Chapter 7

Good migrations?

The paragon of the Swedish author (and later Nobel prize laureate) Harry Martinson’s early travel writing, published in the 1930s, is the “geosopher,” a figure that has broken free of the confines of his birth nation and its culture in order to experience the world in its entirety. For the geosopher, travelling is a basic need.

Martinson’s ideal, based on his own experiences as a ship stoker, was made possible by modern transportation, technology, commerce and cultural transfer on a new scale – phenomena that for some of his contemporaries seemed more frightening than promising, uprooting them from traditional life. Today, in the wake of climate change, the fear of pandemics and large-scale migration, these anxieties have resurfaced.

Even though Martinson seemed optimistic about his geosopher ideal, he soon gave up his life as a migrant and turned to the Swedish countryside, where the global perspective of his travel writing was replaced by an interest in the smallest creatures and movements of nature. When he later returned to the theme of travelling, it was with a completely different tone in the dystopic fantasies of the “space epic” Aniara.

In this article, I will explore the shifting attitudes in Martinson’s travel writing, and also relate them to our contemporary challenges: migration, climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic. How can literature contribute to cultural transfer and border crossings in an age where mobility has to be limited?