The article investigates and compares the verbalization of the in-out spatial relation in Swedish and Polish. Swedish phrasal verbs containing particles relating to the container schema (gå in/ut/igenom, hoppa i/ur) are analyzed and compared with Polish verbs with prefixes (wyjść/wejść, przejść, wskoczyć/wyskoczyć). The investigation shows that the prototypical landmark for the Swedish verbal particles in/ut is a horizontally orientated container (a container with a roof) and for the Swedish verbal particles i/ur there is a small landmark, often in contact with the trajector. In Polish, on the other hand, neither the orientation of the container nor its size is relevant. In Polish, the container schema appears to dominate the structuring of the domain of physical space while in Swedish the vertical orientation (up-down schema) characterizes the perception of physical space. In Swedish, a movement into a container without a roof is described with the vertical particles upp/ner and not with the container particles in/ut (kliva upp/*ut ur badkaret – wyjść z wanny).

World languages make use of numerous syntactic types. The most frequently occurring word order, also represented in Swedish and Polish, is the SVO structure (subject, verb, object). In all languages, however, there are certain possibilities for modifying the sentence pattern depending on the sender’s communicative intention. In Swedish, in which the word order performs a grammatical function, the available options are less numerous than in Polish, where the existence of the inflectional system allows for a considerable freedom of the sentence word order. In this paper we will present the most frequent language strategies used in Swedish in order to express the theme-rheme semantic value of utterances. Swedish examples will be juxtaposed with their Polish translations.

The present paper investigates word associations in beginner learners of Swedish as L3. Word associations can be understood as links that connect words in the human mind and therefore they can shed light on how language learners build their mental lexicon. Three general types of word associations can be distinguished: phonological, paradigmatic and syntagmatic. Previous studies have shown that the first type occurs in children acquiring their first language and in second language learners while paradigmatic and syntagmatic associations can be found in adults L1-speakers. 28 Polish adult learners of L3 Swedish participated in the study in which they were asked to fulfil the Swedish version of Kent-Rosanoff word list. The analysis has shown that multilinguals at the beginning stage of their L3-learning translate words into one of their background languages – most often L1-Polish. Word associations in these learners are also complex in nature: in most cases students had clang associations combined with other types, such as translation, paradigmatic or syntagmatic.

Witold Gombrowicz’s novel Trans-Atlantyk, written in a style imitating the Sarmatian 17th century storytelling (gawęda), is widely accounted as one of the most demanding works to translate. The present paper aims at describing stylistic features at the level of syntax, which are present in Trans-Atlantyk’s Swedish translation done by Anders Bodegård and praised as an extraordinary piece of work. We focus solely on distinguishing different types of syntactic constructions used by the translator revealing his way of rendering the syntactic stylization of the unique source text. Additionally, the study has a didactic focus. It shows an enormous stylistic potential of the Swedish language captured in one text.

The article investigates some main tendencies in the translations of Wisława Szymborska’s poetry into Swedish. According to scholars of Polish literature, the poetical work of Szymborska can be placed within two literary traditions: on the one hand modernism, on the other hand premodern literature with a heavy accent on baroque aesthetics. The leading thesis of this article is that Swedish translators strengthen the modernistic character of the poems while weakening their baroque features. The line of argument comprises four stages. In the first stage, the history of Swedish translations of Szymborska’s poetry is summarized. In the second stage, it is demonstrated that Swedish translators successfully reproduce the majority of Szymborska’s modernistic devices (metaphor, free verse, depersonalization, polyphony, colloquialism etc.). In the third stage, it is analogously shown that Szymborska’s baroque devices (conceit, pun, play with rhetorical figures and intertextual artefacts etc.) tend to abate or simply disappear in Swedish translations. In the fourth stage finally, the translatory practice of substituting Szymborska’s baroque components is examined. Whether the translators try to find literal equivalents to her conceits or turn them into colloquial Swedish idiom, the article argues, the result of both strategies is an intensification of the poems’ modernistic style.

The article addresses the problem of relationships between canonised and non-canonised literature as illustrated by August Strindberg and women’s literature of his time with a focus on Marie Sophie Schwartz. According to the concept of canonicity by Rakefet Sheffy, canon can be viewed as a dynamic process within the literary system involving both its central and peripheral elements. Consequently, the main thesis of this article is that even minor writers are involved in canonicity, albeit their contribution is often downplayed by canonised artists. Whereas the history of Swedish literature views Strindberg as a canonical writer, a reputation he earned during his lifetime, women’s literature is often regarded as lacking real literary impact. However, women writers were extremely popular in the second half of the 19th century, paving the way for the development of the novel as a genre. Strindberg’s comments on Schwartz’s works indicate that he was aware of her novels’ social engagement. He himself, as a realist writer, was no stranger to this kind of writing. Yet, having changed his literary style, he took to marginalise tendency writing, taking up the position of a canonical artist occupying the centre of the literary system. Nevertheless, the theory of canonicity offers an insight into the processes of literary innovations, focusing on the fluctuation of literary strata as well as social and ideological factors as relevant for the establishing of the canon. In this light, women writers seem to have strongly contributed to the canonising of the genre of novel, though their impact reminded unnoticed by those holding positions of power in the world of literature.

In her book from 2011 and article from 2013 Lynn R. Wilkinson points out striking parallels between Anne Charlotte Leffler’s play The Ways of Truth (Sanningens vägar) from 1892 and August Strindberg’s A Dream Play from 1901. I find, as I hereby show, that Leffler’s play has its roots not only in Nihilist Girl (1892), a novella by Sofia Kovalevskaya, but also – and essentially – in the novel What Is To Be Done? (1863) by Nikolay Chernyshevsky. Kovalevskaya’s whole life was determined by the ”nihilist” Chernyshevsky’s ideas, and Leffler’s writing was to a large degree determined by Kovalevskaya. In the 1880s the nihilist movement and Russian literature were the hottest intellectual fashion in Sweden. Thus: Strindberg does not borrow from Leffler. Analogies between Leffler’s The Ways of Truth and Strindberg’s Dream Play confirm indirectly A Dream Play’s ”literary dependence” on Chernyshevsky’s novel – particularly on the famous ”Vera Pavlovna’s Dreams”. The power of Russian dreams should never be underestimated.

The paper compares two modes of sexuality in the works of August Strindberg and Viktor Rydberg, taking into account the relationship between homoerotic desire and nature. In Strindberg’s work this very model was defined as naturalistic and based on a positivist way of understanding nature, where homoerotic desire is perceived as an abnormal towards the order of nature. Contrary, Rydberg’s mode could be classified as an idealistic, drawing on the monistic view of the world, seeing homoerotic desire as a positive component of nature. These two modes are discussed in the context of producing modern regimes of sexuality, where homosexuality was crucial to develop the norm within pathologizing psychiatric perspective. By proposing pervert’s emancipation through perversion, Strindberg seems to share the conservative assumptions of the Oscarian morality against which he argues. Contrary, Rydberg’s idealistic model by rejecting the dominant trend of modernization of sexuality, is interpreted not as a manifesto of conservative anti-modernism, but as an alternative modernism.