Kyrklund, Willy

(1921-)

   Recognized as a masterful practitioner of Swedish prose, Kyrklund is best known for his short stories and novels, although he has also written plays. He had his literary debut with a collection of stories, Angvalten och andra noveller (1948; The Steamroller and Other Stories), which gave nine examples of his trademark style: a mixture of realism, myth, and exotic ideas with an emphasis on irony and parody. Other books in a similar vein are Hermelinens dod (1954; The Death of the Ermine) and Den overdrivne alskaren (1957; The Exaggerated Lover), the last of which focuses on folly associated with love, which for Kyrklund is a very fertile field of study. Emotions in a more general sense constitute the theme of Den ratta kanslan (1974; The Right Feeling), in which the stories ironically explore emotions gone awry. The narratives in 8 variationer (1982; Eight Variations) illustrate a statement by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus to the effect that the future belongs to the rising generation; they are further unified by their reliance on musical terms. Notable among them is "Atertaget drag" (Retracted Move), in which the legend of William Tell is told with a significant twist: Tell ends up as a poor shoemaker rather than a hero.

   Kyrklund s novels are brief, too, and are perhaps even less conventional than his short stories. Tvåsam (1949; Twosome) features two characters, Overvaktmastaren (the Janitorial Supervisor) and Vakt-mastaren (the Janitor), who are at odds with each other in the manner of a Freudian ego and super-ego, and who may be regarded as different aspects of the same individual. By problematizing the identity of his protagonist, Kyrklund questions traditional narrative conventions in a manner that prefigures the postmodern novel. Tension between characters is also a feature of Mästaren Ma (1952; Master Ma), which draws on Kyrklund s studies in Chinese culture. The master s teachings are contradicted both by his wife Yao and his disciple Li, leaving readers free to articulate their own personal wisdom.

   One of the chief characteristics of Kyrklund s works is that they are maddeningly difficult to classify. Best thought of as a collage, Polyfem foärvandlad (1964; Polyphemus Transformed) uses Ovid s Metamorphoses as an intertext, but with such twists as when the story of Odysseus's escape from the eponymous Cyclops is narrated from Polyphemus s point of view.

   Classical literature is also present in Kyrklund's drama Medea fran Mbongo (Medea from Mbongo; collected in FranBrollopet till Medea, 1967; From the Wedding to Medea), in which the story of Jason and Medea has been both radically simplified and given a semi-modern setting. Also inspired by Greek mythology, Gudar och maän-niskar (1978; Gods and Humans) has a strong political message, as it offers a critique of technology and international business that is very much in the spirit of the 1970s.