Pär-Yngve Andersson,”All dödlighets sång och skrian”: Studier i Sven Rosendahls naturprosa (The song and scream of all mortality: Studies in the nature writing of Sven Rosendahl)
Sven Rosendahl (1913-1990) was an author of novels as well as of various books about landscape and animals. However, his nature writing has not been devoted much attention by critics or literary scholars. Rosendahl himself expressed at many times his dissatisfaction with this. This study is exclusively devoted to his nature writing, and the aim is thereby to fill a disturbing lacuna in Swedish literary research. Several of his most important books are analysed carefully, from Räven från Krackberget (1941) to Från himmelens fåglar… (1968). Major importance is attached to analyses of style and narrative technique, and issues concerning genres and borders between fact and fiction in this kind of nature writing are discussed. I also refer to researchers in environmental literature and philosophers interested in experiences of nature. Detailed lyrical description is regarded as a kind of basis in Rosendahl’s artful language, but his nature writings are at the same time existential literature. Man is clearly seen as a part of nature, but seems to be the only specie conscious of its own mortality. The author is considering man’s place in this world, among all the other species. Confidence in nature’s reiteration is played off against the mortality of the individual. In later parts of the authorship, his awareness about environmental pollution is clearly evident. It even threats the genre of nature writing itself.