Auswahl der wissenschaftlichen Literatur zum Thema „Tidholm“

The essay is an analysis of the ideas about problems and possibilities concerning the northern region in Sweden, as presented and discussed by authors and journalists Ludvig Nordström and Po Tidholm, in their books Norrland i stöpsleven (1937) and Norrland (2014). The essay draws on theoretical concepts such as center and periphery, Orientalism, progress, as understood by Bernt Skovdahl, and Nietzsche’s notion of ressentiment, as employed by Wendy Brown. The essay offers a discourse analysis of the representations and images of Norrland that the authors present in their works. Nordström portrays Norrland as a region with a bright future, predicated on its inhabitants’ capacity to improve their primitive mentality and start acting as entrepreneurs in the industrial age. Tidholm, though, is much more pessimistic: with bitterness and resignation, he sees a region that no one no longer cares about and where the people suffer from inferiority complex. In a comparison between the two authors three main themes are identified and developed. These are: utopia and dystopia, development and decline, and center and periphery. The essay concludes that Nordström’s and Tidholm’s views are historically conditioned. Nordström’s texts reflect notions of progress typical of modernity, whereas, produced in an era when all grand narratives have lost their credibility, Tidholm’s texts fail to imagine any potential alternatives to the situation he laments.

In the following essay, I examine the ecocritical aspects of the writings of Thomas Tidholm, Swedish poet and children’s author. I argue for the existence of “green threads” that permeate the authorship, and analyse them through three thematic chapters where several of Tidholm’s texts, for children and adults, are juxtaposed in order to expand, contrast and deepen one another. The themes are: approaching the other, language and humanity and parts and unity. In my analysis I show that Tidholm continues to return to these themes throughout many different texts, exploring the difficulties and possibilities in human relationships to each otherand to nature. I conclude that even though Tidholm questions whether we truly can come close to, communicate with and fully understand others (humans or otherwise), he seems to hold the conviction that it is vitally important that we try. While the essay belongs in the field of ecocriticism, my working approach has been that of ordinary language philosophy as defined by literary scholar Toril Moi, following the works of Wittgenstein, Austin and Cavell. Thus, the essay is written in a spirit of acklowledgement rather than scepticism – my aim has been to bring out important aspects of the texts and show that, when read together, those aspects are enhanced. I find this especially important since the readerships of poetry and picture books do not always overlap. Furthermore, I suggest that Thomas Tidholm can be seen as a contemporary thinker whose ideas question and seek alternatives to the individualism of capitalist modern society. Keywords: ecocritisism, Thomas Tidholm, nature, environment, language