Conversations with Karl Ove Knausgaard

Bob Blaisdell

• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781496847706
• eBook ISBN: 9781496847713
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Biographies
• Index: Literature

Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgaard (b. 1968) made a literary mark on his home country in 1998, when his debut novel won the prestigious Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature. His fame continued to grow with the publication of his six-volume autobiographical series Min Kamp, or My Struggle. Translated into English in 2012, the critically acclaimed and controversial series garnered global attention, as did its author. Conversations with Karl Ove Knausgaard is a collection of twenty-two interviews, each conducted during the ten-year span in which Knausgaard's literary prowess gained worldwide recognition.

Knausgaard is both a daring writer and a daring interviewee. He grounds his observations in the ordinary aspects of the world around him, which, he insists, is the same world in front of most of his readers. He regards his appearances in newspapers, magazines, and literary festivals as "a performance," where he plays himself. While that role may differ from his inner life, it is consistent with the role he plays in his autobiographical novels. Fans of Knausgaard will easily recognize this public persona, an embodiment of the protagonist, husband, and father featured in My Struggle and in the Seasons quartet.

Knausgaard discusses his work, aspects of his personal life, and his writing routines and practices in marvelous detail. He comments on literary and artistic world classics and on international contemporary authors. A bilingual speaker, he is accustomed to appearing before the press and in front of audiences in his roles as a famous author and as the publisher and cofounder of the publishing house Pelikanen (Pelican). Remarkable for his candor and directness, Knausgaard delivers the same variety and number of surprises in these interviews as he does in his most thrilling books.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Karl Ove Knausgaard: Books and Writings in English
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chronology
• Book Case TV #207: Memories Can’t Wait
• Karl Ove Knausgård at Passa Porta Festival 2013, Brussels
• The Light behind the Bookshelves
• “Completely without Dignity”: An Interview with Karl Ove Knausgaard
• Karl Ove Knausgaard in Conversation with Stephen Grosz
• In Search of Karl Ove Knausgaard
• “Opening a World”: An Interview with Karl Ove Knausgaard
• Karl Ove Knausgaard on Lars von Trier’s The Idiots
• Why Karl Ove Knausgaard Can’t Stop Writing
• “Babel”: Karl Ove Knausgård
• In Which Karl Ove Knausgaard Hangs Out in His Car, Talking on Life, Children, and Not Really Caring What America Thinks
• “Literature Should Be Ruthless”
• “My Munch”
• “The Innocence of Things”: A Conversation with Karl Ove Knausgaard
• “You’re Not a Real Writer until You Have Enemies”: The Millions Interviews Karl Ove Knausgaard
• Karl Ove Knausgaard Looks Back on My Struggle
• “Rejoicing to Heaven, Grieving to Death”: An Interview with Karl Ove Knausgård
• Conversations with Tyler: Karl Ove Knausgård on Literary Freedom
• An Interview with Karl Ove Knausgård: The Sixth Author for Future Library
• “Writing Isn’t a Sacred Activity, It Is an Ordinary Activity”: A Conversation with Karl Ove Knausgaard
• Karl Ove Knausgaard on Exploring a “World Out of Joint” in His New Book
• On Interviews and Interviewing: A Conversation with Karl Ove Knausgaard
• Index
• About the Editor