Horace Oscar Axel Engdahl (born 30 December 1948) is a Swedish literary historian and critic, and has been a member of the

Swedish Academy The Swedish Academy (), founded in 1786 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. Its 18 members, who are elected for life, comprise the highest Swedish language authority. Outside Scandinavia, it is best known as the body t ...

since 1997. He was the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy from 1999 to June 2009, when he was succeeded by Swedish author and historian Peter Englund.

Biography

Engdahl was born in

Karlskrona Karlskrona (, , ) is a locality and the seat of Karlskrona Municipality, Blekinge County, Sweden with a population of 66,675 in 2018. It is also the capital of Blekinge County. Karlskrona is known as Sweden's only baroque city and is host to ...

Blekinge Blekinge () is one of the traditional Swedish provinces (), situated in the southern coast of the geographic region of Götaland, in southern Sweden. It borders Småland, Scania and the Baltic Sea. It is the country's second-smallest provin ...

, Sweden. He earned his B.A. in 1970 at

Stockholm University Stockholm University (SU) () is a public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, social ...

; he earned his doctoral degree (

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

) in 1987, with a study on Swedish

romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

, but had meanwhile been active as a literary critic, translator and journal editor, and was one of the introducers of the continental tradition of literary scholarship in Sweden. He is adjunct professor of

Scandinavian Literature Scandinavian literature or Nordic literature is the literature in the languages of the Nordic countries of Northern Europe. The Nordic countries include Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway (including Svalbard), Sweden, and Scandinavia's associate ...

at the University of Aarhus in

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. He speaks Swedish, English,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

, French and

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

fluently. Engdahl was member of the ''

Kris The kris or is a Javanese culture, Javanese asymmetrical dagger with a distinctive blade-patterning achieved through alternating laminations of iron and nickelous iron (''pamor''). The kris is famous for its distinctive wavy blade, although ma ...

'' editorial staff. On 16 October 1997, Engdahl became a member of the

, elected to seat number 17 vacated by the death of Johannes Edfelt; on 1 June 1999, he succeeded Sture Allén as the Academy's permanent secretary, i.e. its executive member and spokesperson. As such, he had the annual task of announcing the recipient of the

Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...

to the public. On 20 December 2008 it was announced that after ten years Engdahl would step down as the Academy's permanent secretary on 1 June 2009. Between 1989 and 2014 he was married to Ebba Witt-Brattström, professor of literature at Södertörn University outside Stockholm. They have three sons.

Controversy

In October 2008, Engdahl told the ''

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

'' that the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

is "too isolated, too insular" to challenge Europe as "the center of the literary world""No Nobel prizes for American writers: they're too parochial"
by Suzanne Goldenberg,

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

, Thursday 2 October 2008 and that "they don't translate enough and don't really participate in the big dialogue of literature ...That ignorance is restraining." At the time of the interview, no American author had received a Nobel Prize in Literature since 1993. His comments generated controversy across the Atlantic, with

Harold Augenbraum Harold Augenbraum (born March 31, 1953) is an American writer, editor, and translator. He is the former Executive Director of the National Book Foundation, and former member of the Board of Trustees of the Asian American Writers Workshop, and f ...

, head of the U.S.

National Book Foundation The National Book Foundation (NBF) is an American nonprofit organization established with the goal "to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America." Established in 1989 by National Book Awards, Inc.,Edwin McDowell. "Book Notes: ...

offering to send him a reading list. In April 2018, the ''New York Times'' reported that Engdahl had railed against former Academy members who left following allegations of sexual abuse by

Jean-Claude Arnault Jean-Claude Arnault (; born 15 August 1946), known in Swedish media as ("the cultural personage", but commonly translated literally as "the cultural profile"), is a French-Swedish convicted sex offender. He worked as a photographer and is the f ...

."Sex Abuse Scandal Casts Shadow Over Nobel Prize for Literature"
''The New York Times'', April 11, 2018

Bibliography

* Om det utopiska tänkesättet : föreläsning i Stockholm (1982) * Swedish ballet and dance : a contemporary view (1984) * Den romantiska texten : en essä i nio avsnitt (1986) * Om uppmärksamheten (1988) * Stilen och lyckan : essäer om litteratur (1992) * Beröringens ABC : en essä om rösten i litteraturen (1994) * Stagnelius Kärleken (1996) * Meteorer (1999) * Ärret efter drömmen (2009) * Cigaretten efteråt (2011) * Den sista grisen (2016) * Nattens mänsklighet (2019) * De obekymrade (2019)

References

External links

Presentation at the official website
of the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Engdahl, Horace 1948 births Living people People from Karlskrona Members of the Swedish Academy Stockholm University alumni Swedish literary scholars Swedish literary critics Swedish translators Translators to Swedish