Brutal social demaskering - om Kurt Salomonson, bilden av folkhemmet och offentligheterna

Abstract

Väitöskirja on reseptiohistoriallinen tutkimus, joka käsittelee Kurt Salomonsonin yhteiskunnallisten romaanien Grottorna (1956), Mannen utanför (1958) ja Skiljevägen (1962) vastaanottoa. Kurt Salomonson oli 1950-luvun lopulla ja 1960-luvun alussa yksi yhteiskunnallisen romaanin harvoista edustajista, jotka kuvasivat ajan työväenluokkaa. Romaanit kyseenalaistivat niin kansankodin rakentamisen, työväenliikkeen kuin työväenluokankin ja herättivät siksi ristiriitaisia ajatuksia, vahvoja reaktioita ja voimakasta keskustelua. Kyseiset romaanit eivät siten toimineet vain kaunokirjallisina teoksina, vaan niistä tuli myös osa poliittista keskustelua. Romaaneja käytettiin muun muassa sosiaalidemokraattien ja heidän liberaalien haastajiensa välisissä kiistoissa.

Kurt Salomonson ei julkaissut mitään pitkään aikaan. Vasemmistoradikalismin vallatessa alaa 1960- ja 1970-luvuilla, hänestä tuli kuitenkin jälleen ajankohtainen. Hänen kirjallista toimintaansa arvioitiin uudelleen, myös häneen aikaisemmin kriittisesti suhtautuneessa työväenliikkeessä.

Väitöstutkimuksessa tarkastellaan Kurt Salomonsonia myös kirjallisuushistorian näkökulmasta ja pohditaan hänen paikkaansa kirjallisuushistoriassa. Lisäksi valaistaan Kurt Salomonsonin omia käsityksiä urastaan kirjailijana. Tutkimuksessa pohditaan myös, mitkä seikat vaikuttivat siihen, että nuoresta västerbottenilaisesta työläisestä tuli kirjailija ja miten Kurt Salomonsonin henkilökohtaiset kokemukset näkyvät romaanien realistisen pinnan alla.

In the period 1955-1962 Kurt Salomonson (b. 1929) wrote seven novels, of which four are deemed social novels. These four works, Grottorna (1956), Mannen utanför (1958), Sveket (1959) and Skiljevägen (1962) became the subject of extensive public debate at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s. This public debate was characterized by a shift in aesthetic issues to a heated political discourse at a time when the dominant position of the Social Democrats was under threat. Kurt Salomonson was less productive at the beginning of the 1960s, and consequently became marginalized. Only in 1979 did he regain prominence with the publication of his collection of short stories entitled Flickan med sagohåret.

The late 1960s witnessed major changes in the Swedish literary and political canon, a time when both the political debate and literature acquired new content and form. These years are deemed a period of change, "strömkantringens år", and they also influenced the literary career of Kurt Salomonson. His social novels were republished, reinterpreted and subjected to left-wing social analysis. The author eventually regained prominence and was awarded several prizes for literature. What became known as "folhemsromanerna" (the people’s home novels), Mannen utanför (1958), Sveket (1959) and Skiljevägen (1962), were republished twice and served as examples of the early and far-sighted criticism of the modern Swedish welfare state and considered as models of novels embodying social criticism.

The dissertation is a study of historical reception. Its purpose is to ascertain the real nature of the reception of the novels when first published, how the author was positioned in the literary landscape and how the novels were subsequently interpreted and evaluated. In the course of time the view taken of Salomonson acquired a political cast, which has affected the view conveyed to posterity of the reception the author received at the outset. This reception can be scrutinized in the reviews and opinions in numerous publications and the dissertation has made use of these. They are grouped and approached according to journalistic classifications.

After a mainly descriptive part the dissertation moves on to an analytical part intended to shed light on why different conceptions of the author were expressed in public. The point of departure for the analysis is Jürgen Habermas’ concept of public sphere, which, however, is accorded a somewhat different content. Representative publicity here refers to the notion that a certain voice becomes representative and dominant at the expense of others. The findings of the analysis are based on an exploration of literary and political texts related to the subject. These are presented according to the respective representative voice in public and linked to other prevailing contemporary societal phenomena. The analysis permits the conclusion that the marginalization of Kurt Salomonson and challenging of his societal criticality are attributable to certain dominant trends in the labour movement. Marginalization also became apparent in the literary public sphere, which in the late 1950s was in a state of change and in search of new means of portraying the new reality. The traditional realistic novel was considered passé as a form of novel and it was believed that reality could be scrutinized without prejudice in the manner of the new French novel.

The dissertation then proceeds to address how Kurt Salomonson’s novels of the 1950s were treated in the context of their republications. Now the social critique in the novels was deemed adept, correct and indispensable. However, there were reservations regarding Kurt Salomonson’s fictive reporting technique and it was overshadowed by the new documentary approach, so-called reporting literature. The reappraisal and reassessment of Kurt Salomonson have been the main image of the author, as seen in the numerous prizes for literature awarded to him. The analysis of the reception contemplates and scrutinizes how Kurt Salomonson goes down in literary history and why, and also whether, he is a working class author or only an author.

The third strand of the dissertation is to consider the career of one single author and to study how the reception affected the author and caused him to reconsider in part his views on writing. The study takes project conception as its point of departure and endeavours to comprehend the author’s personal relation to his own writing. It moreover includes an examination of how the real author-self has entered the texts as personal survival strategies and beneath the surface of social critique creating in them its own deep structure.