Barnet, arbetaren, arbetarförfattaren

Om barnet och den kulturella produktionen av klass i 1930-talets svenska arbetarlitteratur

Abstract

Child, Worker, Working-Class Writer: The Child and the Cultural Production of Class in Swedish Working-Class Literature from the 1930s.

This article analyzes how the thematization of childhood (childhood as a motif, as well as the use of narrative focalization through a child) is used in the cultural construction of class in Swedish working-class literature from the 1930s, exemplified by Ivar Lo-Johansson’s Godnatt, jord (1933), Moa Martinson’s Mor gifter sig (1936), and Eyvind Johnson’s Romanen om Olof (1934–37). The main argument is that in these novels, the child symbolizes a working class that is subjected to injustice, but also has the potential to put an end to this injustice. Thus, the child also represents the working-class writer’s subordinate-yet-vivacious position in the field of literature.