Karin Boye, in full Karin Maria Boye (born Oct. 26, 1900, Gothenburg, Swed.—died April 24, 1941, Alingsås), poet, novelist, and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the leading poets of Swedish modernism.
She studied at the universities of Uppsala and Stockholm, became a leading figure in the Clarté Socialist movement inspired by the French novelist Henri Barbusse, and worked on Spektrum, a review propagating psychoanalytical theory and modernistic literary views. Her five collections of poems—beginning with Moln (1922; “Clouds”) and ending with the posthumously published De sju dödssynderna (1941; “The Seven Deadly Sins”)—show the evolution of her outlook and style from the simple expression of a middle-class girl’s dreams and a young radical’s eager acceptance of life to bolder images, wider perspectives, and feeling for the problems of mankind. Among her novels are Kris (1934; “Crisis”), based on her struggle to accept her lesbianism, and Kallocain (1940; Eng. trans.,1940), which describes the insupportable oppression of a totalitarian society of the future. During World War II Karin Boye committed suicide.
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