Sven Lindqvist

Sven Lindqvist in 2005

Sven Lindqvist (born April 28, 1932) is a Swedish author of mostly non-fiction, whose works include Exterminate All the Brutes and A History of Bombing.[1][2]

Sven Lindqvist was born in Stockholm in 1932.[3] He holds a PhD in History of literature from Stockholm University (his thesis, in 1966, was on Vilhelm Ekelund) and a 1979 honorary doctorate from Uppsala University.[3] In 1960–1961, he worked as cultural attaché at the Swedish embassy in Beijing, China. From 1956–86 he was married to the sinologist Cecilia Lindqvist, with whom he had two children.[3] In 1986 he married the economist Agneta Stark.[3][4] He lives in the Södermalm area of central Stockholm.[4]

Literary production

Lindqvist has written more than thirty books of essays, aphorisms, autobiography, documentary prose, travel and reportage.[3][4] He occasionally publishes articles in the Swedish press, writing for the cultural supplement of the largest Swedish daily, Dagens Nyheter, since 1950.[5] He is the recipient of several of Sweden's most prestigious literary and journalistic awards.

His work is mostly non-fiction, including (and often transcending) several genres: essay, documentary prose, travel writing and reportage.[4] He is known for his works on developing nations in Africa and the Saharan countries, China, India, Latin America and Australia. In the 1960s, partly inspired by the works of Hermann Hesse, Lindqvist spent two years in China. He became fascinated by the legend of the Tang dynasty painter, Wu Tao Tzu, who, when standing looking at a mural of a temple he had just completed, "suddenly clapped his hands and the temple gate opened. He went into his work and the gates closed behind him."[6]

His later works, from the late 1980s, tend to focus on the subjects of European imperialism, colonialism, racism, genocide and war, analysing the place of these phenomena in Western thought, social history and ideology. These topics are not uncontroversial. His 1992 book Exterminate all the Brutes argued that the Nazi quest for Lebensraum had at its core been an application of the expansionist and racist principles of imperialism and colonialism, but for the first time applied against fellow Europeans rather than against the distant and dehumanized peoples of the Third World. The book encouraged historians to research the effect of atrocities in colonial times on Nazi thought.[4]

Awards and honors

Works

In English

Works in Swedish

References

  1. ↑ Mats Bigert (Summer 2003). "Bombs Away: An Interview with Sven Lindqvist". Cabinet (11). Retrieved July 12, 2011.
  2. ↑ George Monbiot (16 December 2003). "A weapon with wings". The Guardian. Retrieved July 12, 2011.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Sven Lindqvist official website". Archived from the original on June 25, 2014. Retrieved June 21, 2012.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Stuart Jeffries (22 June 2012). "Sven Lindqvist: a life in writing". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
  5. ↑ Jenny Leonardz (February 2, 2008). "Sven Lindqvist har många böcker kvar". SvD (in Swedish). Retrieved June 21, 2012.
  6. ↑ Sven Lindqvist, The Myth of Wu Tao-Tzu. (London: Granta, 2012), p. 1
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