Boye, Karin

(1900-1941)

   A Swedish poet, novelist, short story writer, and essayist, Boye started out as a poet with the collection Moln (1922; Clouds), which was followed by Gomda land (1924; Hidden Lands) and Hardarna (1927; The Hearths). Although most of her early poetry is rather traditional in form, many of her poems have a striking content, for example, "Sköldmön" (The Shield Maiden), in which a woman warrior fights and dies next to her male companion without him noticing it. This poem can be read as a feminist statement about the position of women in a man's world. In the poetry collection För tradets skull (1935; For the Tree's Sake) Boye abandoned traditional meter in favor of free verse.

   After writing a number of literary and cultural essays and reviews, Boye published her first novel, Astarte (1931), a critique of contemporary advertising aimed at women as well as a more general investigation of modern myths and the meaning they conceal. Her next novel, Merit vaknar (1933; Merit Awakens), discusses marriage and sex roles from the perspective of a widow who is working through her past. Kris (1934; Crisis) is a novel about a crisis of faith brought about because the 20-year-old female protagonist has become sexually attracted to another woman. A volume of short stories, Uppgore-lser (1934; Reckonings), is generally considered inferior to Boye's novels.

   The novel For lite (1936; Too Little) deals with the conflict between art and family life. Boye's last novel, Kallocain (1940; tr. 1966), is set in a dystopia in the beginning of the third millennium, a society in which even a person's thoughts are known to the state. It expresses Boye's concern about both Marxist and Nazi totalitarianism.