Profil was a Norwegian literary magazine

Literary magazine

A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry and essays along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letters...

 which had great influence in the late 1960s and the 1970s. The magazine was founded in 1938 as Filologen, a house organ for the Faculty of Humanities 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...

. Its name was changed to Profil in 1959. In 1966 the magazine was taken over by a group of radical students. They opposed established literary views, and introduced the modernist literature

Modernist literature

Modernist literature is sub-genre of Modernism, a predominantly European movement beginning in the early 20th century that was characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional aesthetic forms...

. The circle of writers that emerged are often referred to as the "Profil Generation".

Modernism

Among the contributors to the magazine were Jan Erik Vold

Jan Erik Vold

Jan Erik Vold is a Norwegian lyric poet, translator and author. He was a core member of the so-called "Profil generation", the circle attached to the literary magazine Profil. Throughout his career as an artist, he has had the ability to reach the public, both with his poetry and his political views...

, Dag Solstad

Dag Solstad

Dag Solstad is a Norwegian novelist, short-story writer, and dramatist whose work has been translated into several languages. He has written nearly 30 books and is the only author to have received the Norwegian Literary Critics’ Award three times...

, Tor Obrestad

Tor Obrestad

Tor Obrestad is a Norwegian novelist, poet and documentary writer. He made his literary debut in 1966 with two books, the poetry collection Kollisjon and a collection of short stories, Vind, and received Tarjei Vesaas' debutantpris for these two books...

, Espen Haavardsholm

Espen Haavardsholm

Espen Haavardsholm is a Norwegian novelist, lyricist, biographer and essayist. He made his literary debut in 1966 with the collection of short stories, Tidevann. He was one of the central writers in the modernist literary magazine Profil. He has written biographies on Martin Linge , Aksel...

, Eldrid Lunden

Eldrid Lunden

Eldrid Lunden is a Norwegian lyricist, and Norway's first professor in "the art of writing", at Telemark University College. She was awarded the Dobloug Prize in 1989, and the Brage Prize honorary award in 2000....

, Liv Køltzow

Liv Køltzow

Liv Køltzow is a Norwegian novelist, playwright, biographer and essayist.She published texts in the modernist literary magazine Profil...

, Paal-Helge Haugen

Paal-Helge Haugen

Paal-Helge Haugen is an award-winning Norwegian lyricist, novelist, dramatist and children's writer.Haugen was educated as a medical student at the University of Oslo. During the period 1965-67, Haugen was a member of the editorial team of literary magazine Profile...

, Einar Økland

Einar Økland

Einar Økland is a Norwegian lyricist, playwright, essayist and children's writer.He made his literary debut in 1963, with the poetry collection Ein gul dag. He was awarded the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature for the children's book Sikk-sakk...

 and Stein Mehren

Stein Mehren

Stein Mehren is a Norwegian poet, author, essayist and playwright. He made his literary debut as lyricist with Gjennom stillheten en natt...

. Realistic

Literary realism

Literary realism most often refers to the trend, beginning with certain works of nineteenth-century French literature and extending to late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century authors in various countries, towards depictions of contemporary life and society "as they were." In the spirit of...

 novels and symbolist poetry were attacked, while modernist literature was introduced and supported.

Political period

From 1968 and onwards several of the Profil writers became politically left wing activists, and started writing political poems, songs and novels. Examples of so called working class literature are Obrestad's poetry collection Vårt daglege brød (1968), Haavardsholm's novel Zink (1971), Solstad's novel Arild Asnes 1970 (1971) and Obrestad's novel Sauda! Streik! (1972). Liv Køltzow's novel Hvem bestemmer over Bjørg og Unni? (1972) is regarded as Norway's first example of militant and socialist feminism.

Song books

The Profil songbooks were eight books issued 1972–1975, subtitled Songar frå folkets kamp.

Post-modernism

The magazine disappeared around 1980. It was relaunched 1984–1989 as a general cultural magazine. Some of the most profiled political writers from the 1970s later concluded that the working class literature experiment was a failure.