Boye, Karin

Boye, Karin (kä'rēn bô'ye) [key], 1900–1941, Swedish poet, novelist, and short-story writer. Boye's volumes of poetry, including Moln [clouds] (1922) and Glömda land [forgotten land] (1924), reveal an austere and ardent idealism as well as a seriousness and social awareness equal to that of her prose fiction. Her early novels, e.g., Astarte (1931) and Kris [crisis] (1934), are stylized and expressionist in style. Kallocain (1941), her last novel, is a fierce protest against totalitarianism. She was a central figure in the modernist movement in Scandinavian literature. Her main concerns included Christianity, socialism, lesbianism, and psychoanalysis. Boye died an apparent suicide at 40.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

• • Cite
  • Print