This book focuses on minor characters in fiction, primarily nameless and unimportant figures found within medieval Icelandic sagas but weaving in examples from Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, and the Pet Shop Boys. Jakobsson examines minor characters and their role, as well as their absence, through narratology. He also studies the sagas as literature, arguing that few elements open up sagas as much as how minor characters function.

Autorentext

Ármann Jakobsson is Professor of Old Icelandic Literature at the University of Iceland.