Pilgrimsvandring i Jon Fosses "I svarte skogen inne" - En motivstudie av irrandet

Abstract

After a decade-long break from writing plays, Jon Fosse returned to the genre in the early 2020s. One of his new plays, "I svarte skogen inne" (2023), bears a close resemblance to his short story "Kvitleik" (2023), in which a man also finds himself lost in a dark forest. Previous research has pointed out intertextual links between "Kvitleik" and Dante’s "Divine Comedy" and John Bunyan’s "The Pilgrim’s Progress", a connection that is further explored in this thesis. The aim of this master’s thesis is to examine the motif of wandering in "I svarte skogen inne" within a Christian and absurdist framework, drawing on biblical and literary intertexts. In the first part of the thesis, I compare "I svarte skogen inne" and "Kvitleik", suggesting that "Kvitleik" can be read as a successful pilgrimage, with the protagonist eventually returning to the right path, whereas "I svarte skogen inne" can be read as a failed pilgrimage in which the protagonist continues to wander. In the second part, I examine the motif of wandering in the context of the absurdist literary tradition of the twenty-first century, where no definitive path exists. I compare "I svarte skogen inne" with Samuel Beckett’s "Waiting for Godot", showing that both plays portray an absurd worldview, though in Fosse’s play the characters keep moving. In the third part, I interpret "I svarte skogen inne" and the motif of wandering using monologue theory as a tool. I argue that continued searching is Fosse’s response to Beckett’s claim that God is dead. In the final section, I discuss the depiction of the pilgrimage in "I svarte skogen inne" and find in the theme of being lost a source of hope.