STIG DAGERMAN (2books) PDF

Stig Dagerman (5 October 1923 – 4 November 1954) was a Swedish journalist and writer. He was one of the most prominent Swedish authors writing in the aftermath of WWII, but his existential texts transcend time and place and continue to be widely published in Sweden and abroad.

Stig Dagerman was born in Älvkarleby, Uppsala County. In the course of five years, 1945–49, he enjoyed phenomenal success with four novels, a collection of short stories, a book about postwar Germany, five plays, hundreds of poems and satirical verses, several essays of note and a large amount of journalism. Then, with apparent suddenness, he fell silent. In the fall of 1954, Sweden was stunned to learn that Stig Dagerman, the epitome of his generation of writers, had been found dead in his car: he had closed the doors of the garage and run the engine.[1]

Dagerman's works deal with universal problems of morality and conscience, of sexuality and social philosophy, of love, compassion and justice.[1]:14 He plunges into the painful realities of human existence, dissecting feelings of fear, guilt and loneliness. Despite the somber content, he also displays a wry sense of humor that occasionally turns his writing into burlesque or satire.[2]

“An imagination that appeals to an unreasonable degree of sympathy is precisely what makes Dagerman’s fiction so evocative. Evocative or not, as one might expect, of despair, or bleakness, or existential angst, but of compassion, fellow-feeling, even love.” - Alice McDermott in her foreword to Sleet - Selected Stories (David R. Godine, Publisher, 2013).

The British writer Graham Greene said this about him: "Dagerman wrote with beautiful objectivity. Instead of emotive phrases, he uses a choice of facts, like bricks, to construct an emotion."[3] This style is exemplified in the following excerpt from the story, "The Games of Night", where a young boy, Håkan, lies waiting for his drunken father to come home:

At night, all waking thoughts revolve around one thing, one moment.
And even Håkan's deepest sleep is much too fragile to block that thing out.
True, he hasn' t heard the car pull up out front. He hasn't heard the click
of the light switch or the steps in the stairwell. But the key that slides into the keyhole
also pokes a hole in Håkan's sleep. In an instant he's awake, stricken deep by a flash
of delight tingling hot from his toes to his scalp. But the delight disappears nearly
as fast as it comes, withdrawing into a cloud of uncertainties.[4]

Dagerman's work is translated into many languages, and his work continues to inspire readers, writers, musicians and filmmakers. His collected works are available in eleven volumes. Scholars have examined his writing from every possible angle: philosophical, political, psychological, journalistic, its relationship to the medium of film, and why French and Italian readers have found him particularly appealing. Artists continue to put music to his texts.[5] Films have been made of his short stories, novels and famous essay "Our Need for Consolation Is Insatiable".[6] The Stig Dagerman Society in Sweden annually awards the Stig Dagerman Prize to individuals who, like Dagerman, through their work promote empathy and understanding. In 2008, the SD Prize went to the French writer J. M. G. Le Clézio, who later was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.[7]