Bygda som postruralt landskap i Marit Eikemos <i>Hardanger</i> (2019)

Abstract This study in literary geography explores the concept of the rural in Marit Eikemo’s short stories Hardanger (2019). In Norwegian culture, the ideas about the rural and the urban have for a long time played a principal role in constituting both different ways of life and people‘s identity. Who you are is to a large degree determined by where you live. The rural way of living has been, and still is, regarded as the hegemonic norm for „quality of life“ in Norwegian society, but today, new migration patterns and lifestyles have changed the rural countryside. There has been a significant influx of urban populations into rural locations. Key attributes of urban living transform its identity, and rural areas have changed from landscapes of production to landscapes of consumption. Eikemo’s Hardanger is comprised of ten short stories from this new „post-rural“ Norway, where identity, lifestyle, and place are more disconnected. Eikemo’s satirical short stories invite the reader to reflect on the changes in rural Norway.