Magli Elster (née Raknes; 21 November 1912 – 11 May 1993) was a Norwegian

psychoanalyst PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious processes and their influence on conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on dream interpretation, psychoanalysis is also a talk th ...

, literary critic, poet and translator. She received the Fritt Ord Award, jointly with her husband Torolf Elster.

Personal life

Elster was born in the neighborhood of Vålerenga in

Kristiania Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022, an ...

(now Oslo), Norway. She was the daughter of psychologist Ola Raknes (1887–1975) and poet-playwright Aslaug Vaa (1889–1965). She grew up partly in Vålerenga, Kviteseid and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. She was married to writer and Director-General of the NRK Torolf Elster (1911–2006) and was the mother of philosopher

Jon Elster Jon Elster (; born 22 February 1940) is a Norwegian philosopher and political theorist who holds the Robert K. Merton professorship of Social Science at Columbia University and since 2005 professor of social science at the Collège de France. ...

Career

Elster received psychoanalytic training in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

from 1934 to 1937, and practiced as

from 1937 to 1943. From 1947 to 1985 she was assigned as literary critic for the newspaper '' Arbeiderbladet''. She made her literary debut in 1952 with the poetry collection ''Trikken går i engen'', a cycle of poems, following life in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

, the capital of Norway, over a year. Her literary breakthrough was the collection ''Med hilsen fra natten'' from 1953, which included love poetry with erotic motives. Further collections are ''Den syngende flåten'' from 1955, ''En pike av tre'' (1959) and ''Sekundene'' (1971). Being a literary critic, Elster chaired the association Norsk Litteraturkritikerlag from 1959 to 1969. She was a co-founder of the ''Association Internationale de Critiques Litteraires''. She also translated literary works into

Norwegian language Norwegian ( ) is a North Germanic language from the Indo-European language family spoken mainly in Norway, where it is an official language. Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a dialect continuum of more or less mutually intelli ...

. In 1986 she and her husband Torolf were awarded the Fritt Ord Award, for having described their encounters with refugees from various parts of the world.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elster, Magli 1912 births 1993 deaths Writers from Oslo 20th-century Norwegian poets Norwegian literary critics Norwegian women literary critics Norwegian women non-fiction writers Norwegian psychoanalysts 20th-century Norwegian translators Norwegian women poets 20th-century Norwegian women writers