With the re-opening of national borders after World War II, a new wave of modernism flowed into Norway from continental Europe, having a significant influence on local literary development. Consequently, after years of Nazi censorship, something of a publishing boom took place around the country. New tendencies in prose literature were represented by works such as Huset i mørkret (‘The House in the Dark’, 1945), a metaphorical description of the German occupation by Tarjei Vesaas (1897-1970). The harrowing experiences of war were to remain imprinted on Norwegian literature for time to come and were expressed variously in succeeding years as psychological interpretations of the Nazi regime or as documentary novels such as Englandsfarere (‘The England Voyagers’, 1945) by Sigurd Evensmo (1912-1978).

Agnar Mykle (1915-1994) carried on the prose tradition in his anti-puritan novels Lasso rundt fru luna (‘Lassoo around the Moon’, 1954) and Sangen om den røde rubin (‘The Song of the Red Ruby’, 1956), whilst Jens Bjørneboe (1920-1976) followed in the footsteps of Ibsen and Bjørnson with his socially-aware novels Jonas (1955) and Den onde hyrde (‘The Evil Chaperone’, 1960). Meanwhile, Johan Borgen conveyed strong psychological and social realism in his triology of Lillelord (‘Little Lord’, 1955-1957). Other leading writers of this period included Torborg Nedreaas (1906-1987), Alfred Hauge (1915-1986), Kjell Askildesn (b1929), Bergljot Holbæk Haff (b1925), Finn Aknæs (1932-1991), Finn Carling (b1925) and Axel Jensen (b1932). In lyric poetry the newly-established modernist tradition was carried through the 1960s by poets such as Stein Mehren (b1935), Arnold Eidslott (b1926) and Georg Johannsesen (b1931), whilst the meeting of modernist and traditional techniques is represented by the work of Inger Hagerup (1905-1985) and André Bjerke (1918-1985).

A new generation of Norwegian writers came to the fore in the years around 1965 in opposition to post-war prose. This new group was intellectual, well-educated and politically radicalised. Many of its members found a forum in Profil, a student periodical published at the University of Oslo. Thereafter an increasing number of women chose to become writers, gradually coming to play a quite different, more central role than they had in the past. Leading lights of this group included Liv Køltzow (b1945), Bjørg Vik (b1935) and Herbjørg Wassmo (b1942) the latter highlyacclaimed for her Tora trilogy. The Profil group fostered many talents, all of whom experimented with various techniques.

Prominent writers such as Dag Solstad (b1941), Espen Haavardsholm (b1945) and Tor Obrestad (b1938) favoured documentarism and social realism, and were soon joined by Edvard Hoem (b1949) and Kjartan Fløgstad (b1944). Others making their debut in the 1960s include Jan Kjœrstad (b1953), Ketil Bjørnstad (b1952), Knut Fladbakken (b1941) and Ingvar Ambjørnsen (b1956).

Two other important writers from the 1960s worthy of note are Tor Åge Bringsværd (b1939) and Jon Bing (b1944) who introduced into Norway the science fiction novel (or fabel prose, as Bing preferred to call it).