Henrik Johnsson

• Johnsson, Henrik (2027). Form and Intent in the Scandinavian Precarity Novel: A Reading of Maria Navarro Skaranger's Emily forever (2021). Scandinavian Studies. ISSN 0036-5637. 99(1). Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The article conducts a reading of Maria Navarro Skaranger's Emily forever (2021) set against the backdrop of literary precarity studies, an academic field that seeks to understand how fictional depictions of precarity operate in terms of theme, structure, and intent. The article argues that the field is characterized by an idealistic reading style that poses unexamined methodological challenges. The article uses Emily forever as a case study in order to highlight these challenges and to test how the novel aligns with, but also departs from, current generic definitions of the precarity novel. The article concludes by suggesting further avenues of inquiry for scholarship on Scandinavian precarity fiction.

• Johnsson, Henrik (2024). The medical plausibility of Osvald’s disease. Ibsen Studies. ISSN 1502-1866. 24(1), p. 31–58. doi: 10.1080/15021866.2024.2347109. Full text in Research Archive
• Johnsson, Henrik (2021). The Route to Catholicism: Symbolism and Idealism in the Works of Johannes Jørgensen. Scandinavian Studies. ISSN 0036-5637. 93(1), p. 23–59. doi: 10.5406/scanstud.93.1.0023. Full text in Research Archive
• Johnsson, Henrik (2021). "Hvem pokker gider bli spiritist": Arne Garborgs möte med spiritismen. Edda. Nordisk tidsskrift for litteraturforskning. ISSN 0013-0818. 108(1), p. 35–47. doi: 10.18261/issn.1500-1989-2021-01-04. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Artikeln utgör en idéhistorisk undersökning av Arne Garborgs intresse för spiritismen under 1890-talets första hälft. Artikeln argumenterar för att Garborg anlägger samma förhållningssätt till spiritismen som den samtida parapsykologin i det att han söker ge en naturlig förklaring till de fenomen som rapporteras från spiritistiska seanser. Garborgs uppmärksammande av spiritismen sätts vidare i förbindelse med den rationalism som präglar hans naturalistiska författarskap. Artikeln diskuterar vidare de svårigheter som tidigare forskning har haft med att redogöra för Garborgs ockulta intressen, och avslutas med några reflektioner kring hur Garborgs vitalistiska tänkande förändrar hans syn på rationalismen.

• Johnsson, Henrik (2020). Rum där män möts: Samkönat begär i Knut Hamsuns "Hemmelig ve". Nordlit. ISSN 0809-1668. 46, p. 35–50. doi: 10.7557/13.5635. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  I artikeln analyseras Knut Hamsuns novell ”Hemmelig ve” (1897) ur queer-perspektiv. Artikeln argumenterar för att Hamsuns novell skildrar ett samkönat erotiskt begär mellan berättaren och den man som betecknas som ”den främmande”. Den främmande förstås som berättarens dubbelgångare, och i egenskap av dubbelgångare representerar han berättarens förbjudna begär. Denna tolkning tar som utgångspunkt en jämförelse mellan 1897 års text och den tidigare version av samma novell som gavs ut under titeln ”Underlige Sjæle” (1891), samt genom en närläsning av de båda männens möten. Artikeln avslutas med en diskussion kring Hamsunforskningens förhållande till queerteori.

• Johnsson, Henrik (2019). Familjen som pesthärd: Sjukdom och förbrytelse i Vigdis Hjorths Arv og miljø. Acta Universitatis Carolinae Philologica. ISSN 0567-8269. 3, p. 115–127. doi: 10.14712/24646830.2019.35. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article conducts a close reading of Vigdis Hjorth’s novel <i>Arv og miljø</i> (2016). I argue that the novel is informed by an imagery of contagion and disease which is used to express a theme of dysfunctional familial relationships. A related imagery of boundaries and cleanliness is used to relay the narrator’s experience of having been sexually assaulted by her father. In closing, I maintain that the novel should be regarded as a literary text influenced by popular representations of psychoanalytical theory and practice.

