Karin Maria Boye (; 26 October 1900 – 24 April 1941) was a Swedish poet and novelist. In Sweden she is acclaimed as a poet, but internationally she is best known for the dystopian science fiction novel '' Kallocain'' (1940).

Career

Boye was born in

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

(Göteborg), Sweden and moved with her family to

Stockholm Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...

in 1909. In Stockholm, she studied at the ''

Åhlinska skolan Åhlinska skolan (Åhlin School), or Åhlinska flickskolan (Åhlin Girls' School), was a girls' school in Stockholm, Sweden. Active from 1847 to 1939, it was one of the first schools in Sweden that offered serious academic education to female stud ...

'' until 1920. She studied at

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...

from 1921 to 1926 and debuted in 1922 with a collection of poems, "Clouds" (Swedish: ). During her time in Uppsala and until 1930, Boye was a member of the

Swedish Clarté League Clarté (Full name in Swedish ''Svenska Clartéförbundet'', or the ''Swedish Clarté League'') is a non-partisan socialist students' organisation in Sweden. It publishes a periodical with the same name. Clarté was established in 1921, and was i ...

, a socialist group that was strongly

antifascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...

. She was also a member of the women's organization

Nya Idun Nya Idun is a Swedish cultural association for women founded in 1885, originally as a female counterpart to Sällskapet Idun ('the Idun Society'). Its aim was to "gather educated women in the Stockholm area for informal gatherings". There was al ...

. In 1931, Boye, together with Erik Mesterton and Josef Riwkin, founded the poetry magazine ''Spektrum'', introducing T. S. Eliot and the Surrealists to Swedish readers. She translated many of Eliot's works into Swedish; she and Mesterton translated "

The Waste Land ''The Waste Land'' is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of Modernist poetry in English, modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the ...

". Boye is perhaps most famous for her poems, the most well-known of which are "Yes, of course it hurts" (Swedish: ) and "In motion" () from her collections of poems "The Hearths" (), 1927, and "For the sake of the tree" (), 1935. She was also a member of the Swedish literary institution ''

Samfundet De Nio Samfundet De Nio (''The Nine Society'' or ''Society of the Nine'') is a Swedish literary society founded on 14 February 1913 in Stockholm by a testamentary donation from writer Lotten von Kraemer. The society has nine members who are elected for ...

'' (The Nine Society) from 1931 until her death in 1941. Boye's novel "Crisis" () depicts her religious crisis and lesbianism. In her novels "Merit awakens" () and "Too little" () she explores male and female role-playing. Outside Sweden, her best-known work is probably the novel '' Kallocain''. Inspired by her visit to Germany during the rise of

Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) i ...

, it was a portrayal of a dystopian society in the vein of

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalit ...

's ''

Nineteen Eighty-Four ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (also stylised as ''1984'') is a dystopian social science fiction novel and cautionary tale written by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and fina ...

'' and

Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...

's ''

Brave New World ''Brave New World'' is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hiera ...

'' (though written almost a decade before Orwell's magnum opus). In the novel, an idealistic scientist named Leo Kall invents Kallocain, a kind of truth serum. The novel was filmed in Sweden in 1981 and was the main influence on the movie '' Equilibrium''.

Later life

Between 1929 and 1932, Boye was married to another Clarté member, Leif Björck. The marriage was apparently a friendship union. In 1932, after separating from her husband, she had a lesbian relationship with Gunnel Bergström, who left her husband, poet

Gunnar Ekelöf Bengt Gunnar Ekelöf (15 September 1907, in Stockholm – 16 March 1968, in Sigtuna) was a Swedish poet and writer. He was a member of the Swedish Academy from 1958 and was awarded an honorary doctorate in philosophy by Uppsala University in 1958. ...

, for Boye. During a stay in Berlin in 1932–1933 she met Margot Hanel (7 April 1912 – 30 May 1941), whom she lived with for the rest of her life, and referred to as "her wife". Boye died by suicide on 23 April 1941. She overdosed on sleeping pills."Karin Boye"
''

Encyclopaedia Britannica An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into article ...

''. Retrieved 12 August 2017. She was found (according to the police report at the Regional Archives in Gothenburg) on 27 April, curled up at a boulder on a hill with a view just north of

Alingsås Alingsås () is a locality and the seat of Alingsås Municipality in Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 24,482 inhabitants in 2010. Geography Geographically the city is situated by the outlet of the small rivulet Säveån into lake Mjö ...

, near Bolltorpsvägen, by a farmer who was going for a walk. The boulder is now a memorial stone. Margot Hanel also died by suicide shortly thereafter. Karin Boye was given two very different epitaphs. The best-known is the poem "Dead Amazon" () by Hjalmar Gullberg, in which she is depicted as "Very dark and with large eyes". Another poem was written by her close friend Ebbe Linde and is entitled "Dead friend" (). Here, she is depicted not as a heroic

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

but as an ordinary human, small and grey in death, released from battles and pain. A literary association dedicated to her work was created in 1983, keeping her work alive by spreading it among new readers. In 2004, one of the branches of the

Uppsala University Library The Uppsala University Library ( sv, Uppsala universitetsbibliotek) at Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden, consists of 11 subject libraries, one of which is housed in the old main library building, Carolina Rediviva. The library holds books a ...

was named in her honour.

Works

Novels

* , 1931 * , 1933 * , 1934 * , 1936 * '' Kallocain'', 1940

Collections of poems

* , 1922 * , 1924 * , 1927 * , 1935 * , 1941 (not completed, posthumously published) * ''Complete Poems'' in English translation by David McDuff, Bloodaxe Books, 1994

References

Sources

* Abenius, Margit. 1965. ''Karin Boye''. Stockholm, Sweden. Bokförlaget Aldus/Bonniers. * Hammarström, Camilla. 2001. ''Karin Boye''. Stockholm, Sweden. Natur & Kultur. .

External links

The Karin Boye Society

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Boye, Karin 1900 births 1941 suicides People from Gothenburg Lesbian writers 20th-century Swedish novelists Swedish-language writers Swedish-language poets LGBT writers from Sweden Uppsala University alumni English–Swedish translators Drug-related suicides in Sweden Swedish women novelists 20th-century Swedish women writers 20th-century translators 20th-century Swedish poets 1941 deaths 20th-century LGBT people Members of Nya Idun