Literature and class : aesthetical-political strategies in modern Swedish working-class literature

Abstract

Working-class literature has, at least since the 1930s, constituted a central strand in Swedish literature. Literature and class analyzes the aesthetical-political strategies for criticizing class and class injustice deployed in modern Swedish working-class literature, thereby contributing to the theoretical understanding of the relationship between literature and class, and to the development of a Marxist literary theory capable of combining literary analysis with political intervention. After introducing a framework for conceptualizing the relationship between literature and class, which draws on contemporary anti-essentialist and dialectical Marxist theory, and giving a brief presentation of the tradition of Swedish working-class literature, Literature and Class analyzes the representation of class and class injustice in works by modern Swedish working-class writers such as Folke Fridell, Göran Palm, and Kristian Lundberg. In order to highlight the specificity of their aesthetical-political strategies, these are compared with those developed by West-German working-class writers such as Max von der Grün and Günter Wallraff. Finally, the claim is made that Swedish working-class literature, because of its ability to rethink the phenomena of class and class injustice, constitutes an avant-garde in contemporary class politics.