”Stenarna de suttit på / står ännu kvar”

Abstract

”The stones where they sat / are still there”: Ecocritical Readings of Barbro Lindgren’s Poetry Taking its cue from questions raised in ecocritical theory, this article studies some of the central themes in the poetry of Swedish ALMA laureate Barbro Lindgren: the non-hierarchical attitude towards all that lives and exists; the cycle of life and death that is a fundamental condition of existence for human and non-human animals as well as for trees and plants; and the exploration of scales that often aims to turn away from or overturn the traditional anthropocentric ways of thinking. The article argues that while Lindgren’s poetry can be read and interpreted from many perspectives, ecocriticism offers fruitful insights into her poetic work, with its stress of the anthropocentric versus the ecocentric, and the potential of scale critique. It also argues that Lindgren’s poetical oeuvre as a whole sheds light on her foundational orientation towards life, death and time, and that Lindgren does not differentiate in theme or message when writing for different audiences. The individual’s experience of life as a finite experience is always contrasted by the larger perspective, where life and death are ever-present and perpetual.