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Ordkalotten – Tromsø International Literature Festival

Postal Address

Post box 539
N-9256 Tromsø
Norway
 

E-mail

festival{a}ordkalotten.no
 

Festival phone

+ 47 95 83 48 63
 

Visit us

Skansen Festival Centre
Søndre Tollbodgate 8
Tromsø

Homer said it all in the Odyssey. Still, Vergil wrote the Aeneid. Ordkalotten International Literature festival has chosen The Sea, Death and Love as its theme in 2011 in order to honour and explore literary concerns of universal and perennial currency. Exposed to daily twitter and flickering websites, each and all might risk loosing sight of our shared existence and experience. In contrast to the endless electronic stream of real time, Ordkalotten this year wishes to poise the stillness of reflection and the aesthetic consideration of themes that concern us as much today as they did in time immemorial.

Yet Ordkalotten is contemporary and preoccupied with a strong sense of place.
Behind the traditional concerns and lyrical connotations, a critical will to approach the meaning of the three titular terms in today’s literature remains. From Ibsen to Jon Fosse: Both authors deal with the great human concerns, yet the understanding of the relations between language and reality has changed, a fact that holds consequences for their writing. We invite our visiting writers to reflect upon the conditions in which they write – in 2011.

Such wide concerns necessitate some pinpointing in the programme. To a large extent, we intend to deal separately with the three grand themes. However, there will be occasions for overlapping, not least in the light of the great tragedy that hit us all this summer. The different festival events facilitate debate and dialogue on such topics as the sea in Nordic prose, love in Nordic poetry, and death in Sami poetry.

Encouraged by the large number of festival participants in 2010, Ordkalotten aims ambitiously for the distinct voices in contemporary literature. At the same time, Ordkalotten offers an important arena for North Norwegian and Sami writers.

The Sea
The sea has always been, and still is, significant to the development of resources and to the conditions of living in Northern Norway, as means of transportation and source of food production and employment, but a gradually diminishing number of people hold any practical knowledge of the sea by which we live. Fewer people than ever depend upon the sea or relate to it directly as a life-conditioning element. The traditional fishing boat and the sea shed have become mere abstractions to the younger generations. By focusing on the sea, Ordkalotten intends to present modern representations of the element in a coastal climate where the discourses of the sea might appear stale, both in the literature and the soul of the people.

Death
Death is not a novel theme in literature; both the language and images of death also change in the course of time. What happens to the concept of death in a society where the risk of untimely death is increasingly diminished? The life expectancy rates of 83.1 year for women and 78.6 for men are not the only factors under consideration. The probability of life-threatening situations is slim in Norway. Ideas of death in war, by drowning, through accidents at work, and the very ideas of risk and death become gradually unreal for Norwegian people. This obsoletion of death alters the ideas of death from the previous generation, and suggests ideas of death that are entirely different from most other parts of the world.

Love
Love is the greatest challenge to contemporary writers. No topic is so over fraught with meaning, nor so full of pitfalls. How can writers find a language for love in 2011, how can they tip-toe across this minefield of trite metaphors? Still, they stride on unabashed.
Despite everything, love continuously demands its place in literature. During Ordkalotten 2011, we wish to highlight how contemporary writers approach this complex field, and how they relate to love in their own writing.

ORDKALOTTEN 2010: CARAVAN
Project Description

The word caravan specifically describes a large group, journeying with pack animals and goods through hard-traveled areas. By naming this year’s festival Caravan, we want to focus on divergence, travel and arrival. Travel between locations, but also between languages and within languages while writing. We have organized work on the program around several focal points:

1. Translation

One of the focal points of Ordkalotten10:Caravan is translation. Translating literature is a way of meeting other cultures, societies and landscapes. One could look at translation as a caravan of words between languages; a caravan that initiates discourse shared across borders both abstract and physical. In an increasingly globalized world, the translation becomes important as a tool to understand the encounters we face.
 

Mihkail Sjisjikin

Marit Bjerkeng

Rauni Magga Lukkari

Laila Stien

2. Preparation

Before setting out for long journeys, preparation is pivotal. With this in mind, we think of writing as a journey. We want to focus on the writing process, and ask our visiting authors how they prepare new projects, and how they decide what to include and what to leave behind. 
 

Thure Erik Lund

Tomas Espedal

Cathrine Knudsen

Guri Botheim

Sigrid Botheim

3. Divergence and Arrival

Within the focus of”Divergence and Arrival” Ordkalotten10:Caravan wants to look at the journey itself, with attention to both the transfer between locations, and on coming and going. This theme is unavoidable when speaking of Caravan and opens a wealth of possibilities on the subject of travel and transfer in literature. Travel is a way of understanding; travel is learning and experiencing, but it can also be about escape or exile. In the festival program several entrances to travel are explored.

Vendela Vida

Ragnar Hovland

Anne Oterholm

Ingrid Z. Aanestad

Britt Karin Larsen

Alf Nilsen Børsskog

Odd Karsten Tveit

Mads Gilbert

 

4. Locality (locus)

The Latin word locus means “locality.” In genetics, locus describes the chromosomal position of a gene. In medicine, locus is the point of the body where a pathogen enters. In mathematics, locus is the set of all points that satisfy a given condition.
From a caravan perspective, it is important to note that the locality is the known, the domestic, the exit point, and the unknown, the destination, whether it’s planned or incidental. From an Ordkalotten perspective, it is important to have sections in the program which deal especially with the northern aspects of locality, be it expeditions to the Arctic Ocean or polar heroes on their way into the unknown. The tundra is an important place, so too is the ocean, the water element.

Ursula Andkjær Olsen

Karl Larsson

Erlend O. Nødtvedt

Espen Stueland

Irene Larsen

Liv Lundberg

Eirik Skrede