Enckell, Rabbe

(1903-1974)

   A Finland-Swedish poet, novelist, dramatist, and critic, Enckell combined his career as a man of letters with that of an artist in oil painting and watercolor. His best work is his early poetry, published in such collections as Dikter (1923; Poems), Flojtblasarlycka (1925; Flute-Player's Happiness), Vårens cistern (1931; Spring's Cistern), and Tonbrädet (1935; The Sounding Board), in which he created miniature modernist poems of great power and beauty. The poems in V lvet (1937; The Vault) deal with a crisis in Enckell's life—his wife left him for another man, whom Enckell later knifed—and are powerful human documents. This crisis in his life figures prominently in the poetry collections Lutad over brunnen (1942; Bent over the Well) and Andedraäkt v kopp r (1946; Breath of Copper). His later collections of poetry, from Sett och ater-bordat (1950; Seen and Restored) to Flyende spegel (1974; Fleeing Mirror), which was published posthumously, express both a continued sense of melancholy and a bit of grumpiness about the direction his society and culture had taken.

   Enckell's best critical essays from before World War II were collected in Relation i det personliga (1950; Relation in the Personal). Although not as prolific a critic as, for example, Hagar Olsson and Elmer Diktonius, Enckell had a sharp eye for changes and developments on the literary scene and valiantly defended literary modernism against its traditionalist detractors. He also wrote prose narratives. Tillblivelse (1929; Origination), Ljusdunkel (1930; Chiaroscuro), and Ett portratt (1931; A Portrait) were accounts drawn directly from his own life and that of his wife, while Landskapet med den dubbla skuggan (1933; The Landscape with the Double Shadow) was a traditional novel with autobiographical elements. The short stories in Herrar till natt och dag (1937; Lords of Night and Day) reflect circumstances surrounding the end of his first marriage.

   Enckell's dramas are of much less significance than his poetry. Drawn to the Greek classics, he both alluded to them in his other work and wrote a series of dramas that are largely retellings of Greek stories. Orfeus och Eurydike (1938; Orpheus and Eurydice), Iokasta (1939), Agamemnon (1947), Hekuba (1952), and Mordet paå Kiron (1954; The Murder of Chiron) are all in this vein.

   Enckell concluded his oeuvre with several volumes of mixed prose. Traktat (1955; Tractate) was followed by Essay om livets framfart (1961; An Essay on Life's Forward Motion). Och sanning? (1966; And Truth?) was a reply to those who had accused him of not showing sufficient political awareness in his work, while Tapetdorren (1968; The Secret Door in the Wallpaper) and Resonoren med fagel-foten (1971; The Raisonneur with the Bird Foot) were both retrospective in nature.

   See lso Theater.