International Authors' Stage: Monika Fagerholm (FI) in conversation with Kamilla Löfström
Violence, class, and shattered innocence are central to Monika Fagerholm's writing. It is through these lenses that she writes social satire that is equally disturbing and well-formed.
Winner of the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2020
Monika Fagerholm writes explosive and suggestive prose about the assault on a girl and the killing of the truth
– 5 stars, Kristeligt Dagblad
Monika Fagerholm is merciless in her exposure of people's hypocrisy while at the same time writing insightfully
– 5 hearts, Politiken.
Monika Fagerholm's novel is a stylistic masterpiece in an equally masterful translation by Pia Juul
– Information
Finnish-Swedish Monika Fagerholm was awarded the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 2020 for the novel Hvem slog Bambi ihjel? (Who Killed Bambi?) The jury wrote, among other things, that Fagerholm writes equal parts stylised morality
and razor-sharp social satire
, and does so with furious energy.
This evening you can learn a lot more about both the book and its themes when Fagerholm meets in conversation with literary critic and reviewer Kamilla Löfström.
Along the way, actor Morten Burian, known from, among others, Herrens veje and Bedrag, will read from the work.
Violence and innocence
When Fagerholm chooses to make a brutal gang rape or murder, for example, the central theme of her books, it is not because she is interested in the violence itself. Her interest is in the way in which acts of violence spread throughout society and become a break with the status quo. What happens when the media gets wind of the incident? When the rumours begin to spread among the public?
Fagerholm writes Nordic Noir with an eye for language instead of crime, and there is always a rot just beneath the surface in the otherwise polished societies she describes, ready to erupt as soon as a small crack in the facade appears.
Class and gender
Fagerholm's satire is aimed at millionaires and powerful men, absent fathers and cold career women. With a razor-sharp gaze and poetic language, Fagerholm articulates the gender and class divides that cut through society, and which those in power will do everything to maintain or hide.
Her two latest novels in Danish Hvem slog Bambi ihjel? and Lola omvendt both look at what happens when society's stories about women, abuse and madness find an audience. Fagerholm stated in connection with receiving the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 2020 to Dagbladet Information:
#MeToo came to Sweden in 2017 and right in the middle of my writing. It is possible to see my book as part of this #MeToo process, even though I don't really think of #MeToo as a process. Looking ahead, the movement will have changed our culture, and literature, in my eyes, is finding language for other experiences along the way in that process.
Participants
Monika Fagerholm
Monika Fagerholm is one of Finland's most important living authors. She had her breakthrough with the novel Skønne kvinder ved vandet (Beautiful Women by the Water) and received the 2020 Nordic Council Literature Prize for the book Who Killed Bambi?.
Kamilla Löfström
Kamilla Löfström is a literary critic and reviewer at Dagbladet Information, an external lecturer at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Art and Cultural Studies, and has studied Fagerholm's writing in depth.
Morten Burian
Morten Burian is educated at the Acting School at Aarhus Teater 2000. He is known for roles in the TV series Herrens Veje, Bedrag and Dicte. He has also appeared in theatre performances at, among others, the Royal Theatre, Husets Teater and Aalborg Teater.
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