Modern Variations on the Epic „Ædnan” by Linnea Axelsson

Abstract

The article addresses the problem of epic as a genre in the light of Ædnan (2018), a modern epic about Swedish Saami people by Linnea Axelsson. Contrary to Bakhtin’s opinion that an epic is a closed petrified genre, the article argues that it can be redefined in order to express the experience of the contemporary world. The article analyses those features of the epic which have been radically challenged in Ædnan: lyrical diction instead of a narrative structure and the narrator’s mediation; historical time instead of mythical time beyond living memory; and a number of female characters representing an oppressed minority group in place of an epic hero endowed with supernatural powers. The interpretation of these features from the perspective of postcolonial, feminist and gender theories helps to embrace the specifics of feminine subversive writing, which undermines patriarchal paradigms in culture: the authority of the narrator, the male subject as well as the dominance of male gender norms. At the same time, however, Ædnan has some characteristics of an epic: mythologisation of nature, the collective dimension of individual experiences, and the role of memory in shaping collective identity. Therefore, the poem can be seen as an attempt at a subversive dialog with the tradition of the epic, where the old aspiration to power is transformed into the apotheosis of oppressed Otherness.