View source for Gunnar Ekelöf

{{Short description|Swedish poet and writer (1907–1968)}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
|name         = Gunnar Ekelöf
|image        = Gunnar-ekelof.jpg
|imagesize    = 155px
|caption      = Gunnar Ekelöf
|pseudonym    =
|birth_name   = Bengt Gunnar Ekelöf
|birth_date   = {{Birth date|1907|9|15|df=yes}}
|birth_place  = [[Stockholm]], [[Sweden]]
|death_date   = {{Death date and age|1968|3|16|1907|9|15|df=yes}}
|death_place  = [[Sigtuna]], [[Sweden]]
|occupation   = [[Poet]]
|nationality  = Swedish
|notableworks = {{plainlist|
*''[[Non Serviam (book)|Non Serviam]]''
*''[[Diwan on the Prince of Emgion]]''
}}
|period       = 1932–1968
|genre        = 
|magnum opus  = 
|subject      = 
|movement     = [[Modernism]], [[Surrealism]]
|spouse = Gunnel Bergström (1932)<br/>Gunhild Flodquist (1942–1951)<br/>Ingrid Flodquist
}}
'''Bengt Gunnar Ekelöf''' (15 September 1907 – 16 March 1968) was a [[Swedes|Swedish]] poet and writer. He was a member of the [[Swedish Academy]] from 1958 and was awarded an [[honorary degree|honorary doctorate]] in philosophy by [[Uppsala University]] in 1958. He won a number of prizes for his poetry.

== Life and works ==

=== Early life and debut ===

Gunnar Ekelöf was born on 15 September 1907 in [[Stockholm]]. He has been called Sweden's first [[surrealist]] poet. He made his debut with the collection ''sent på jorden'' ("late on earth") in 1932, written during an extended stay in Paris in 1929–1930, which was too unconventional to become widely appreciated and described by its author as capturing a period of suicidal thoughts and apocalyptic moods.<ref>''Lundkvist, Martinsson, Ekelöf'', by Espmark & Olsson, in Delblanc, Lönnroth, Göransson, vol 3</ref> It was in a sense an act of literary revolt akin to [[Edith Södergran]]'s ''Septemberlyran'' of a dozen years earlier. While not disavowing his debut, Ekelöf moved towards [[romanticism]] and received better reviews for his second poetry collection, ''Dedikation'' (1934). Both the volumes are influenced by surrealism and show a violent, at times feverish torrent of images, deliberate breakdown of ordered syntax and traditional poetic language and a defiant spirit bordering on anarchism ("cut your belly cut your belly and don't think of any tomorrow" runs the black humorous refrain of a poem called "fanfare" in ''sent på jorden''; a collection that eschews capital letters). This defiant externalism was grounded in his person. Though he came from an upper-class background, Ekelöf had never felt committed to it – his father had been mentally ill and when his mother remarried, Ekelöf strongly disapproved of his stepfather, and by extension of his mother; he had become a loner and a rebel by his teens and would never feel at ease with the mores of the established upper and middle classes or with their inhibitions and what he perceived as their hypocrisy and back-scratching.<ref>Carl Olof Sommar ''Gunnar Ekelöf: en biografi'', Albert Bonniers förlag 1989</ref>{{page needed|date=April 2025}} Swedish critic Anders Olsson described Ekelöf's turn to poetry as a choice of "the only utterance that doesn't expurge the contradictions and empty spaces of language and of the mind."<ref>A. Olsson, "Ekelöfs nej" (Ekelöf's No), ''Mälden mellan stenarna'', Stockholm 1981; the point is elaborated in his 1983 Ekelöf monograph of the same name.</ref>

=== Mid-career ===

''Färjesång'' (1941), showed influence from [[T.S. Eliot]], whose poem ''[[East Coker (poem)|East Coker]]'' Ekelöf had translated to Swedish. It took influence from oriental poetry and the darkness of the ongoing [[Second World War]].<ref name="AC 2017">{{cite web |url=http://authorscalendar.info/ekelo.htm |title=Gunnar Ekelöf |date=2017 |publisher=authorscalendar.com}}</ref> Ekelöf himself considered ''Färjesång'' as his personal breakthrough and with its simple and effective language it has had an strong influence on later Swedish poetry.<ref name="lb">{{cite web|url=https://litteraturbanken.se/f%C3%B6rfattare/Ekel%C3%B6fG |title=Gunnar Ekelöf (1907-1968) |publisher=Litteraturbanken |language=Swedish }}</ref>

''Färjesång'' was followed by the acclaimed works,<ref>Carl Olof Sommar ''Gunnar Ekelöf: en biografi'', Albert Bonniers förlag 1989, pp. 258, 349–350</ref> the prose book ''Promenader'' (1941, "Walks"), the  disillusioned<ref name="AC 2017"/> ''[[Non Serviam (poetry collection)|Non Serviam]]'' (1945) in which the title poem borrowed from [[Lucifer]]'s motto "I will not serve" in [[Latin]], which symbolises a refusal to adapt to the conformity of the welfare society,<ref name="lb"/> and ''Om hösten'' (1951, "In autumn") which includes the well-known<ref name="AC 2017"/> poem "Röster under jorden" ("Underground voices").<ref name="AC 2017"/>

