Inordning och uppror

Om det ambivalenta förhållandet till traditionen i modern svensk arbetarlitteratur

Abstract

Fitting in and Rebelling: On the Ambivalence towards Tradition in Modern Swedish Working-Class Literature

This article analyzes the ambivalent attitude of several Swedish working-class writers towards the tradition of working-class literature during the period 1945–2010. To certain extent, this ambivalence is a product of some aspects of the general symbolic economy in the field of literary production. Primarily, however, it is the result of conditions specific to Swedish working-class literature. Working-class writers often motivate their membership to the tradition of workingclass literature in terms of the tradition’s legitimizing of radical class discourses both within and beyond the field of literature. At the same time, however, the subaltern status of this tradition often makes its conventions for literary representations of class appear aesthetically and politically unsatisfactory. Furthermore, over time, the general cultural production of class on a societal level necessitates a break with the class-political literary strategies developed within the tradition of working-class literature.