Siri Hustvedt
Encyclopedia
Siri Hustvedt is an American novelist and essayist. Hustvedt is the author of a book of poetry, five novels, two books of essays, and a work of non-fiction. Her books include: The Blindfold (1992), The Enchantment of Lily Dahl (1996), What I Loved
(2003), for which she is best known, The Sorrows of an American
(2008), and The Shaking Woman or A History of My Nerves (2010). Her work has been translated into twenty-nine languages.
and received a degree from the Cathedral School in Bergen, Norway, in 1973. Hustvedt graduated from St. Olaf College with a B.A. in History in 1977. She moved to New York City to attend Columbia University as a graduate student in 1978. Her first published work was a poem in The Paris Review.
A small collection of poems, Reading to You, appeared in 1982 with Station Hill Press.
She met her husband, the writer Paul Auster
in 1981, and they were married the following year.
She completed her PhD in English at Columbia in 1986. Her dissertation on Charles Dickens, Figures of Dust: A Reading of Our Mutual Friend, is an exploration of language and identity in the novel, with particular emphasis on Dickens’ metaphors of fragmentation, his use of pronouns, and their relation to a narrative, dialogical conception of self. She refers in the dissertation to sources that would influence and reappear in her later writing, including the work of Søren Kierkegaard
, Emile Benveniste
, Roman Jakobson
, Mikhail Bakhtin
, Sigmund Freud
, Jacques Lacan
, Mary Douglas
, Paul Ricoeur
, and Julia Kristeva
.
Hustvedt and Auster’s daughter, Sophie Hustvedt Auster
, the singer and actress, was born in 1987.
After finishing her dissertation, Hustvedt began writing prose. Two stories of the four that would become her first novel, The Blindfold, were published in literary magazines and later included in Best American Short Stories 1990 and 1991. Since then she has continued to write fiction and publish essays on visual art but also on diverse interdisciplinary subjects that investigate the intersections among philosophy, psychoanalysis, and neuroscience.
An example of crossover to her husband's work, Auster used Iris, the narrator of Hustvedt's first novel, The Blindfold, in his novel Leviathan
.
in France for best foreign book of the year. It was also short-listed for Waterstone’s Literary Fiction Award in England and the Barcelona Bookseller’s Award in Spain. It won the Prix des libraires du Quebec in Canada for best book of 2003. The Summer Without Men was also shortlisted for The Femina Prize in 2011.
“Embodied Visions: What Does it Mean to Look at a Work of Art?” The Third Annual Schelling Lecture. Academie der Bildenen Künste, Munich. January 27, 2010.
"The Big Think Interview with Siri Hustvedt." April 14, 2010. Video
“Freud’s Playground: Some Thoughts on the Art and Science of Subjectivity and Intersubjectivity.” The 39th Annual Sigmund Freud Lecture. The Sigmund Freud Foundation, Vienna. May 6th, 2011. Video
"Conversation with Antonio Damasio." Neuropsychoanalysis Conference, Berlin. June 23–26, 2011. Video
What I Loved
What I Loved is a novel written by American writer Siri Hustvedt first published in 2003 by Hodder and Stoughton in London. It is written from the point of view of Leo Hertzberg, an art historian living in New York. The author herself grew up in Northfield, Minnesota and then moved to New York in...
(2003), for which she is best known, The Sorrows of an American
The Sorrows of an American
The Sorrows of an American is Siri Hustvedt's fourth novel. It was first published in 2008 and is about a Norwegian American family and their troubles...
(2008), and The Shaking Woman or A History of My Nerves (2010). Her work has been translated into twenty-nine languages.
Biography and writing life
Siri Hustvedt attended public school in her hometown Northfield, MinnesotaNorthfield, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 17,147 people, 4,909 households, and 3,210 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,452.2 people per square mile . There were 5,119 housing units at an average density of 732.1 per square mile...
and received a degree from the Cathedral School in Bergen, Norway, in 1973. Hustvedt graduated from St. Olaf College with a B.A. in History in 1977. She moved to New York City to attend Columbia University as a graduate student in 1978. Her first published work was a poem in The Paris Review.
