In May, we’ll be premiering the play Anne at Kilden, a musical adaptation of Paal-Helge Haugen’s dot novel of the same name. Haugen himself coined the term “dot novel,” which has since become part of literary studies. But what does the term actually mean?

Haugen wrote the novel *Anne* at the age of just 23. The book is now considered a modern classic and was early on included in the high school curriculum. For the book, he received the Nynorsk Culture Prize, and it was later translated into a number of languages. The term “dot novel” has also become part of literary studies and is particularly widespread in Denmark.

“The publisher wasn’t sure what kind of book this was, and told me I had to come up with a term. When I came up with the term ‘dot novel,’ they thought it was brilliant and used it in many contexts. Later, it became part of literary theory,” explains Haugen.

Create your own links

A fragmentary novel is a narrative that is not continuous, but is composed of short—or slightly longer—passages.

– The fragment is, after all, an old literary technique with a long history. The idea is that you, as a reader, should be able to engage further with the material and make your own connections between the various elements of the text.

"It's a bit like visiting an art exhibition," explains Haugen

– When you view works by a particular artist, connections are formed between them. Together, the works create stories.

Balance between the subjective and the objective

For Haugen, the point-form novel was a technical opportunity to combine different narrative styles and incorporate completely different elements from a linguistic perspective.

– I wanted to write a story where I was free to use extremely subjective and expressive forms of expression, but I had to strike a balance, so it’s balanced by actual existing material that is cool, sober, and descriptive. That maintains the balance between the highly subjective and the completely objective.

Like a newspaper, for example?

– Yes, what is a newspaper, really? A snapshot of society. As you read from article to article, a picture of a society and an era begins to take shape.    

In the same way, the play *Anne* tells the story of a young woman’s life from beginning to end, through small, fragmented glimpses.