Sara Stridsberg is one of the greatest contemporary Swedish writers. She first became known in France in 2009 with her novel Drömfakulteten (The Faculty of Dreams/La Faculté des rêves), for which she won the Nordic Council Literature Prize. Since then, she has published plays and two illustrated children’s books. Her prose, which viewers have described as poetic, powerful and violent, is tinged with a kind of anxious melancholy.
Her works translated into French are, like much of her writing, characterised by the themes of identity and gender and notions of destruction and power. In L’Antarctique de l’amour (Gallimard, translated by Jean-Baptiste Coursaud), a woman who has been murdered and hacked to pieces revisits people she met when she was alive, thus becoming a subject instead of a mere object. Set in a completely different era, Dissection d’une chute de neige (L’Arche, translated by Marianne Ségol-Samoy) is a fictional account loosely inspired by the life of Christina of Sweden (1626-1689), an erudite, free-spirited and tyrannical woman who refused to give in to power.
On 26 November Sara Stridsberg will be talking to Tara Lennart about her novels at the Institut Suédois.
News:
- L’Antarctique de l’amour is published 4 November by Gallimard, in a translation by Jean-Baptiste Coursaud.
- Dissection d’une chute de neige is performed at the Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers, directed by Christophe Rauck, from 25 November until 18 December. The text is published by L’Arche, translated by Marianne Ségol-Samoy. More information here.
- On 27 November, journalist Marie-José Sirach and translator Marianne Ségol-Samoy will be discussing Sara Stridsberg’s plays at the Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers. The actors Cécile Garcia Fogel, Adèle Choubard and Emmanuel Noblet will also be reading parts of them.
In partnership with Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers, Gallimard and L’Arche.
Useful information:
- Sara Stridsberg will be in conversation with literary journalist Tara Lennart.
- The talk will be in Swedish, with simultaneous interpretation into French.
- Admission free, prior booking not required.
- To ensure that everybody is protected and that events run smoothly, our team is implementing a number of hygiene and safety measures. Please read the barrier gestures by clicking here.