Dag Solstad

File:Dag Solstad2.JPG

Solstad during the Oslo Bokfestival, 2010

Dag Solstad (16 July 1941 – 14 March 2025) was a Norwegian novelist, short-story writer and dramatist whose work has been translated into 20 languages.<ref name="ap10">Template:Cite news</ref>

Solstad wrote nearly 30 books and was the only author to have received the Norwegian Literary Critics' Award three times.<ref name="oltermann"/> Other awards include the Mads Wiel Nygaards Endowment in 1969, the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 1989, for Roman 1987 and the Brage Prize in 2006 for Armand V.

Biography

Solstad was born in Sandefjord to merchant Ole Modal Solstad and Ragna Sofie Tveitan. After receiving his examen artium, he worked as a teacher in Kabelvåg and as a journalist for the newspaper Tiden. He then enrolled at the University of Oslo, where he contributed to the literary magazine Profil.<ref name=nbl>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> Solstad made his literary debut with Spiraler, a collection of short stories influenced by literary modernism,<ref name="dn2025">Template:Cite news</ref> in 1965, and started working as a full-time writer the following year.<ref name=nbl/> His second book, the text collection Svingstol, came in 1967.<ref name=nlh-2/>Template:Rp In the late 1960s Solstad was strongly influenced by the Polish exile writer Witold Gombrowicz and his structural thinking, and Solstad presented his ideas in the literary magazine {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} in 1968.<ref name=nlh-2/>Template:Rp

Solstad made his debut as a novelist in 1969, with Irr! Grønt!. During the 1970s, he was a member of the maoist Workers' Communist Party.<ref name="dn2025"/> Political themes are present in several of his works from this time, such as the 1971 novel Arild Asnes, 1970.<ref name=abc-2025/>

In his literary history from 1997, Øystein Rottem considers four distinct phases in Solstad's authorship so far. The modernist phase (1965–1971) was followed by a realistic phase (1974–1980) with political activism.<ref name=nlh-2/>Template:Rp His works during this phase are the novel {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (1974), the propaganda play {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (1975), and the war trilogy (1977, 1978, 1980).<ref name=nlh-2/>Template:Rp The third phase (after 1980–1990) is regarded as a period with self apologism.<ref name=nlh-2/>Template:Rp In 1982 the novel Gymnaslærer Pedersens beretning om den store politiske vekkelse som har hjemsøkt vårt land, about a politically active teacher in Larvik in the early 1970s, was published; a film adaptation, Gymnaslærer Pedersen, was made by director Hans Petter Moland in 2006. Several of Solstad's later works incorporate elements of autofiction, with the author himself present as a character, or events from his youth forming part of the story.<ref name=abc-2025>Template:Cite news</ref>

His first marriage was to Erna Irene Asp, from 1968. From 1983 to 1990 he was married to Tone Elisabeth Melgård. In 1995 he married journalist Therese Bjørneboe, and was thus son-in-law of writer Jens Bjørneboe.<ref name=nbl/>

Solstad lived part-time in Berlin and part-time in the Skillebekk neighbourhood of Oslo. He died on 14 March 2025, at the age of 83.<ref name="nrk">Template:Cite news</ref>

Novels

• Irr! Grønt! (1969)<ref name=nlh-2/>Template:Rp
• Arild Asnes, 1970 (1971)<ref name=nlh-2/>Template:Rp
• 25. septemberplassen (1974)<ref name=nlh-2/>Template:Rp
• Svik. Førkrigsår (1977)<ref name=nlh-2/>Template:Rp
• Krig. 1940 (War. 1940; 1978)<ref name=nlh-2/>Template:Rp
• Brød og våpen (Bread and Weapons; 1980)<ref name=nlh-2/>Template:Rp
• Gymnaslærer Pedersens beretning om den store politiske vekkelse som har hjemsøkt vårt land (1982)<ref name=nlh-2/>Template:Rp
• Forsøk på å beskrive det ugjennomtrengelige (1984)<ref name=nlh-2/>Template:Rp
• Roman 1987 (Novel 1987; 1987)<ref name=nlh-2/>Template:Rp
• Medaljens forside (The Front of the Medal; 1990)<ref name=nlh-2/>Template:Rp
• Ellevte roman, bok atten (Novel 11, Book 18; 1992)<ref name=nlh-2/>Template:Rp
• Genanse og verdighet (Shyness and Dignity; 1994)<ref name="nrk"/>
• Professor Andersens natt (Professor Andersen's Night; 1996)<ref name="nrk"/>
• T. Singer – (1999)<ref name="nrk"/>
• 16/07/41 – (2002)<ref name="nrk"/>
• Armand V. Fotnoter til en uutgravd roman (Armand V. Footnotes from an Unexcavated Novel; 2006)<ref name="nrk"/>
• 17. roman (Novel 17; 2009)<ref name="nrk"/>
• Det uoppløselige episke element i Telemark i perioden 1591-1896 : roman (2013)<ref name="nrk"/>
• Tredje, og siste, roman om Bjørn Hansen (2019)<ref name="nrk"/>