• Johnsson, Henrik (2019). Mörkrets hav. Lyrisk impressionism i Josefine Klougarts Om mørke. Nordlit. ISSN 0809-1668. 44. doi: 10.7557/13.4829. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Artikeln bedriver en litteraturhistoriskt orienterad läsning av Josefine Klougarts <i>Om mørke</i> (2013). Artikeln argumenterar för att Klougarts roman stilistiskt och strukturellt är inspirerad av Virginia Woolfs författarskap, och att Klougart skriver in sig i en tradition av litterär impressionism. Även romanens bruk av stream of consciousness-teknik och dess fragmentestetik sätts i relation till Woolf och impressionismen. Därefter görs en tematisk läsning av romanen, i vilken romanens centrala förgänglighetstematik lyfts fram.

• Johnsson, Henrik (2018). A History of Research into Occult Modernist Literature. In Bauduin, Tessel & Johnsson, Henrik (Ed.), The Occult in Modernist Art, Literature, and Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan. ISSN 9783319764986. p. 31–45. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-76499-3_2. Full text in Research Archive
• Bauduin, Tessel & Johnsson, Henrik (2018). Introduction: Conceptualizing Occult Modernism. In Bauduin, Tessel & Johnsson, Henrik (Ed.), The Occult in Modernist Art, Literature, and Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan. ISSN 9783319764986. p. 1–29. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-76499-3_1. Full text in Research Archive

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• Johnsson, Henrik (2024). Ibsen and Degeneration: Familial Decay and the Fall of Civilization. Routledge. ISBN 9781032744759. 208 p. doi: 10.4324/9781003470731. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Henrik Ibsen's plays were written at a critical juncture in late-19th-century European culture. Appearing at a time when notions of evolution and heredity were commonplace themes in literature and the arts, Ibsenian drama highlights the creative potential offered by contemporary evolutionary thought. In his plays, Ibsen explores variations on the theme of degeneration, imagining how families can become affected by ill-health or other forms of "weakness" that lead to the extinction of the family line. Ibsen and Degeneration looks at the recurrence of ideas of degeneration in three of Ibsen's plays: In Ghosts, it is the motif of syphilis, highly shocking to Ibsen's contemporaries, which serves as an allegory of degeneration. In Rosmersholm, degeneration is reconfigured as an overcultivation that eventually makes a family unfit for life. In Hedda Gabler, meanwhile, Hedda, having been for all practical purposes raised as a man, has come to think of herself as one, a circumstance which informs her final decision to end her life – her final degeneration. By reading these three plays from a fresh perspective, Ibsen and Degeneration sheds new light on some of Ibsen's most enduring contributions to world drama.

• Bauduin, Tessel & Johnsson, Henrik (2018). The Occult in Modernist Art, Literature, and Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9783319764986. 275 p. Full text in Research Archive

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• Johnsson, Henrik (2025). The Occult Breakthrough in Modern Scandinavian Literature. Full text in Research Archive
• Johnsson, Henrik (2025). Teaching a Course on Illness in Children's and Young Adult Literature: Lessons and Suggestions. Full text in Research Archive
• Johnsson, Henrik (2025). Reply to Eivind Tjønneland’s Review Essay of Ibsen and Degeneration. Ibsen Studies. ISSN 1502-1866. doi: 10.1080/15021866.2025.2499793. Full text in Research Archive
• Johnsson, Henrik (2024). Forfattersamtale med Ida Börjel. Full text in Research Archive
• Johnsson, Henrik (2024). Den kontextualiserande läsningens krav och begränsningar. Full text in Research Archive
• Johnsson, Henrik (2024). För Strindberg var ockultism både mode och andligt sökande. [Journal]. Ny Tid. Full text in Research Archive
• Johnsson, Henrik; Nesby, Linda Hamrin & Ramberg, Ingri Løkholm (2021). Hamsun og grenser/Hamsun and Borders. Septentrio Academic Publishing. Full text in Research Archive

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