The interaction between place, experience and reminiscence in Josefine Klougart’s novels Stigninger og fald and New Forest

Denne oppgåva er ei lesing av korleis Josefine Klougart sine romanar Stigninger og fald (2010) og New Forest (2016) rommar ulike erfaring- og opplevingsmåtar av stad. Målet er å identifisere, skildre og analysere det som den irske forfattaren Seamus Heaney kallar the sense of place i dei to romanane. Lesinga undersøker kva slags emosjonell og psykologisk effekt staden kan ha for romanpersonane, og kva rolle erindringa har for måten dei nærmar seg staden. Oppgåva hentar sin teoretiske bakgrunn i Heaney sitt essay «The Sense of Place», og Dan Ringgaard sitt moderne og kosmopolitiske stadomgrep i essaysamlinga Stedssans (2010). I tillegg vil oppgåva undersøke og samanlikne den stadlege tankemåten som kjem til syne i romanane, med eit utval historisk kjende linjer i stadtenkinga, representert av Martin Heidegger sitt fenomenologisk-ontologiske stadomgrep og Friedrich Schiller sitt skilje mellom ein naiv og sentimental diktemåte.The primary aim of this thesis is to identify, describe and analyze the sense of place in the contemporary Danish author Josefine Klougart’s two novels Stigninger og fald (2010) and New Forest (2016), focusing on the concept of place as a physical and psychological entity. The hypothesis is that certain places play a significant and existential part in the two novels. The readings offer an approach to literature founded on place, and argues that the novels questions whether reminiscence plays a significant role when it comes to how the novels portray the experience of places. Subsequently it is argued that although New Forest ends up revisiting some of the places that were introduced in Stigninger og fald, it lacks the same sense that the first novel is filled with. The thesis links theories of places, nature, being, tourism and literature into the reading of the two novels, theories that are part of a phenomenologic approach to places. More specifically Martin Heidegger and his merging of the subject and object, Seamus Heaney’s stress on that the poet, in the act of writing, is influenced by the actual physical place of belonging, and Dan Ringgaard’s more modern approach to place-being.Mastergradsoppgåve i nordisk språk og litteraturNOLISP35