A small collection of poems, Reading to You, appeared in 1982 with Station Hill Press.
She met her husband, the writer Paul Auster
Paul Auster
Paul Benjamin Auster is an American author known for works blending absurdism, existentialism, crime fiction and the search for identity and personal meaning in works such as The New York Trilogy , Moon Palace , The Music of Chance , The Book of Illusions and The Brooklyn Follies...
in 1981, and they were married the following year.
She completed her PhD in English at Columbia in 1986. Her dissertation on Charles Dickens, Figures of Dust: A Reading of Our Mutual Friend, is an exploration of language and identity in the novel, with particular emphasis on Dickens’ metaphors of fragmentation, his use of pronouns, and their relation to a narrative, dialogical conception of self. She refers in the dissertation to sources that would influence and reappear in her later writing, including the work of Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Aabye Kierkegaard was a Danish Christian philosopher, theologian and religious author. He was a critic of idealist intellectuals and philosophers of his time, such as Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling and Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel...
, Emile Benveniste
Émile Benveniste
Émile Benveniste was a French Jewish structural linguist, semiotician, an apprentice of Antoine Meilletand his successor, who, in his later years, became enlightened by the structural view of language through the work of Ferdinand de Saussure, although he was unwilling to grasp it at first, being...
, Roman Jakobson
Roman Jakobson
Roman Osipovich Jakobson was a Russian linguist and literary theorist.As a pioneer of the structural analysis of language, which became the dominant trend of twentieth-century linguistics, Jakobson was among the most influential linguists of the century...
, Mikhail Bakhtin
Mikhail Bakhtin
Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin was a Russian philosopher, literary critic, semiotician and scholar who worked on literary theory, ethics, and the philosophy of language...
, Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
, Jacques Lacan
Jacques Lacan
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who made prominent contributions to psychoanalysis and philosophy, and has been called "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud". Giving yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, Lacan influenced France's...
, Mary Douglas
Mary Douglas
Dame Mary Douglas, DBE, FBA was a British anthropologist, known for her writings on human culture and symbolism....
, Paul Ricoeur
Paul Ricoeur
Paul Ricœur was a French philosopher best known for combining phenomenological description with hermeneutic interpretation...
, and Julia Kristeva
Julia Kristeva
Julia Kristeva is a Bulgarian-French philosopher, literary critic, psychoanalyst, sociologist, feminist, and, most recently, novelist, who has lived in France since the mid-1960s. She is now a Professor at the University Paris Diderot...
.
Hustvedt and Auster’s daughter, Sophie Hustvedt Auster
Sophie Auster
Sophie Auster is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of author and film director Paul Auster and writer Siri Hustvedt....
, the singer and actress, was born in 1987.
After finishing her dissertation, Hustvedt began writing prose. Two stories of the four that would become her first novel, The Blindfold, were published in literary magazines and later included in Best American Short Stories 1990 and 1991. Since then she has continued to write fiction and publish essays on visual art but also on diverse interdisciplinary subjects that investigate the intersections among philosophy, psychoanalysis, and neuroscience.
Writing style and themes
Siri Hustvedt’s works repeatedly pose questions about the nature of identity, selfhood and perception. In The Shaking Woman or A History of My Nerves, an interdisciplinary account of her own seizure disorder, Hustvedt states her need to view her symptom not “through a single window” but “from all angles.” These multiple perspectives do not resolve themselves into a single view but rather create an atmosphere of ambiguity and flux. Hustvedt presents the reader with characters whose minds are inseparable from their bodies and their environments and whose sense of self is situated on the threshold between the conscious and unconscious. Her characters often suffer traumatic events that disrupt the rhythms of their lives and lead to disorientation and a discontinuity of their identities. Hustvedt’s concern with embodied identity manifests itself in her investigation of gender roles and interpersonal relations. Both her fiction and nonfiction highlight dynamics of the gaze and questions of ethical representation in the visual arts.An example of crossover to her husband's work, Auster used Iris, the narrator of Hustvedt's first novel, The Blindfold, in his novel Leviathan
Leviathan
Leviathan , is a sea monster referred to in the Bible. In Demonology, Leviathan is one of the seven princes of Hell and its gatekeeper . The word has become synonymous with any large sea monster or creature...
