Here, There, and Back Again. Synecdochic spatiality in Gösta Ågren’s trilogy Jär

This essay discusses the representation of space in the poetry trilogy Jär (1988–1992; Here), the Finland­Swedish poet Gösta Ågren’s (1936–2020) first national and international success. A sense of place is already in the title; by reverting to the dialect of his native Ostrobothnia, Ågren establishes an intimate connection to a local language and to a specific, peripheral, geographic area. I argue that the microcosmic sites constituting the trilogy’s raison d’être form a synecdochic pattern representing a macrocosm, thus resonating with the essay Ett nej (1986; A no), where Ågren argues for an extreme likeness between big and small, centre and periphery. In relation to the body as space, I consider the synecdoche also as ‘container’ for ‘the contained’. Briefly, with the intent to uncover the specificity of spatial representation in the domain of poetry, the discussion moves from topography to typography and looks at the poems’ interaction with the page.