Elena Balzamo

Literary Scholar and Translator, Paris

Elena Balzamo is a literary scholar and translator. She studied Nordic literature at Moscow State University
and ethnology and folklore at Tbilisi State University. In 1987, she received her Ph.D. from l’Université
Lille III for her research on Scandinavian folk- and literary tale. She has published a number of folktale
collections both in French and Swedish.

Balzamo’s second research field concerns the sixteenth-century history of ideas; her work has resulted in
books and articles, among these are Olaus Magnus: Carta marina (2005); Olaus Magnus: Die Wunder des
Nordens (with R. Kaiser, 2006); and Den osynlige ärkebiskopen: Essäer om Olaus Magnus (in print).

Her third research area is Swedish literature, in particular August Strindberg. It includes both the translation
and editing of Swedish classics (C. J. L. Almqvist, A. Strindberg, Hj. Söderberg and Hj. Bergman) and
scholarly studies, such as August Strindberg: visages et destin (1999), Den engagerade skeptikern: Hjalmar
Söderberg och politiken (2001), Cahier de l’Herne August Strindberg (2000), Skrifdon och papper, brefkort,
frimärken: Fyra essäer om Strindberg (2012); and ‘Je suis un pauvre diable!’ Dix essais sur Strindberg (in
print).

Between 2003 and 2008, Balzamo taught at the École pratique des Hautes Études, Paris. She is presently
leading a translation seminar in Paris.

Balzamo has been awarded several prizes for her translation and research: the Swedish Academy Translation
Prize (2001), Bourse Jean Gattegno (2009), the Sévigné Prix for her edition of Strindberg’s letters (2011),
the Order of the Polar Star for the promotion of Swedish culture (2012), and the Swedish Academy Prize
for the promotion of Swedish culture abroad (2013). She is doctor honoris causa of Umeå University, a
Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities and of the Royal
Gustavus Adolphus Academy for Swedish Folk Culture, Uppsala.

During her year at scas, Elena Balzamo will be evaluating the general principles for textual editions of literary
works, and in particular the National Edition of August Strindberg’s Collected Works. In this endeavour, she
will be joined by Gunnel Engwall and Ann-Charlotte Gavel Adams.

This information is accurate as of the academic year 2014-15.