BOYE, KARIN

(1900-1941)

A Swedish poet, novelist, short story writer, and essayist, Boye started out as a poet with the collectionMoln(1922; Clouds), which was followed byGomda land(1924; Hidden Lands) andHardarna(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 awomanwarrior 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 collectionFör 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 novelFor 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 bothMarxistand Nazi totalitarianism.