The Undset Question

These are the first lines of the introduction to my thesis (sparing you of the footnotes!):

Statue of Sigrid Undset by Hanne Varming in her place of birth (Kalundborg, Denmark)

Norwegian author Sigrid Undset (1882-1949), winner of the 1928 Nobel Prize in Literature, was a novelist known for her profound insights into the human condition, patterns of behaviour and their consequences, the yearning for fulfilment, transcendence, happiness and peace. She is something of a national treasure in Norway, with her own museum in her home in Lillehammer.

To many, Sigrid Undset remains an enigma. Literary critics, praising her for her historical research and realism, would like to claim her for her fierce pro-woman stance, except that her moderate feminism was of a kind suiting neither modern nor postmodern feminist narratives. They are often disoriented by her passion for Catholic doctrinal and moral teaching and consider it an unfortunate restraint on her creativity and advocacy for women. On the Catholic side, she has been criticised for the same realism, perceived by some critics as erotic; perhaps a reason that her works were still relatively little-known Catholic in English speaking circles until recently. Some Catholics who are fond of Undset have been accused of ignoring aspects of her life and writings, and of resorting to a hagiographical reading of Undset’s career. Sherrill Harbison [writing in 2008]

sums up how Undset bewilders critics and admirers:

Undset was a remarkable writer and a complicated woman. To her contemporaries, her interest in the Middle Ages, her mid-life conversion to Catholicism, and her scepticism of popular Darwinism and social engineering gave her a reputation as an arch-conservative. But she was also a fierce opponent of fascism, a wartime exile, and an activist for the Norwegian Resistance, which mollified her critics and made her a national hero. Today, more than half a century after her death, her compatriots are alternately awed and aggravated by her blunt, dogmatic opinions, her fearless and formidable intelligence, her passion, and her generosity.

In my opinion, many lovers of Undset miss the mark if they view her Catholicism as something merely accidental: an eccentric hobby or an artistic aberration. Rather, by accessing a wide- ranging sample of her religious and cultural commentary, and by reading individual works in the context of her broader corpus, this work will show how her adopted faith moved her to engage in Catholic apologetics in several areas of contention. This engagement emanated from her most profound convictions and continued throughout the second half of her life.