''Profil'' was a Norwegian

literary magazine A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letter ...

which had great influence in the late 1960s and the 1970s. The magazine was founded in 1938 as ''Filologen'', a house organ for the Faculty of Humanities at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

. Its name was changed to ''Profil'' in 1959. In 1966 the magazine was taken over by a group of radical students. They opposed established literary views, and introduced the

modernist literature Literary modernism, or modernist literature, originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and is characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional ways of writing, in both poetry and prose fiction writing. Modernism experimented ...

. The circle of writers that emerged are often referred to as the "Profil Generation".

Modernism

Among the contributors to the magazine were

Jan Erik Vold Jan Erik Vold (born 18 October 1939) is a Norwegian lyric poet, jazz vocal reciter, translator and author. He was a core member of the so-called "''Profil'' generation", the circle attached to the literary magazine ''Profil''. Throughout his care ...

Dag Solstad Dag Solstad (born 16 July 1941) is a Norwegian novelist, short-story writer, and dramatist whose work has been translated into 20 languages. He has written nearly 30 books and is the only author to have received the The Norwegian Critics Prize ...

Tor Obrestad Tor Obrestad (12 February 1938 – 25 January 2020) was a Norwegian novelist, poet and documentary writer. Early and personal life Obrestad was born in Hå on 12 February 1938. His parents were farmer Jon R. Obrestad and Sophie Riise. He studie ...

Espen Haavardsholm Espen Haavardsholm (born 10 February 1945, in Oslo) is a Norwegian novelist, poet, biographer and essayist. He made his literary debut in 1966 with the collection of short stories, ''Tidevann''. He was one of the central writers in the modernist ...

Eldrid Lunden Eldrid Lunden (born 5 October 1940) is a Norwegian poet, and 1996 became Norway's first professor in creative writing, at Telemark University College. She was awarded the Dobloug Prize in 1989, and the Brage Prize honorary award in 2000. Lunden ...

Liv Køltzow Liv Køltzow (born 14 January 1945) is a Norwegian novelist, playwright, biographer and essayist. Personal life Køltzow was born in Oslo to Oscar Køltzow and Else Mathisen. She was married to writer Espen Haavardsholm from 1966 to 1973, and to ...

Paal-Helge Haugen Paal-Helge Haugen (born 26 April 1945) is a Norwegian poet, novelist, dramatist and children's writer who has published over 30 books. His titles have been translated into at least 20 languages. His 1968 "punktroman" or "pointillist novel," ''Anne ...

Einar Økland Einar Økland (born 17 January 1940) is a Norwegian poet, playwright, essayist and children's writer. He was born in Sveio, and educated psychologist. He made his literary debut in 1963, with the poetry collection ''Ein gul dag''. He was awarded ...

and

Stein Mehren Stein Mehren (16 May 1935 – 28 July 2017) was a Norwegian poet, essayist and playwright. He made his literary debut as poet with ''Gjennom stillheten en natt'' (1960). He wrote more than fifty books, mainly poetry.

. Realistic novels and

symbolist poetry Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

were attacked, while modernist literature was introduced and supported. In addition, the magazine was employed as a forum to discuss modernism and

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

Political period

Between 1959 and 1966 ''Profil'' was a student magazine. In 1966 the magazine's editorial board was taken over by a literary group who named themselves as a new generation of modernists. From 1968 and onwards several of the ''Profil'' writers became politically left wing activists, and started writing political poems, songs and novels. Examples of so-called working class literature are Obrestad's poetry collection ''Vårt daglege brød'' (1968), Haavardsholm's novel ''Zink'' (1971), Solstad's novel ''Arild Asnes 1970'' (1971) and Obrestad's novel ''Sauda! Streik!'' (1972). Liv Køltzow's novel ''Hvem bestemmer over Bjørg og Unni?'' (1972) is regarded as Norway's first example of militant and socialist feminism. ''Profil'' became a forum for

Maoists Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Chi ...

in the country from 1970 to 1981.

Song books

The Profil songbooks were eight books issued 1972–1975, subtitled ''Songar frå folkets kamp''.

Post-modernism

The magazine disappeared in 1981. It was relaunched in 1984 as a general cultural magazine and was closed in 1989. Some of the most profiled political writers from the 1970s later concluded that the working class literature experiment was a failure.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Profil 1938 establishments in Norway 1989 disestablishments in Norway Communist magazines Defunct literary magazines published in Europe Defunct magazines published in Norway Literary magazines published in Norway Magazines established in 1938 Magazines disestablished in 1989 Magazines published in Oslo Norwegian-language magazines