Birgitta Trotzig's literary career is often described as distinguished and virtually without parallel in the history of contemporary Swedish literature. Although her works feature few of the major trends or traditions that have characterized the development of Swedish literature over the last forty years, and she has had relatively little contact with other important writers, recent intertextual studies suggest that Trotzig's writings constitute in many respects an ongoing conversation with a wide variety of works by other writers. Her work escapes categorization in traditional terms, for--as she frequently insists--she has never belonged to any school of literature or any literary movement. Critics and scholars have been relatively slow to recognize her accomplishments, but since the early 1990s--and most particularly since her election to the Swedish Academy in 1993, when she succeeded Per Olof Sundman in the sixth chair--she has become an increasingly prominent figure in the Swedish cultural pantheon...