Knut Emil Ahnlund (24 May 1923 – 28 November 2012) was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

literary historian, writer, and member of the

Swedish Academy The Swedish Academy ( sv, Svenska Akademien), founded in 1786 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. Its 18 members, who are elected for life, comprise the highest Swedish language authority. Outside Scandinavia, it is bes ...

. Ahnlund, who was born in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...

, was an expert on 19th and 20th century Nordic, especially Danish, literature. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on

Henrik Pontoppidan Henrik Pontoppidan (24 July 1857 – 21 August 1943) was a Danish realist writer who shared with Karl Gjellerup the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1917 for "his authentic descriptions of present-day life in Denmark." Pontoppidan's novels and shor ...

, and later wrote on

Gustav Wied Gustav Johannes Wied (6 March 1858 – 24 October 1914) was a Danish writer. He was generally known as a satirical critic of society in his time and he deliberately used his writing talents to expose the establishment, bourgeoisie and rulin ...

and Sven Lidman, among others. He was also a novelist and published translations of various writers such as

Julio Cortázar Julio Florencio Cortázar (26 August 1914 – 12 February 1984; ) was an Argentine, nationalized French novelist, short story writer, essayist, and translator. Known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, Cortázar influenced an ...

. He received his doctorate from

Stockholm University Stockholm University ( sv, Stockholms universitet) is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, ...

, and was a professor of Nordic Literary History at the

University of Aarhus Aarhus University ( da, Aarhus Universitet, abbreviated AU) is a public research university with its main campus located in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the second largest and second oldest university in Denmark. The university is part of the Coimbra Gr ...

. He was elected a member of the Swedish Academy in 1983. Due to conflicts with the former permanent secretary of the Academy,

Sture Allén Sture Allén (31 December 1928 – 20 June 2022) was a Swedish professor of computational linguistics at the University of Gothenburg, who was the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy between 1986 and 1999. Born in Gothenburg, he was elect ...

, and his successor,

Horace Engdahl Horace Oscar Axel Engdahl (born 30 December 1948) is a Swedish literary historian and critic, and has been a member of the Swedish Academy since 1997. He was the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy from 1999 to June 2009, when he was succe ...

, Ahnlund had only participated minimally in the work of the Academy from 1996 until his death in 2012. On 11 October 2005, just a few days before the announcement of the 2005 Nobel laureate for literature, he declared in a piece in ''

Svenska Dagbladet ''Svenska Dagbladet'' (, "The Swedish Daily News"), abbreviated SvD, is a daily newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. History and profile The first issue of ''Svenska Dagbladet'' appeared on 18 December 1884. During the beginning of the ...

'' that he would leave the Academy in protest against the choice of recipient of the prize the previous year,

Elfriede Jelinek Elfriede Jelinek (; born 20 October 1946) is an Austrian playwright and novelist. She is one of the most decorated authors writing in German today and was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature for her "musical flow of voices and counter-vo ...

; he characterized Jelinek's work as chaotic and

pornographic Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults,

. As a membership in the Academy is for life, Ahnlund was not able to formally leave the Academy during his lifetime, but did not participate in its work from 1996, and his chair was left empty until his death.

Bibliography

*''Henrik Pontoppidan : fem huvudlinjer i författarskapet'' (1956) *''Vännerna : en berättelse från hem och skola'' (1963) *''Den unge Gustav Wied'' (1964) *''

Isaac Bashevis Singer Isaac Bashevis Singer ( yi, יצחק באַשעװיס זינגער; November 11, 1903 – July 24, 1991) was a Polish-born American Jewish writer who wrote and published first in Yiddish and later translated himself into English with the help ...

: hans språk och hans värld'' (1978) *''Jordens skönhet : singalesiska minnen och myter'' (1979) *''Diktarliv i Norden : litterära essäer'' (1981) *''Karl Ragnar Gierow : inträdestal i Svenska akademien'' (1983) *''La Real Academia Española'' (1985) *''

Octavio Paz Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and ...

: hans liv och diktning'' (1990) *''Sven Lidman : ett livsdrama'' (1996) *''Spansk öppning : essäer om Spaniens och Latinamerikas litteratur'' (2003)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahnlund, Knut 1923 births 2012 deaths Writers from Stockholm Swedish literary scholars Swedish male writers Members of the Swedish Academy Litteris et Artibus recipients