Being-in-capitalism : The commodity in content and form in Diary of a Playwright

This thesis explores the commodity as a motif in the first volume of Lars Norén’s Diary of a Playwright, as well as how this motif relates to reification and alienation, and in addition is reflected in the work formally. The study is oriented both towards the text’s depiction of the commodity and its reflections on its own depiction. These descriptions are read in light of Marxist theory and through comparisons with Walter Benjamin’s Passagenwerk, where the latter work also forms a connection to Martin Heidegger and Simone Weil in their capacity of important influences for Norén. Much like in the Passagenwek, the commodity acts as a secret structure in Diary of a Playwright. It organises the text and its seemingly disparate elements on a deeper level. The study contributes to a new understanding of one the greatest Swedish writers in the 20th and 21st centuries. Although the diary has not been the subject of much research, the predominant understanding of the work is, as with Norén’s other writings, largely characterised by a psychoanalytic perspective