In ''Strountes'' (1955), from Swedish "strunt" ("nonsense"), Ekelöf returned to his attacks on literary conventions, exploring meaninglessness. With his continual wordplay, he demonstrated that meaning can emerge from apparent nonsense.<ref name="AC 2017"/> Similar themes were explored in ''Opus incertum'' (1959) och ''En natt i Otočac'' (1961).<ref name="lb"/> The poetry suite ''En Mölna-elegi. Metamorfoser'' (1960) features an advanced technique of [[allusion]]s, in which the protagonist in a short moment experiences a long time sequence.<ref name="lb"/>

=== Recognition ===

In April 1958, Ekelöf was elected a member of the [[Swedish Academy]], succeeding author [[Bertil Malmberg]] on chair 18 in December the same year.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.svenskaakademien.se/svenska-akademien/ledamotsregister/ekelof-gunnar |title=Ekelöf, Gunnar | publisher=Svenska Akademien}}</ref> ''En Mölna-elegi'' ("A Mölna Elegy", 1960), a lengthy [[elegy]] Ekelöf had already begun composing in the 1930s, was a highly personal collection of free associations, moods and memories featuring [[Intertextuality|intertextual]] references to [[Emanuel Swedenborg]], [[Carl Michael Bellman]], [[August Strindberg]], [[Edith Södergran]], and others. The poems deal with the [[Marcel Proust|Proustian]] theme of memory; the collection has been called Ekelöf's most [[James Joyce|Joycean]] work.<ref name="AC 2017"/> On its publication, the book received strongly positive reviews<!--in what way? What did they like about it?--> by contemporary critics.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sommar |first=Carl Olof |title=Gunnar Ekelöf: en biografi |language=sv|publisher=Albert Bonniers förlag |year=1989 |page=511}}</ref>

=== Last works ===

Ekelöf's last works, ''Dīwān över Fursten av Emgión'' (1965, ``[[Diwan on the Prince of Emgion]]``), ''Sagan om Fatumeh'' (1966, "The Tale of Fatumeh") and ''Vägvisare till underjorden'' (1967, "Guide to the Underworld") was a trilogy with [[Byzantine]] theme.<ref name="AC 2017"/> The trilogy was inspired by journey to [[Istanbul]] and [[İzmir]] in 1965 that resulted in an outburst of creativity. In his diary, Ekelöf described the visit as a [[revelation]] that would change his life. ''Dīwān över Fursten av Emgión'' tells the story of the fictive Prince of Emgión who participated in the [[Battle of Manzikert]], was captured, tortured and blinded, and then jailed in [[Constantinople]] for ten years. On his way home, the Prince is accompanied by a mysterious woman, assisting him in his blindness.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sommar |first=Carl Olof |title=Gunnar Ekelöf: en biografi |language=sv|publisher=Albert Bonniers förlag |year=1989 |pages=559 ff}}</ref> For this book, Ekelöf was awarded the [[Nordic Council Literature Prize]] in 1966.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.norden.org/en/nominee/1966-gunnar-ekelof-sweden-diwan-over-fursten-av-emgion |title=1966 Gunnar Ekelöf, Sweden: Dīwān över Fursten av Emgión |publisher=Nordic Co-operation }}</ref>

== Legacy ==

Ekelöf is remembered as one of the first [[surrealist]] poets of Sweden. He died on 16 March 1968 in [[Sigtuna]]. According to his will, his ashes were scattered in the river [[Pactolus]] (now the river Sart) in [[Salihli]], Turkey.<ref>Sommar, Carl Olof (1989). ''Gunnar Ekelöf: en biografi'', Albert Bonniers förlag, p. 606</ref> [[Ovid]] records the legend that King [[Midas]] divested himself of the golden touch by washing himself in that river.<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' XI.140-144.</ref>

On the 103rd anniversary of his birth, 40 Swedish poetry enthusiasts gathered in Salihli. Together with the deputy mayor, they honored Ekelöf's legacy in the city, which he had come to admire ardently on a visit in 1965, and had portrayed in several poems. A bust of Ekelöf by [[Gürdal Duyar]] was to have been placed there, but this was never done, and it now waits in the garden of the Swedish Embassy in Istanbul.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://kazete.com.tr/haber/isvecliler-unlu-sairleri-ekelof-u-salihli-de-andilar_13635 |title=İsveçliler, ünlü şairleri Ekelöf ü Salihli de andılar |date=16 September 2010 |website=Kazete |access-date=1 September 2017 |archive-date=1 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170901070557/http://kazete.com.tr/haber/isvecliler-unlu-sairleri-ekelof-u-salihli-de-andilar_13635 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.dn.se/arkiv/kultur/ekelof-byst-i-sardes/ |title=Ekelöf byst i Sardes |last=Kayaoglu |first=Turhan |date=2 April 1994 |website=dn.kultur |access-date=1 September 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |year=2014 |title=Dragomanen |publisher=Svenska Forskningsinstitutet i Istanbul & Föreningen Svenska Istanbulinstitutets Vänner |publication-place=Visby |page=14 |url=http://www.srii.org/content/upload/documents/ef65d85e-a1b9-4617-b2fa-7522c3087ddb.pdf |access-date=1 September 2017 |archive-date=18 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180918091030/http://www.srii.org/content/upload/documents/ef65d85e-a1b9-4617-b2fa-7522c3087ddb.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref>

