Novelltiteln hos Hjalmar Söderberg

Abstract

Hjalmar Söderberg’s Short Story Titles

This article examines short story titles by Hjalmar Söderberg (1869–1941). Like many short story writers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Söderberg uses very short titles. The majority of his titles are comprised of one or two nouns and a definite article. For example: ”Pelsen” [”The Fur Coat”], ”Kyssen” [”The Kiss”] and ”Kinesen” [”The Chinese”]. In comparison to other short story writers of the same period, Söderberg uses a broad variety of titles: he may use a double title in an ”exotic” travel story, or a dichotomous title in a debate-driven story. Generic titles are comprised mostly of compound words or of a phrase. The most common generic term is ”history”. Personal names appear only occasionally in Söderberg’s short story titles; instead generalized names are used. Several of Söderberg’s short story titles are allusive, as is common in the case of early twentieth-century short stories.