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Critical Approaches to Sjón: North of the Sun book cover

1st Edition

Critical Approaches to Sjón North of the Sun

Edited By Linda Badley, Úlfhildur Dagsdóttir, Gitte Mose Copyright 2025
    288 Pages 10 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Critical Approaches to Sjón: North of the Sun is the first English-language book-length study of the works of the Icelandic contemporary poet, Sigurjón Birgir Sigurðsson, who is considered by some to be Iceland’s most distinctive and multifaceted contemporary author. This collection of essays introduces readers to Sjón’s rich body of writing and its transmedial and stylistic range, cultural breadth, thematic diversity, and intellectual depth. Essays in the volume have been brought together from around the world and cover Sjóns's beginnings as a neo-surrealist performance artist and poet (translated into over 20 languages), his career as a novelist (translated into over 30 languages), and his collaborations with translators, singer-songwriters, film directors, and other writers. Approaches range from the narratological, historical, ethical, epistemological, and mythological to theoretical methodologies such as thing theory, queer theory, disability studies, and ecocriticism.

    List of Contributors

    List of Figures

    Acknowledgements

    Introduction

    Linda Badley, Úlfhildur Dagsdóttir, and Gitte Mose

     

    Part I: The Voices of Sjón

    1. The Pleasures and Challenges of Recreating Sjón’s Voice

    Victoria Cribb

    2. The Author is In: Moonstone, Authorship, Reading, and Intertextuality (or The Boy Who Became a Story)

    Úlfhildur Dagsdóttir

     

    Part II: Surrealism

    3. Oh! Sjón, the Poet 1978-1986

    Erik Skyum-Nielsen

    4. Sjón’s Nuclear Dystopia: Reflections on Stálnótt, Medúsa, and Johnny Triumph’s Musical Career

    Jón Karl Helgason

    5. “Beneath the Veil of Happenings”: Sjón, the Norse Visionary of Surrealism’s Deep History

    Delia Ungureanu

     

    Part III: Transmedia, Miscellanea

    6. Moonstone: The Cinema that Always Was  

    Janica Tomić

    7. Sjón at the Movies

    Björn Nordfjörd

    8. The Drop Tower, the Roller Coaster, the Whirling Cups: Sjón-Miscellanea and Things

    Gitte Mose

     

    Part IV: History, Ethics, Politics, and Storytelling 

    9. Sjón and the Long Icelandic Medieval Past

    Carolyne Larrington

    10. Transnational and Counter-Memorial Practices: Antisemitism, Nationalism, and the Second World War in Sjón’s Works

    Gunnþórunn Guðmundsdóttir

    11. The Narratable Self: Natality and the Politics of Storytelling in CoDex 1962

                 Anne Fogarty

     

    Part V:  Queer Ecologies:  Hybridity, Disability, Ecopoetics

    12. The End of the World as We Know It: Queerness and Utopias in Sjón’s Poetry and Prose

    Asta Benediktsdóttir

    13. Human-Animal Bodies in The Blue Fox and CoDex1962

    Avril Tynan

    14. Sjónian Ecopoetics

    Linda Badley

     

    Epilogue: Sjón in His Own Voice

    Appendix: A Chronology of Sjón’s Life and Writings

    Index

    Biography

    Linda Badley is Professor Emerita of English and Film Studies at Middle Tennessee State University.

    Úlfhildur Dagsdóttir is an Icelandic literature scholar.

    Gitte Mose is Associate Professor Emerita at the University of Oslo.

    'With his multifaceted output ranging from the tale of a shape-shifting fox to a Viking revenge epic, Sjón is one of the most creative figures in Scandinavia – and in the world – today. In this capacious collection of essays, readers and moviegoers who have encountered Sjón in one of his many metamorphoses will find illuminating insights into the full range of the work of the writer whose name means “Vision.”'  

    David Damrosch, Ernest Bernbaum Professor of Comparative Literature, Harvard University

    'Since I first discovered his books, few authors have fascinated and puzzled me more than Sjón. This anthology offers invaluable insights, concepts and tools for all readers who have ever had the immense pleasure of getting lost in his dark, funny, morbid, surreal, beautiful, and stunningly original works.'

    Anders M. Gullestad, Associate Professor of Scandinavian Literature, University of Bergen

    'Admirers of Sjón's written artistry are well-served by this volume's timely gathering of capable Icelandic and international critics and writers. Using diverse theoretical methodologies, these lucid examinations illumine Sjón's weird-and-wonderful imaginary, the strangeness of its ordinariness, its philosophical and ethical conundrums, and its abiding sensitivity toward life's misfits and marginals.' 

    Anne Brydon, ethnographer and cultural analyst, Wilfrid Laurier University

    'By bringing together experts from various theoretical backgrounds, and by harmonizing their insights into a finely structured framework, the book Critical Approaches to Sjón skillfully navigates its reader through the multifaceted world of one of the most intriguing artists of today. It is an invaluable resource for both academics and fans of Sjón's art, and I gladly endorse it.'

    Ieva Steponavičiūtė Aleksiejūnienė, Head of the Centre for Scandinavian Studies, Vilnius University

    'A timely publication on one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Icelandic literature. This intriguing collection of essays gives valuable insights into Sjón‘s labyrinthine oeuvre, which is steeped in surrealism, esotericism, fantasy, cyberpunk, folklore, and myth, and ranges from his early avant-garde poetry to his later historical novels and film scripts.'

    Benedikt Hjartarson, University of Iceland

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