Ragnhild Theodora Jølsen (28 March 1875 – 28 January 1908) was a Norwegian author. Norwegian oral traditions were a recurring theme in her works. Her writings often focused on the conflict between the old rural society and modern industrial society.

Biography

Ragnhild Jølsen grew up on the historic Ekeberg farm (''Ekeberg gård'') in

Enebakk Enebakk is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Akershus Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Follo, Norway, Follo Districts of Norway, traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of K ...

Akershus Akershus () is a county in Norway, with Oslo as its administrative centre, though Oslo is not located within Akershus. Akershus has been a region in Eastern Norway with Oslo as its main city since the Middle Ages, and is named after the Akers ...

, Norway. This large farm had been in her family since 1634 and remained so until sold in 1903. Ragnhild Jølsen was youngest of nine children, four of whom died early. She moved to

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 ...

in 1889 after the family had been hit hard financially. Her father, Holm Jølsen (1833–1906) was an early industrial pioneer and ran Norway's third largest

match A match is a tool for starting a fire. Typically, matches are made of small wooden sticks or stiff paper. One end is coated with a material that can be ignited by friction generated by striking the match against a suitable surface. Wooden matc ...

factory in Ekebergdalen between 1866 and 1886. She completed grammar school in 1891. Ragnhild Jølsen moved back to Enebakk in 1896. She attended a local girls' school (''Nissens pikeskole''). She later worked as a governess with relatives in Enebakk (1897–1898). Jølsen was seen as a controversial author in a period of great change, as society transformed itself from the old ways founded on small farming communities into the modern

industrial society In sociology, an industrial society is a society driven by the use of technology and machinery to enable mass production, supporting a large population with a high capacity for division of labour. Such a structure developed in the Western world ...

. Short, chopped-up sentences were typical of her

writing style In literature, writing style is the manner of expressing thought in language characteristic of an individual, period, school, or nation. Thus, style is a term that may refer, at one and the same time, to singular aspects of an individual's writing ...

, almost maniacally sounding, as in Biblical form, and her depictions always moved in the intersection between dream and reality. Having received a grant she traveled to

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

in November 1906 and returned to Enebakk in July 1907. There she began an affair with the married Norwegian painter Carl Dørnberger (1864–1940). Jølsen died in January 1908, allegedly having taken an

overdose A drug overdose (overdose or OD) is the ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities much greater than are recommended. Retrieved on September 20, 2014.

of sleeping powder. She left for posterity some of

Norwegian literature Norwegian literature is literature composed in Norway or by Norwegian people. The history of Norwegian literature starts with the pagan Eddaic poems and skaldic verse of the 9th and 10th centuries with poets such as Bragi Boddason and Eyvindr ...

's most forceful depictions of agony-manifesting women. Both in her private life and as a writer she was an outsider, and during most of her short life she lived the life of a

bohemian Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, originally practised by 19th–20th century European and American artists and writers. * Bohemian style, a ...

. Add to that her books which shocked her contemporaries with their open depictions of the sex lives and drives of women which caused some reviewers to assert that it had to be a man and not a woman who had written them. For most of the period since her death she has wrongly been portrayed in Norway as a representative of a contemporary class of

homestead Homestead may refer to: *Homestead (building), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses * Nguni homestead, a cluster of houses inhabited by a single extended family, typically with a kraal ...

writers, when in fact only her short story collection ''Brukshistorier'' ("Factory Tales") belongs to this genre. The quite different style which characterizes the bulk of her novels is the meandering motifs of

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

and a consistent

fatalistic Fatalism is a belief and philosophical doctrine which considers the entire universe as a deterministic system and stresses the subjugation of all events, actions, and behaviors to fate or destiny, which is commonly associated with the cons ...

decadence Decadence was a late-19th-century movement emphasizing the need for sensationalism, egocentricity, and bizarre, artificial, perverse, and exotic sensations and experiences. By extension, it may refer to a decline in art, literature, science, ...

which depicts itself in her intense and admirable authorship. In 1938, a memorial stone was erected with a bronze relief of Ragnhild Jølsen in her home community of

. In 2008, the municipality organized events to commemorate the

centennial A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century. Notable events Notable centennial events at a national or world-level include: * Centennial Exhibition, 1876, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ...

of her death. In 1964,

Jens Bjørneboe Jens Ingvald Bjørneboe (9 October 1920 – 9 May 1976) was a Norwegian writer whose work spanned a number of literary formats. He was also a painter and a Waldorf school teacher. Bjørneboe was a harsh and eloquent critic of Norwegian society a ...

partially depicted her life in the

biographical novel The biographical novel is a genre of novel which provides a fictional account of a contemporary or historical person's life. Like other forms of biographical fiction, details are often trimmed or reimagined to meet the artistic needs of the fictio ...

''Drømmen og Hjulet'' ("The Dream and the Wheel"). In 1988,

Aschehoug H. Aschehoug & Co. (W. Nygaard), commonly known as Aschehoug,() is one of the largest independent publishing companies in Norway, founded in 1872. Headquartered in Oslo, the publishing house has 480 employees. The Aschehoug group also comprises o ...

published the works of Ragnhild Jølsen in a new edition with an additional release in 2008. In 2008, Håkon Tysdal wrote ''Fra Ign til Fontana di Trevi - en reise gjennom Ragnhild Jølsens siste leveår'' ("From Ign to Fontana di Trevi - a Journey Through the Last Years of Ragnhild Jølsen's Life"). A new biography written by Arnhild Skre was also published in the autumn of 2008. Moys, a rock band from Enebakk, has composed music to go along with Ragnhild Jølsen's texts in the album ''Måneskinn og tåke'' ("Moonlight and Mist") released in November 2009. ''Ragnhild Theodore Jølsen'' (Norsk biografisk leksikon)
/ref>

Bibliography

*
Ve's mor
' (1903) *
Rikka Gan
' (1904) *
Fernanda Mona
' (1905) *
Hollases Krønike
' (1906) *
Brukshistorier
' (1907) *
Efterlatte arbeider
' (1908)

References

Other sources

*Tiberg, Antonie ''Ragnhild Jølsen i liv og digtning'' (Aschehoug. 1909) *Ribsskog, Øyvin ''Ragnhild Jølsens saga'' (Ski. 1976) *Christensen, Kari ''Portrett på mørk treplate. Ragnhild Jølsens liv og forfatterskap'' (Aschehoug. 1989) *Norddahl, Helge ''Tre kyss for den ensomme fugl. Syv essays om Ragnhild Jølsens diktning'' (Aschehoug. 1991) * Skre, Arnhild ''La meg bli som leoparden: Ragnhild Jølsen - en biografi'' (2009)

External links

Ragnhild Jølsen and ØstmarkaEkeberg gård
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jolsen, Ragnhild 20th-century Norwegian novelists Norwegian women novelists People from Enebakk 1875 births 1908 deaths Drug-related deaths in Norway 20th-century Norwegian women writers 19th-century Norwegian women writers