History of Bestiality
 Cover of the first book in the trilogy, Moment of Freedom | |
Moment of Freedom Powderhouse The Silence | |
| Author | Jens Bjørneboe |
|---|---|
| Country | Norway |
| Language | Norwegian |
| Published | 1966–1973 (initial publication) |
| No. of books | 3 |
The History of Bestiality is a trilogy by the Norwegian writer Jens Bjørneboe. It consists of the three books Moment of Freedom ("Frihetens øyeblikk", 1966), Powderhouse ("Kruttårnet", 1969) and The Silence ("Stillheten", 1973).
Moment of Freedom
[edit]Moment of Freedom: the Heiligenberg Manuscript.
The narrator is a court usher in a small alp village ("Heiligenberg"). While observing incidents in the court, he occupies himself filling protocols with what he calls "the history of bestiality".
Powderhouse
[edit]Powderhouse: Scientific Postscript and Last Protocol.
The narrator is now houseporter at a hospital for mentally diseased. The staff and patients deliver lectures on themes such as the history of execution, heresy and heretics.
The Silence
[edit]The Silence: Anti-novel and Absolutely Very Last Protocol.
The narrator is situated in an unnamed country in northern Africa. He is now occupied with themes such as the history of colonisation: how the European countries took "possession" of large parts of the world, America, Africa and Asia.
References
[edit]- Esther Greenleaf Mürer. "Annotated List of Jens Bjørneboe's Works." [1]
- Aarnes, Sigurd Aa. "The Problem of Evil"—Nazism in Jens Bjørneboe's writing. Translated by John Weinstock . In The Nordic Mind: Current Trends in Scandinavian Literary Criticism, edited by Frank Egholm Andersen and John Weinstock. 223–50. Lanham MD: University Presses of America, 1986. [2]
- Engelstad, Carl Fredrik. "Jens Bjørneboes Trilogie", Ausblick, Zeitschrift für Deutsch- Skandinavische Beziehungen ( Lübeck) 33 (1983), no. 1-2: 6-8
- Gary Kern "Bjørneboe's Great Failure: The History of Bestiality" [3]
- Mussari, Mark. "Farvens klang: Color Spaces in Strindberg, Branner, Dinessen and Bjørneboe." PhD. Dissertation, Univ of Washington, 1999.
- Longum, Leif. "Jens Bjørneboe and the Laughter of Tuscany." In I rapporti tra Italia e Europa del nord nella letteratura e nell'arte. Giornate scandinavie 3-5 maggio 1989, edited by Randi Langen Moen, 127–136. . Bologna: Universita di Bologna, 1992.
- Kreutzer, Helmut. "Existentielle Prosa, spiritueller Anarchismus: zum Augenblick der Freiheit von Jens Bjørneboe". In Probleme des Erzahlens in der Weltliteratur: Festschrift fur Kate Hamburger zum 75. Geburtstag, ed. Fritz Martini, 348–64. Stuttgart: Klett, 1971.