Rolf Lundén

Biography

Education

PhD Uppsala 1973, Docent 1975

Work experience

Assistant professor 1972, Docent 1976, Associate professor 1983, Chair American literature 1986, Dean Language Faculty 1999-2002

Visiting research scholar

University of Pennsylvania, US, 1970-71; University of Virginia, 1979-80; UC Berkeley, 1995, 1999-2000; Dartmouth American Studies Institute 2002 (member of faculty).

Research interests

Modern American literature, American Studies, film studies, short fiction, short story theory, film theory, narratology, biography, intertextuality, translation theory, cultural history, visual culture

Ongoing research projects

1. Episodic Fiction and Film: Affinities and Adaptations - The project is a comparative study of short story composites/cycles and episode film. Both these genres consist of autonomous, interlinked stories, forming a discontinuous whole. The monograph is divided into two parts. The first half discusses the episodic as an age-old form of representation in art, literature, and film, pointing to structural similarities and dissimilarities, in short story composites and episode films. The second part of the project focuses on the adaptations of short story composites to film. What happens when an open text, consisting of 15-20 linked short stories, is transformed into film? Approximately half of the project has been completed.
2. Choosing Oblivion: The Divided Life of David Edstrom - The project is a biography of the Swedish-American sculptor David Edstrom (1873-1938), who during his European years 1900-1920 was an internationally recognized artist but who later, after his return to the United States, fell more or less into oblivion. Apart from receiving critical acclaim from European art critics, Edstrom enjoyed a central position in the cultural circles of France, Italy, England, and Sweden, being a friend of Giovanni Papini, Gertrude Stein, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. The biography focuses on the reasons for his marginalization, on ethnic identity, on the contribution of David Edstrom to Swedish and American art. Material has been collected from numerous American and European libraries, archives, and private collections. Three fourths of the biography are now completed. Four articles related to this project have been published.
3. The American Influence in Sweden - Over the years I have written numerous articles on the American influence in Sweden and I will continue to do so.

Publications

Books

• The Inevitable Equation: The Antithetic Pattern of Theodore Dreiser's Thought and Art. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis: Studia Anglistica Upsaliensia. 1973.
• Dreiser Looks at Scandinavia. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis: Studia Anglistica Upsaliensia. 1977.
• Business and Religion in the American 1920s. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1989.
• The United Stories of America: Studies in the Short Story Composite. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1999.

Edited Books

• Networks of Americanization: Aspects of the American Influence in Sweden. Co-ed. with Erik Åsard. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis: Studia Anglistica Upsaliensia. 1992.
• Notions of America: Swedish Perspective. Co-ed. with Kerstin W. Shands and Dag Blanck. Södertörn Academic Studies. 2004
• Authority Matters: Rethinking the Theory and Practice of Authorship. Co-ed. with Stephen Donovan and Danuta Fjellestad. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2007.

Textbooks

• Short Fictions: Stories from the English-Speaking World of Today. Co-ed. with Gerd Overgaard and Sven-Johan Spånberg. Stockholm: Natur och Kultur, 1986, 1992, 2000.
• A Common Wealth: Life and Culture in the English-Speaking World. Lund: Liber Hermods, 1990. Two chapters on religion and business in the U.S..
• Ideas and Identities: British and American Culture 1500-1945. Co-ed. with Michael Srigley Lund: Studentlitteratur,1992.

Chapters in Books

• Social Change and New Modes of Expression: The United States, 1910-1930. Ed. by Rob Kroes and Alessandro Portelli. Amsterdam: Free University Press, 1986.
• As Others Read Us: International Perspectives on American Literature. Ed. Huck Gutman. Amherst: U of Massachusetts P, 1991.
• Within the US Orbit: Small National Cultures vis-à-vis the United States. Ed. by Rob Kroes. Amsterdam: VU University Press, 1991.
• The Insular Dream: Obsession and Resistance. Ed. by Kristiaan Versluys. Amsterdam: VU University Press, 1995.
• Images of America in Scandinavia. Ed. by Poul Houe and Sven Hakon Rossel. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1998.
• Rethinking American Studies: Nordic Perspectives. Ed. by David Nye. Odense: Southern Denmark UP, 2007 (forthcoming).
• Less Is More. Short Fiction Theory and Analysis. Ed. by Jokob Lothe, Hans H. Skei, and Peter Winther. Oslo: Novus Press, 2008.

Scholarly articles and reviews

In journals like American Literature, The Hemingway Review, American National Biography, The Swedish-American Historical Quarterly, American Studies in Scandinavia, Moderna Språk, Modernism/Modernity.