Arbetarrealism med ett stänk av magi Huset vid Flon av Kjell Johansson som en berättelse om folkhemmet

Abstract

My article discusses contemporary figures of the Swedish proletarian literature on the example of Kjell Johansson's Huset vid Flon. Written in 1997 and based on autobiographical themes, the novel represents prose on childhood and growing up in the Swedish welfare state (folkhemmet). The novel's magic realistic setting can be regarded as an attempt to renew a deeply rooted genre in Swedish literature, the proletarian novel. The first part of the article addresses the relation between the form and the content of Johansson's work. The other discusses the way in which the author has used the narratives on folkhemmet that function in the Swedish academic discourse and socio-political debate.

Keywords

• Swedish proletarian literature
• magical realism
• Kjell Johansson
• the Swedish folkhem
• historical narratives