olsson was born in Huddinge, just south of Stockholm, in 1949. As a student, he read Nordic languages, literary history and philosophy, and in the late 1970s was one of the founders of the cultural magazine Kris, which contributed to a renewal of the literary climate in Sweden in the 1980s. He has been active as a critic since the late 1970s.

He made his debut as a writer in 1981 with the essay collection Mälden mellan stenarna (The Grain between the Stones), and his first collection of poems, Dagar, aska (Days, Ashes) was published in 1984. In the intervening years, he had earnt his doctorate with the thesis Ekelöfs nej (Ekelöf’s No, 1983), which highlights fundamental themes and intertextual connections in the writing of Gunnar Ekelöf. His continued interest in the poet later resulted in the book Gunnar Ekelöf (1997) and in his editorship of the Swedish Academy’s 2015 publication of Ekelöf’s collected poems.

Of similar importance to Olsson has been the poetry of Gunnar Björling, and in 1995, he published the latter’s writings in five volumes. That same year saw the publication of the groundbreaking study Att skrivna dagen: Gunnar Björlings poetiska värld (Writing the Day: The Poetic World of Gunnar Björling), in which he analyses Björling’s acute sense of life, along with his most important poetical techniques. The following year, Olsson published the essay ‘Ekelunds hunger’ (1996) about Vilhelm Ekelund, one of Björling’s great predecessors,

Another poet to whom Anders Olsson has paid great attention is Erik Johan Stagnelius. This has resulted in both a biographical memorial and an introduction to the Swedish Academy’s publication of Stagnelius’s collected poems (both 2011), as well as essays such as ‘Vad är en suck?’ (What is a Sigh? 2013) and ‘Drömmen om frihet hos Stagnelius’ (The Dream of Freedom in Stagnelius, 2023).

In 2004, Olsson was appointed Professor of Literary Studies at Stockholm University, by which time he had already published Läsningar av Intet (Readings of Nothingness, 2000), his major study on the death of God and poetic nihilism in modern literature. Here, he describes the two faces of nihilism from Romanticism onwards: on the one hand, the fear of the groundlessness of being, and on the other, the renaissance of mysticism characterised by nothingness, where Meister Eckhart becomes a central figure. A discussion of the philosophical background of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche is followed by a series of readings, featuring writers from Baudelaire to Birgitta Trotzig.

In Skillnadens konst  (The Art of Difference, 2006), he outlines another thread of modern literature, namely the literary fragment tradition extending from German Romanticism to contemporary Swedish-language poetry, including that of Katarina Frostenson and Ann Jäderlund.

A third topic that has long been of central interest to Olsson in his research is exile poetry. Ordens asyl (Asylum for Words, 2011) is a penetrating study of the role of exile in modern literature from a perspective that extends back to classical antiquity. Some of the authors discussed are Ovid, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and W.G. Sebald. Others include Nelly Sachs and Paul Celan, to whom Olsson has returned in various other contexts. In 2020, Olsson’s translation into Swedish of Celan’s final five collections Det sena verket (The Late Work) was published.

In three longer essays, Olsson returned to the question of the art of reading. Firstly, in Den okända texten (The Unknown Text, 1987), which introduces continental interpretive traditions, then in Den andra födan (The Other Food, 1992; with Daniel Birnbaum) and most recently in Tankar om läsning (Thoughts on Reading, 2015). In the latter, he reflects on the conditions for reading and the roles that time, space and memory play in this context, drawing on writers such as Marcel Proust.

Olsson has published seven poetry collections, the most recent being men så oändligt lätt att svara dig (oh how infinitely easy it is to answer you, 2010). These have an unmistakably idiosyncratic tone: low-key, intense and centred on an existential problem that recurs from one collection to the next. All is in a state of motion and change. Nevertheless, moments exist: moments that may be extended and overheard – whether mournful or ecstatic.

For many years, Olsson has acted as a literary ambassador in bringing Swedish-language poetry to German-speaking audiences. He has held presentations at the Kleinheinrich publishing house, highlighting poets such as Stagnelius, Gunnar Ekelöf, Edith Södergran and Gunnar Björling.

In 2008, he was elected to the Swedish Academy as successor to the author Lars Forssell. He was Permanent Secretary from 1 June 2018 to 31 May 2019. From 1 June 2019 he has been Chair of the Nobel Committee.

In 2022, Anders Olsson was awarded H.M. The King’s Medal in 12th size, with the ribbon of the Order of the Seraphim, for meritorious contributions to Swedish academia.