.
Awards and recognitions
One section of The Blindfold was made into a movie by the French filmmaker Claude Miller. The film La Chambre des Magiciennes won The International Critics Prize at the Berlin Film Festival. What I Loved was on the initial short list for the Prix Femina ÉtrangerPrix Femina
The Prix Femina is a French literary prize created in 1904 by 22 writers for the magazine La Vie heureuse . The prize is decided each year by an exclusively female jury, although the authors of the winning works do not have to be women...
in France for best foreign book of the year. It was also short-listed for Waterstone’s Literary Fiction Award in England and the Barcelona Bookseller’s Award in Spain. It won the Prix des libraires du Quebec in Canada for best book of 2003. The Summer Without Men was also shortlisted for The Femina Prize in 2011.
Fiction
- The Blindfold (1992)
- The Enchantment of Lily Dahl (1996)
- What I LovedWhat I LovedWhat I Loved is a novel written by American writer Siri Hustvedt first published in 2003 by Hodder and Stoughton in London. It is written from the point of view of Leo Hertzberg, an art historian living in New York. The author herself grew up in Northfield, Minnesota and then moved to New York in...
(2003) - The Sorrows of an AmericanThe Sorrows of an AmericanThe Sorrows of an American is Siri Hustvedt's fourth novel. It was first published in 2008 and is about a Norwegian American family and their troubles...
(2008) - The Summer Without Men (2011)
Nonfiction
- Yonder (1998)
- Mysteries of the Rectangle: Essays on Painting (2005)
- A Plea for Eros (2005)
- The Shaking Woman or A History of My Nerves (2009)
Translation
- Kjetsaa, Geir. Fyodor Dostoyevsky: A Writer's Life, translated by Siri Hustvedt and David McDuff (1998)
Translation Editor
- Fragments for a History of the Human Body, edited by Ferber, Nadof, Tazi (1998)
Lectures and conversations
“Why Goya?” Fundacion Amigos del Museo del Prado. Prado Museum, Madrid. February 8, 2007. Video“Embodied Visions: What Does it Mean to Look at a Work of Art?” The Third Annual Schelling Lecture. Academie der Bildenen Künste, Munich. January 27, 2010.
"The Big Think Interview with Siri Hustvedt." April 14, 2010. Video
“Freud’s Playground: Some Thoughts on the Art and Science of Subjectivity and Intersubjectivity.” The 39th Annual Sigmund Freud Lecture. The Sigmund Freud Foundation, Vienna. May 6th, 2011. Video
"Conversation with Antonio Damasio." Neuropsychoanalysis Conference, Berlin. June 23–26, 2011. Video
External links
- Siri Hustvedt's Website
- Audio: Siri Hustvedt at the Key West Literary Seminar, 2007
- Audio: Siri Hustvedt in conversation with Paul Auster at the Key West Literary Seminar, 2007
- Interview with Siri Hustvedt in Identity Theory
- Article about Siri Hustvedt in Telegraph
- Video conference from Baruch College, CUNY (2005), Siri Hustvedt gives a reading of her work in progress The Sorrows of an American
- Audio clip of Siri Hustvedt in The Writer's Craft, Eye on Books
- Audio clip of Siri Hustvedt talking about her novel What I Loved in The Writer's Craft, Eye on Books
- Siri Hustvedt video interview (Dropping Knowledge) in YouTube
- Siri Hustvedt migraine blog in NYT