Katastrofer vid vatten

Maktstrukturer och tidslager i två svenska Norrlandsromaner

Abstract

Natural Disasters, Hierarchies and Time in Two Northern Swedish Novels

Per Hallström’s novel Döda fallet (”The Dead Falls”) from 1902 and Mikael Niemi’s Fallvatten (”Falling Water”) from 2012 both depict natural disasters induced by man. The former novel has a historic background while the latter is a more speculative, yet realistic, narrative. In this article, a combined ecocritical and postcolonial reading of the novels highlights a shared focus on power structures and their effects, in both the short and long term. This thematization is also reinforced by the use of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic imagery. Both novels include an implicit criticism of industrial exploitation. Nature, as well as local residents, suffer great losses due to the profit and power interests of other groups, groups without a deeper connection to the place, its nature and people.