SOURCE: Bloch, Adèle. “The Mythical Female in the Fictional Works of Pär Lagerkvist.” International Fiction Review 1, no. 1 (January 1974): 48-53.

In the following essay, Bloch investigates the role of the mythical female in Lagerkvist's fictional works.

Lagerkvist may be viewed from many angles. Labelled an “existentialist” by some critics,¹ he can be compared to his hero Ahasuerus, the Wandering Jew who revolts against the injustice of fate, the opacity of the world, the silence of nature and of the divine. For him the Schopenhauer-Freudian concept is valid: man is the author of his own fate, since whatever happens to the individual comes from within. Yet man needs a sense of purpose. Even if there is no real proof of the existence of an external God or Ideal Love or of any ultimate truth, man will create a pattern, or reinterpret his life according to a superior order...