Cast in the light of machine guns a study of the idea-content of the literary magazine 40-tal.

This masters thesis is a study of the ideas brought forward in the literary magazine 40-tal. The methodology involves the adaptation of a literary sociological perspective where the ideas of the young literary avantgarde in the magazine 40-tal interplays with the established philosophy of the Swedish society during the period 1944-47. The main purpose has been to examine 40-tal as a product of supreme individuality that originates a unique climate of ideas which exceeds the involved collaborators individual writings. I have thereby related my analysis to the Marxist oriented theories of Raymond Williams. This has been done in order to see how the external pressure of the social structure and the market acts together with the internal pressure of keeping up with the times and how this affects the individual authors and the process of creating. I have then selected to scan the primary content of the ideas depicted in 40-tal by looking further into the notions of pessimism and the difficulty of access in its artistic expression. In doing so I have found that this literary magazine in itself directs a literary attitude that involves a collective and highly critical outlook on the solutions and promises given by all ideological systems. The pessimistic idea in 40-tal then accordingly puts the emphasis on the importance of self-examination. This includes taking a firm stand for what you personally believe in but at the same time realising the meaningless implications of this act. Placing this attitude alongside the use of an aestheticism characterised by its difficulty of access, as a linguistic specification of the young literary climate in 40-tal, leads to a certain struggle for ideological independence. The idea-content of 40-tal is then seen as an explicit expression of a reorganisation of a new social conscience. Strategic purposes are obtained by a collective awareness in the removal of the old way of thinking in terms of personal and artistic freedom within the context of the Swedish society. The relations that are established in 40-tal by the young literary climate facilitates new ideas to emerge. But these ideas are first and foremost made possible, evolved and given its impact by the position founded by 40-tal as a supreme individual product in the literary public eye.Uppsatsnivå: