Geir Kjetsaa was a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 professor in Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n literary history at the University of Oslo

University of Oslo

The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...

, translator of Russian literature, and author of several biographies of classical Russian writers.

He was born in Oslo

Oslo

Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

, but grew up and died in Hornnes

Hornnes

Hornnes is a village and a former municipality in Aust-Agder county, Norway. Hornnes is located in the present-day municipality of Evje og Hornnes in the traditional district of Setesdal...

. He graduated as cand.philol. in 1963, took the dr.philos. degree in 1969, and was appointed professor in 1971. Kjetsaa was member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters

The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway.-History:The University of Oslo was established in 1811. The idea of a learned society in Christiania surfaced for the first time in 1841. The city of Throndhjem had no university, but had a learned...

 and of the Norwegian Academy for Language and Literature

Norwegian Academy for Language and Literature

The Norwegian Academy for Language and Literature is a Norwegian learned body on matters pertaining to the Dano-Norwegian language. Its primary role is regulating the written standard known as Riksmål ....

.

A 1984 monograph by Kjetsaa and others demonstrated through statistical analyses that Mikhail Sholokhov was likely the true author of And Quiet Flows the Don

And Quiet Flows the Don

And Quiet Flows the Don or Quietly Flows the Don is the first part of the great Don epic Tikhiy Don , written by Michail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov. It originally appeared in serialized form between 1928 and 1940...

- defending the famous Soviet writer against persistent allegations of plagiarizing.

In 2000 he received the Fritt Ord Honorary Award.

Selected writings

• Jevgenij Baratynskij: Liv og diktning (thesis, 1969)
• A norm for the use of poetical language in the age of Puskin: A comparative analysis (1983)
• The Authorship of The Quiet Don (1984)
• Fjodor Dostojevskij, et dikterliv (biography, 1985) (Fyodor Dostoyevsky: A Writer's Life)
• Nikolaj Gogol: Den gåtefulle dikteren (biography, 1990)
• Maksim Gorkij: En dikterskjebne (biography, 1994)
• Lev Tolstoj: Den russiske jords store dikter (biography, 1999)
• Tsjekhov (biography, 2004)

Awards

• 2004: Anders Jahres kulturpris.
• 2007: Decorated Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav.