Elämä kertomuksena Torgny Lindgrenin romaaneissa Hummelhonung ja Pölsan

Life as a story in Torgny Lindgren’s novels Hummelhonung and Pölsan The article discusses Torgny Lindgren’s novels Hummelhonung (1995) and Pölsan (2002) in the light of two, interconnected extended cognitive metaphors: LIFE IS A STORY and LIFE IS A JOURNEY. The theoretical background of the article consists of Lakoff’s and Johnson’s (1980) theory of cognitive metaphor; Werth’s (1999) and Pettersson’s (2011) discussions concerning the role of extended metaphors in narrative literature; and Ricoeur’s (e.g. 1984) concept of emplotment. The article challenges Nilsson’s (2004) view according to which Lindgren has, in his late novels, turned from existential themes towards metafictive ones. The article shows that, instead, existential and metafictive themes are interconnected in the novels through these metaphors. They function as a means to chart similarities between artistic creation (writing) and the process in which the subject tells his/her life-story. In the article it is also pointed out that Pölsan challenges the conventional view of life as a story and examines the limits of this metaphor by showing how life is not only a story. In this respect, the article continues the recent theoretical discussion concerning the limits of the presentation of life in terms of a story