In Discussion with the Archive

The Fight for Dignity in Hanna Dahls "Kraft" (2021)

Abstract

Hanna Dahl’s novel Kraft (2021) tells the story of Olav, who is a former member of NS and volunteer on the Eastern Front during World War II. Dahl’s novel is one of the first first-person narratives in Norwegian literature of WWII perpetrators, even if the novel does not confront the actual perpetration. Instead, the novel examines Olav’s loss of dignity in the wake of his conviction of treason after the war. The loss of dignity is a central fixture that has come to dominate Olav’s notion of identity and personal relations. In this sense, Dahl’s representation of Olav aims to examine how the long afterlife of World War II in Norway has not only influenced the lives of the victims, but also the lives of the perpetrators. Through examining how the novel discusses the function of the archive, issues of dignity, and narrative empathy, this article aims to look closer at the novel’s portrait of a perpetrator searching for a way to tell his story and regain dignity, while struggle with the surrounding society.