Knut Ahnlund

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Knut Emil Ahnlund (born 24 May 1923 in Stockholm) is a Swedish literary historian, writer, and member of the Swedish Academy.

Ahnlund is an expert on 19th and 20th century Nordic, especially Danish, literature. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on Henrik Pontoppidan, and has later written on Gustav Wied and Sven Lidman, among others. He is also a novelist and has published translations of various writers such as Julio Cortázar. He received his doctorate from Stockholm University, and has been professor of Nordic Literary History at the University of Aarhus. He was elected a member of the Swedish Academy in 1983.

Due to conflicts with the former permanent secretary of the Academy, Sture Allén, and his successor, Horace Engdahl, Ahnlund has only participated minimally in the work of the Academy since 1996. On 11 October 2005, just a few days before the announcement of the 2005 Nobel laureate for literature, he declared in a piece in Svenska Dagbladet that he would leave the Academy in protest against the choice of recipient of the prize the previous year, Elfriede Jelinek; he characterized Jelinek's work as chaotic and pornographic. As membership of the Academy is for life, Ahnlund cannot formally leave the Academy, but he will not participate in its work and his chair will be left empty until his death.