Fadern och ordningen

En religionsfenomenologisk läsning av Birgitta Trotzigs Sjukdomen

Abstract

The Father and the Order in Birgitta Trotzig’s Sjukdomen. A Religio-Phenomenological Approach

This is a reading of Birgitta Trotzig’s novel Sjukdomen (1972), that, contrary to what has commonly been done in earlier reception, does not take the dichotomy between father-theme and mothertheme as its point of departure. Instead, it focuses on the position of the father and argues that from this perspective, the world is conceived of in terms of a system of beliefs and meanings (referred to as the Order) that can be described as pseudo-religious. This is based on the author’s view of man as a religious animal, for which religious structures return in diabolic form when the inherent sacredness of nature is renounced. In the first part of the article, phenomenology of religion is used to show how the Order forms a coherent religious meaning system. In the second part, rhetorical analysis is used to show the author’s use of ironical devices in the depiction of the Order.