In Search of Norway: Travel Writings from the 1950s

In Search of Norway: Travel Writings from the 1950s is an innovative work of research aimed at a wide audience. Both historical and personal, the project sees Toril Moi use herself as a lens through which to explore Norwegian culture and life. The result is not a memoir or an autobiography, but a vivid travelogue through the cultural landscape of the decade. In her journey through the archives, Moi uncovers the works of film director Edith Carlmar and authors Aimée Sommerfelt, Agnar Mykle, Jens Bjørneboe, Torborg Nedreaas, Ebba Haslund, Alfred Hauge, Sigbjørn Hølmebakk, and Kjell Askildsen. She writes about love, sex, abortion, housework, views on women, Christianity and existentialism, about language politics and the battle between Bokmål and Nynorsk, about cultural snobbery and everyday people. Above all, she writes about Norwegianness, Norwegian ways of being, and on the distinctiveness of Norwegian identity.