Mats Ulrik Malm (born 10 May 1964) is a Swedish literary writer and translator. On 18 October 2018, Malm was elected a member of the

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

, on 26 April 2019 he was elected the new Permanent Secretary and Speaker of the Swedish Academy. Mats Malm is a university professor of

literary science Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

at the

University of Gothenburg The University of Gothenburg ( sv, Göteborgs universitet) is a university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg. Founded in 1891, the university is the third-oldest of the current Swedish universities and with 37,000 students and 6000 st ...

. He has a PhD in

Gothicism Gothicism or Gothism ( sv, Göticism ; la, Gothicismus) was a cultural movement in Sweden, centered on the belief in the glory of the Swedish Geats, who were identified with the Goths. The founders of the movement were Nicolaus Ragvaldi and th ...

. As translator, he has published Icelandic

Saga is a series of science fantasy role-playing video games by Square Enix. The series originated on the Game Boy in 1989 as the creation of Akitoshi Kawazu at Square (video game company), Square. It has since continued across multiple platforms, ...

s. He is working on digitizing Swedish literature as director of the Swedish Literature Bank. Since 2012, Malm has been a member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities also called simply the Royal Academy of Letters or Vitterhetsakademin abbreviated KVHAA ( sv, Kungl. Vitterhetsakademien Historie och Antikvitets Akademien or or ) is the Swedish royal ...

. On 18 October 2018, Malm was elected member of the Swedish Academy, where he succeeded

Klas Östergren Klas Östergren (born 20 February 1955) is a Swedish novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, and translator. Östergren had a breakthrough with his fourth novel ''Gentlemen'' in 1980. He has been awarded numerous Swedish literary prizes, su ...

in Chair No. 11. A man impersonating Malm rang the novelist

John Banville William John Banville (born 8 December 1945) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, adapter of dramas and screenwriter. Though he has been described as "the heir to Proust, via Nabokov", Banville himself maintains that W. B. Yeats and Henry J ...

on the day that the Swedish Academy intended to announce the recipients of the 2019 and 2018 Nobel Prizes in Literature. The man purporting to be Malm told Banville he had won and even read out the customary citation and asked if he would prefer to be designated the 2018 or 2019 laureate. Banville was attending a

physiotherapy Physical therapy (PT), also known as physiotherapy, is one of the allied health professions. It is provided by physical therapists who promote, maintain, or restore health through physical examination, diagnosis, management, prognosis, patient ...

appointment at the time and was lying face down on a couch when the call came. He informed his daughter; she called her father back while watching the live announcement at midday to tell him his name had not been mentioned. After the announcement, a voicemail to Banville (again from the man posing as Malm) claimed the Swedish Academy had withdrawn his prize due a disagreement. Banville felt sorry for the man purporting to be Malm: "He certainly sounded upset, he was a very good actor". But he later compared the voice of the speaker to that of the real Malm, at which point he realised that neither man sounded alike. However, despite this, when Banville rang the number back he found himself in contact with the offices of the Swedish Academy.

Works

* ''Voluptuous Language and Poetic Ambivalence. The Example of Swedish Baroque'', Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt am Main etc. 2011, . * ''Minervas äpple: om diktsyn, tolkning och bildspråk inom nordisk göticism'' (1996) * ''Textens auktoritet: de första svenska romanernas villkor'' (2001) * ''Det liderliga språket: poetisk ambivalens i svensk "barock"'' (2004) * ''Poesins röster: avlyssningar av äldre litteratur'' (2011) * ''The Soul of Poetry Redefined: Vacillations of Mimesis from Aristotle to Romanticism'' (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2012)

Translations

Gautreks saga ''Gautreks saga'' (''Gautrek's Saga'') is a Scandinavian legendary saga put to text towards the end of the 13th century which survives only in much later manuscripts. It seems to have been intended as a compilation of traditional stories, often hu ...

(Samspråk, 1990) *

Gísla saga ''Gísla saga Súrssonar'' (, ''The saga of Gísli the Outlaw'') is one of the sagas of Icelanders. It tells the story of Gísli, a tragic hero who must kill one of his brothers-in-law to avenge another brother-in-law. Gisli is forced to stay on th ...

(''Gísla saga Súrssonar'') (Fabel, 1993) *

Carl Jonas Love Almqvist Carl Jonas Love Ludvig Almqvist (28 November 1793 – 26 September 1866) was a Swedish author, romantic poet, romantic critic of political economy, realist, composer and social critic. Biography Carl Jonas Love Almqvist was born in Stockholm ...

: ''Om François Rabelais' liv och skrifter'' (''De vita et scriptis Francisci Rabelæsi'') (Litteraturvetenskapliga institutionen, Gothenburg University, 1993) *

Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of the ...

: ''Snorres Edda'' (''

Prose Edda The ''Prose Edda'', also known as the ''Younger Edda'', ''Snorri's Edda'' ( is, Snorra Edda) or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often assumed to have been t ...

'') (co-translated with Karl G. Johansson) (Fabel, 1997) * Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu (''Gunnlaugs saga Ormstungu'') (Saga forlag Reykjavik, 2014) *

Hrafnkels saga ''Hrafnkels saga'' (; ) or ''Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða'' (O.N.: ; Ice.: ) is one of the Icelanders' sagas. It tells of struggles between chieftains and farmers in the east of Iceland in the 10th century. The eponymous main character, Hrafnkell, s ...

(''Hrafnkels saga Freygoða'') (Saga förlag Reykjavik, 2014)

Awards

* Schückska Award of Swedish Academy 2010

References

External links

Chair no. 11 - Mats Malm. Literary historian, Elected: 2018.
biographical notes on Mats Malm at ''Svenska Akademien'' website
Staff profile as professor
Universität Göteborg
List of computer science publications by Mats Malm
dblp.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Malm, Mats 1964 births Living people Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities Members of the Swedish Academy Scandinavian studies scholars Swedish literary historians Swedish translators Translators from Icelandic University of Gothenburg faculty