Essays

Jon Fosse is a playwright, novelist and poet, but has also published two collections of essays. Both these books are now gathered in one volume. In 1989, he published Frå telling via showing til writing (From Telling via Showing to Writing), and ten years later Gnostiske essay (Gnostic Essays). After that, Fosse bade farewell to theory. He wrote in the preface of Gnostic essays: “My second collection of essays is being published, and I am sitting here and thinking that in the future I probably shouldn’t produce so many essayistic texts. The little I know can be better expressed in another language.” Fosse had to choose, and he chose fiction.

Fosse’s essays are a rich source of that which among other things became known as Fosse’s views on literature and theatre, but also about Fosse himself. And occasionally he does write something more theoretical. At the end of this book you will find an essay that has not been published in Norwegian earlier, Skrivingas gnosis (The Gnosis of Writing).

“I understand so little. And as the years go by, I understand less and less. It’s true. But also the opposite is true. Yes, that it is also true that as the years go by I understand very much, almost frighteningly much. In fact, I can virtually become debilitated by how little I understand and practically terrified at how much I understand.”
From Skrivingas gnosis (The Gnosis of Writing)