Per Bäckström (born 1959) is a Swedish literary scholar and affiliated professor in comparative literature at the
Linnaeus University
Linnaeus University (LNU) () is a state university in the Swedish historical province (''landskap'') Småland, with campuses located in Växjö and Kalmar. Linnaeus University was established in 2010 by a merger of former Växjö University a ...
, Växjö, Sweden. He has worked as professor in comparative Literature,
Karlstad University 2010–2019, and as associate professor at the Department of Culture and Literature,
University of Tromsø, Norway 1996–2010. He took part in the founding of
European Network for Avant-garde and Modernism Studies (EAM) in 2007, and was the leader of the Membership Commission 2007–2011. He has published studies on
Bruno K. Öijer,
Henri Michaux,
Gunnar Ekelöf,
Mikhail Bakhtin
Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin (; rus, Михаи́л Миха́йлович Бахти́н, , mʲɪxɐˈil mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ bɐxˈtʲin; – 7 March 1975) was a Russian people, Russian philosopher and literary critic who worked on the phi ...
, intermediality,
the grotesque,
concrete poetry
Concrete poetry is an arrangement of linguistic elements in which the typographical effect is more important in conveying meaning than verbal significance. It is sometimes referred to as visual poetry, a term that has now developed a distinct mea ...
,
performance
A performance is an act or process of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function.
Performance has evolved glo ...
,
avant-garde
In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...
and
neo-avant-garde. He has made a critical reading of
Michel Riffaterre's ''Semiotics of Poetry'', where he introduces Riffaterre's theory, explains why it failed to make success, and criticizes it for its lack of consistency when it comes to
experimental poetry. He has especially studied the use of the notions of “
modernism
Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
” and “
avant-garde
In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...
” in Romance speaking languages versus English, and the role of the peripheries in relation to the supposed centres of the avant-garde in the 20th Century.
[Per Bäckström and Benedikt Hjartarson. “Rethinking the Topography of the International Avant-Garde”, in ''Decentring the Avant-Garde''] (2014), Per Bäckström & Benedikt Hjartarson (eds.), Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi, Avantgarde Critical Studies.] He currently is working on the Swedish avant-gardist
Öyvind Fahlström and The Anti-Aesthetics of
Rock.
Bibliography
* 2003 ''Aska, Tomhet & Eld. Outsiderproblematiken hos Bruno K. Öijer'' (Ash, Emptiness & Fire. The Outsider in Bruno K. Öijer), (Ph.D.-thesis) Lund: Ellerström.
* 2003 ''Sense and Senses in Aesthetics'', Per Bäckström & Troels Degn Johansson (eds.), Gothenburg: NSU Press.
* 2005 ''Enhet i mångfalden. Henri Michaux och det groteska'' (Unity in the Plenitude. Henri Michaux and the Grotesque), Lund: Ellerström.
* 2007
Centre-Periphery. The Avant-Garde and the Other', Per Bäckström (ed.), Nordlit. University of Tromsø, no. 21.
* 2007
Le Grotesque dans l’œuvre d’Henri Michaux. Qui cache son fou, meurt sans voix', Paris: L’Harmattan.
* 2010 ''Vårt brokigas ochellericke! Om experimentell poesi'' (Our Gaudy Andornot!. On Experimental Poetry), Lund: Ellerström.
* 2010 ''Samspill mellom kunstartene. Modernisme i nordisk lyrikk'' 4 (Interplay between the Arts. Modernism in Nordic Poetry), Hadle Oftedal Andersen, Per Bäckström & Unni Langås (eds.), Helsinki: University of Helsinki.
* 2011 ''Norsk avantgarde'' (Norwegian Avant-Garde), Per Bäckström & Bodil Børset (eds.), Oslo: Novus.
* 201
''Decentring the Avant-Garde'' Per Bäckström & Benedikt Hjartarson (eds.), Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi, Avantgarde Critical Studies.
* 2023 ''Allt kan bli aktiverat och skapande liv. Öyvind Fahlströms processuella estetik'', Malmö:
Ellerströms förlag.
References
External links
Per BäckströmPublications in the British LibraryPublications in Library of CongressPublications in the National Swedish Library database (LIBRIS)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Backstrom, Per
Academic staff of Linnaeus University
Academic staff of Karlstad University
Academic staff of the University of Tromsø
Living people
1959 births
Swedish literary scholars