Critical Approaches to Sjón: North of the Sun is the first English-language book-length study of the works of the Icelandic contemporary poet Sjón (Sigurjón Birgir Siguršsson, b. 1962), who is considered by some to be Icelands most distinctive and multifaceted contemporary author. This collection of essays introduces readers to Sjóns rich body of writing and its transmedial and stylistic range, cultural breadth, thematic diversity, and intellectual depth. Essays in the volume have been brought together from around the world and cover Sjóns's beginnings as a neo-surrealist performance artist and poet (translated into over 20 languages), his career as a novelist (translated into over 30 languages), and his collaborations with translators, singer-songwriters, film directors, and other writers. Approaches range from the narratological, historical, ethical, epistemological, and mythological to theoretical methodologies such as thing theory, queer theory, disability studies, and ecocriticism.
List of Figures
List of Contributors
Acknowledgements
A Note on Translation
Introduction
Linda Badley, Ślfhildur Dagsdóttir, and Gitte Mose
Part I: The Voices of Sjón
1. The Pleasures and Challenges of Recreating Sjóns Voice
Victoria Cribb
2. The Author is In: Moonstone, Authorship, Reading, and Intertextuality (or
The Boy Who Became a Story)
Ślfhildur Dagsdóttir
Part II: Surrealism
3. Oh! Sjón, the Poet 19781986
Erik Skyum-Nielsen
4. Sjóns Nuclear Dystopia: Reflections on Stįlnótt, Medśsa, and Johnny
Triumphs Musical Career
Jón Karl Helgason
5. Beneath the veil of happenings: Sjón, the Norse Visionary of
Surrealisms Deep History
Delia Ungureanu
Part III: Transmedia, Miscellanea
6. Moonstone: The Cinema that Always Was
Janica Tomi
7. Sjón at the Movies
Björn Nordfjörd
8. The Drop Tower, the Roller Coaster, the Whirling Cups: Sjón-Miscellanea
and Things
Gitte Mose
Part IV: History, Ethics, Politics, and Storytelling
9. Sjón and the Long Icelandic Medieval Past
Carolyne Larrington
10. Transnational and Counter-Memorial Practices: Antisemitism, Nationalism,
and the Second World War in Sjóns Works
Gunnžórunn Gušmundsdóttir
11. The Narratable Self: Natality and the Politics of Storytelling in CoDex
1962
Anne Fogarty
Part V: Queer Ecologies: Hybridity, Disability, Ecopoetics
12. The End of the World as We Know It: Queerness and Utopias in Sjóns
Poetry and Prose
Asta Kristin Benediktsdóttir
13. Human-Animal Bodies in The Blue Fox and CoDex1962
Avril Tynan
14. Sjónian Ecopoetics
Linda Badley
Epilogue: Sjón in His Own Voice
Appendix: A Chronology of Sjóns Life and Writings
Index
Linda Badley is Professor Emerita of English and Film Studies at Middle Tennessee State University.
Ślfhildur Dagsdóttir is an Icelandic literature scholar.
Gitte Mose is Associate Professor Emerita at the University of Oslo.
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