Other writings and assessment

With fellow novelist Jon Michelet, Solstad published a book after each of the FIFA World Cups in 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994 and 1998.<ref name="oltermann">Template:Cite news</ref> He was also an essayist,<ref name="parisreview">Template:Cite journal</ref> mainly during the 1960s and 1970s. His essays from this period are published in the collection {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (1981), and essays from the next decade in {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (1993).<ref name=nlh-2/>Template:Rp

In her PhD thesis Why So Big? A Literary Discourse Analysis of Dag Solstad's Authorship (University of Oslo, 2009), Inger Østenstad argues from different perspectives that Solstad is Norway's greatest contemporary writer, and uses a version of Dominique Maingueneau's discourse theory to analyse the components of oeuvre, reception, para-text and meta-text that in Solstad's case contribute to his established greatness.<ref name="Why so big? A literary discourse analysis of Dag Solstad's authorship">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Peter Handke, Karl Ove Knausgaard and Per Petterson, three contemporary writers, regard Solstad highly for his literary excellence.<ref name="Norway’s Greatest Living Writer is Actually Dag Solstad">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Literary magazine The Paris Review compared Solstad's status in Norwegian literature to Philip Roth's status in American literature and Günter Grass' status in German literature;<ref name="parisreview"/> upon his death, prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre called him one of the most significant Norwegian authors of all time.<ref name="oltermann"/>

Awards and prizes

• 1969: Mads Wiel Nygaard's Endowment<ref name="forokt">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• 1969: Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature, for Irr! Grønt!<ref name=critics-prize>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>
• 1982: Språklig samlings litteraturpris<ref name="forokt"/>
• 1989: Nordic Council's Literature Prize<ref name="forokt"/>
• 1992: Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature, for Novel 11, Book 18<ref name=critics-prize/>
• 1996: Dobloug Prize<ref name="forokt"/>
• 1996: Gyldendalprisen<ref name="forokt"/>
• 1998: Brage Prize Honorary Award<ref name=brage-prize>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>
• 1999: Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature, for T. Singer<ref name=critics-prize/>
• 2004: Aschehoug Prize<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• 2006: Brage Prize, for Armand V. Fotnoter til en uutgravd roman<ref name=brage-prize/>
• 2007: Vestfolds Litteraturpris<ref name="forokt"/>
• 2017: Swedish Academy Nordic Prize<ref name="Svenska Akademiens nordiska pris - Svenska Akademien">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

External links

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• Dag Solstad's biography and bibliography at Aschehoug Agency
• Dag Solstad Template:Webarchive at Forlaget Oktober
• Solstad bibliography: literature by and on Dag Solstad (National Library of Norway)
• {{#if:Dag Solstad|Template:PAGENAMEBASE discography at Discogs|{{#if:Template:Wikidata|Template:Wikidata Template:PAGENAMEBASE discography at DiscogsTemplate:EditAtWikidata|Template:PAGENAMEBASE discography at Discogs}}}}

Reviews

• Dag Solstad, The Art of Fiction No. 230 – interview with Ane Farsethås in The Paris Review, Issue 217, Summer 2016
• Marginal Men Take Center Stage in the Novels of Dag Solstad – James Wood in The New Yorker, 15 October 2018. Published in the print edition of the 22 October 2018 issue, with the headline "Not Important."
• Novel 11, book18 – Paul Binding in The Independent, 12 December 2008
• Shyness and Dignity – Boyd Tonkin in The Independent, 28 November 2006