== Selected bibliography ==
{{colbegin}}

=== In Swedish ===
* ''Sent på jorden'' "late on earth", poems (1932) (title in lower case lettering; this is retained in all reprints)
* ''Fransk surrealism'' "French Surrealism", translations (1933)
* ''Dedikation'' "Dedication", poems (1934)
* ''Hundra år modern fransk dikt'' "100 Years of Modern French Poetry", translations (1934)
* ''Sorgen och stjärnan'' "The Sorrow and the Star", poems (1936)
* ''Köp den blindes sång'' "Buy the Blind Man's Song", poems (1938)
* ''Färjesång'' "Ferry Song", poems (1941)
* ''Promenader'' "Walks", essays (1941)
* ''Non serviam'' "[[Non Serviam (book)|Non Serviam]]", poems (1945)
* ''Utflykter'' "Excursions", essays (1947)
* ''Om hösten'' "In Autumn", poems (1951)
* ''Strountes'' "Nonsense", poems (1955)
* ''Blandade kort'' "Shuffled Cards", essays (1957)
* ''Opus incertum'' "Opus Incertum", poems (1959)
* ''En Mölna-elegi'' "A Mölna-Elegy", poem (1960)
* ''Valfrändskaper'' "Elective Affinities", translations (1960)
* ''En natt i Otocac'' "A night in Otocac", poems (1961)
* ''Diwan över fursten av Emgión'' "[[Diwan on the Prince of Emgion]]", poems (1965)
* ''Sagan om Fatumeh'' "The Tale of Fatumeh", poems (1966)
* ''Vägvisare till underjorden'' "Guide to the Underworld", trans. [[Rika Lesser]], poems (1967)
* ''Partitur'' "Score" (poems and drafts from his final year) (1969)
* ''Lägga patience'' "Solitaire Game", essays (1969)
* ''En självbiografi'' "An Autobiography", miscellaneous (1971)
* ''En röst'' "A Voice", sketches, diary notes, poems (1973)

A collected volume of Ekelöf's poetry, ''Dikter'' ("Poems"), was published by Mån Pocket in 1987.

=== In English ===
* ''Selected Poems of Gunnar Ekelöf'', translated by [[Muriel Rukeyser]] and Leif Sjöberg, (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1967)
* ''Late Arrival on Earth: Selected Poems'', translated by [[Robert Bly]] and Christina Paulston,(London: Rapp & Carroll, 1967)
* ''I Do Best Alone at Night'', translated by Robert Bly and Christina Paulston, (Washington: The Charioteer Press, 1968)
* ''Selected Poems'', translated by [[W. H. Auden]] and Leif Sjöberg, (New York: Pantheon Books, 1971)
* ''A Mölna Elegy'', translated by [[Muriel Rukeyser]] and Leif Sjöberg, (Greensboro, NC: Unicorn Press, Inc., 1984)
{{colend}}

Ekelöf made some substantial re-edits of the text and sequence of poems in later collected editions and anthologies of his work, especially relating to his 1930s books.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Sources ==
* {{cite encyclopedia |title=Gunnar Ekelöf |encyclopedia=[[Nationalencyklopedin]] |year=2004 |url=https://www.ne.se/uppslagsverk/encyklopedi/l%C3%A5ng/gunnar-ekel%C3%B6f }}

==External links==
* [http://www.gunnarekelof.se/ The Gunnar Ekelöf society homepage] (in Swedish)
* {{Books and Writers |id=ekelo |name=Gunnar Ekelöf}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-culture}}
{{succession box|title=[[Swedish Academy]],<br>[[List of members of the Swedish Academy#Seat 18|Seat No.18]]|before=[[Bertil Malmberg]]|after=[[Artur Lundkvist]]|years=1958–1968}}
{{s-end}}

{{Dobloug Prize winners}}
{{The Nordic Council's Literature Prize}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ekelof, Gunnar}}
[[Category:1907 births]]
[[Category:1968 deaths]]
[[Category:Members of the Swedish Academy]]
[[Category:Swedish-language poets]]
[[Category:Swedish-language writers]]
[[Category:Modernist poets]]
[[Category:Dobloug Prize winners]]
[[Category:Nordic Council Literature Prize winners]]
[[Category:20th-century Swedish poets]]
[[Category:Poets from Stockholm]]