The return of working class literature : A discourse orientated analysis of ideas about contemporary working class literature in Sweden, 1999-2007

During the 21st century, Society has again begun to focus its attention on working class literature and on issues related to social class. In the media contemporary working class literature is often mentioned as a distinct phenomenon. I my view, the meaning of this phenomenon have not been adequately formulated. The aim of this Master’s Thesis is to reconstruct, using a discourse oriented text analysis, a picture of how the contemporary working class literature is described in today’s society. This approach falls therefore within the framework of the Sociology of Literature and is based on the assumption that the discourse of working class literature is undergoing change. Utilizing an established definition of working class literature, I have created five nodal points around which I believe the discourse is mainly formed and changed. Links are then made to these points from chains of equivalence, based on essential ideas concerning the identities that have been ascribed to different subjects and objects. In order to show how the discourse is contextually constructed, the results are seen in relation to a discussion in contemporary research and literature about class society and the welfare state. My empirical data consists mainly of reviews and interviews in leading daily newspapers in Sweden concerning five writers who have published novels between 1999 and 2007 and who have been associated with contemporary working class literature. These writers are Lena Andersson, Torbjörn Flygt, Tony Samuelsson, Susanna Alakoski and Åsa Linderborg. The results show that the working class writer is a “class traveller”, who today holds a prominent position within the literary public sphere. The main purpose of the literature is to criticize the class society of today and to make it more visible. The novels reflects findings from social science research showing that the modern welfare state is a segregated and unequal society where the losers mainly consist of the unemployed and immigrants who often live in suburbs that were built during the million dwellings program. They also show today’s working class that primarily consist of people within the caring and service sectors and therefore largely are women.Uppsatsnivå: