About the author:
Andrey V. Korovin, PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, Senior Researcher, А.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 а, 121069 Moscow, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1432-448X
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Abstract:
The article deals with the problem of acceptance of the national literature as an important and unique phenomenon by Icelanders in the beginning of 20th century, but in our days it is a major part of the Icelandic national self-conscience. The development of Icelandic nation is strictly connected to the literary tradition started in Middle Ages; there was a paradox situation, when the modern Icelandic society did not have any serious interest to the national heritage and the Old Norse books. The most prominent Icelandic philologist Sigurður Nordal made the influentional changes in the social perception of the literary tradition. He was an author of several volumes on Icelandic literature, the most important of them is “Icelandic Culture”. His main goal was to show Icelandic literature as a significant and outstanding part of European culture, to connect the Old Norse tradition with the modernity: he brought to academic texts the elements of fiction. The world-wide known Icelandic writer Halldór Laxness had the same aims in his novels “World Light” and “Iceland’s Bell”. The Icelandic literature in these texts is presented in its development, in the past and present, and became the subject of narration.