Knausgaard in America: literary prestige and charismatic trust

What is it about?

This essay examines the ways in which the Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard transformed the contemporary literary scene, as the English translation of his six-volume autobiographical novel My Struggle turned him into a world-literary event. How does Knausgaard’s particular aesthetics (the immersive immediacy of his prose, his full disclosure approach and emphasis on shame) relate to the recent tendency in contemporary fiction to blur the borders between the novel, life writing, and journalism? And how might the currency and prestige of relevant conceptual frameworks (“reality hunger,” the “new sincerity,” or the like) have contributed to Knausgaard’s critical success? The Knausgaard phenomenon serves as a case study of how the aesthetic pleasure of reading hinges on our ‘charismatic trust’ in literary institutions.

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