Mendelssohns' cosmopolitan map and Solstad’s rural Telemark

Abstract

This article makes a comparative analysis of La carte des Mendelssohn (2015), by the Belgian novelist Diane Meur, and Det uoppløselige episke element i Telemark i perioden 1591–1896 (2013), by the Norwegian novelist Dag Solstad. It examines how these two original literary projects explore different modalities of the relationship between genealogy and geography in order to challenge established forms of historical family narratives. Solstad's text is anchored in the local, circumscribed to the rural areas of the Norwegian region of Telemark, while Meur's text is an exploration of cosmopolitanism; however, they come together in exposing the profound interconnectedness between people and places and its relational productivity.