Dagerman, Stig

(1923-1954)

   A Swedish novelist, short story writer, dramatist, and poet, Dagerman produced a large volume of work in the course of approximately five years. Mostly departing from realist conventions, his modernist fictional style tends toward expressionism. An example is his novel Ormen (1945; tr. The Snake, 1995), in which the snake symbolizes the guilt and fear of the book's characters, who tell stories in order to cope. The narrative in the novel De domdas o (1946; tr. Island of the Doomed, 1991) is largely expressionistic, as the lizards and blind birds that infest the island of a group of shipwrecked people signify the terror within them. The short story collection Nattens lekar (1947; tr. Games ofthe Night, 1959) contains a mixture of realistic and symbolic stories. The novel Brant barn (1948; tr. A Burnt Child, 1950), however, is a psychologically sophisticated story that is realistically told. Brollopsbesvar (1949; Wedding Trouble) is, by comparison to Dagerman's other novels, a lighthearted and comical tale. The "trouble" of the title refers to the appearance of the father of the child that the bride in the story is pregnant with as she is about to be married to another man.

   Tysk host (1947; tr. German Autumn, 1988) is a book about conditions in Germany following World War II. After his death many of his short stories and poems were collected in the volume Vårt behov av trost: Prosa och poesi (1955; Our Need for Consolation: Prose and Poetry). Dagerman's six dramas were less technically advanced than his fiction. Some of the titles are Den dodsdomde (1947; tr. The Condemned, 1951), Ingen garfri (1949; Nobody Goes Free), and Den yttersta dagen (1952; The Day of Judgment).

   See also Theater.