Professor in Comparative literature at Malmö University, Sweden. Main research interests: working-class literature and question about literature and class.
In this article I describe how contemporary Swedish literature which thematizes cultural diversit... more In this article I describe how contemporary Swedish literature which thematizes cultural diversity is understood within a powerful discourse about the so-called multicultural society, centred on an opposition between a culturally homogenous past and a culturally diverse present, and emphasizing the phenomena ethnicity and identity. I also try to suggest an alternative way of relating literature to a society characterized by diversity. This suggestion is based on Walter Benn Michaels' and Nancy Fraser's analyses of the epoch of "posthistoricism" and "the postsocialist condition" respectively, and my argument is that the study of the relationship between literature and diversity should be undertaken from a transformative/deconstructive perspective.
In this article I describe how contemporary Swedish literature which thematizes cultural diversit... more In this article I describe how contemporary Swedish literature which thematizes cultural diversity is understood within a powerful discourse about the so-called multicultural society, centred on an opposition between a culturally homogenous past and a culturally diverse present, and emphasizing the phenomena ethnicity and identity. I also try to suggest an alternative way of relating literature to a society characterized by diversity. This suggestion is based on Walter Benn Michaels' and Nancy Fraser's analyses of the epoch of "posthistoricism" and "the postsocialist condition" respectively, and my argument is that the study of the relationship between literature and diversity should be undertaken from a transformative/deconstructive perspective.
The aim of this collection is to contribute to the forging of a more robust, politically useful, ... more The aim of this collection is to contribute to the forging of a more robust, politically useful, and theoretically elaborate understanding of working-class literature(s). These essays map a substantial terrain: the history of working-class literature(s) in Argentina, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Singapore, South Africa and Ireland. Together with the essays in a previous volume – which cover Russia/The Soviet Union, The USA, Finland, Sweden, The UK, and Mexico – they give a complex picture of working-class literature(s) from an international perspective, without losing sight of national specificities. By capturing a wide range of definitions and literatures, the two volumes give a broad and rich picture of the many-facetted phenomenon of working-class literature(s), disrupt narrow understandings of the concept and phenomenon, as well as identify and discuss some of the most important theoretical and historical questions brought to the fore by the study of this literature.If read as stand-alone chapters, each contribution gives an overview of the history and research of a particular nation’s working-class literature. If read as a whole (which we hope you do), they contribute toward a more complex understanding of the global phenomenon of working-class literature(s).
The aim of this collection is to make possible the forging of a more robust, politically useful, ... more The aim of this collection is to make possible the forging of a more robust, politically useful, and theoretically elaborate understanding of working-class literature(s). These essays map a substantial terrain: the history of working-class literature(s) in Russia/The Soviet Union, The USA, Finland, Sweden, The UK, and Mexico. Together they give a complex and comparative – albeit far from comprehensive – picture of working-class literature(s) from an international perspective, without losing sight of national specificities. By capturing a wide range of definitions and literatures, this collection gives a broad and rich picture of the many-facetted phenomenon of working-class literature(s), disrupts narrow understandings of the concept and phenomenon, as well as identifies and discusses some of the most important theoretical and historical questions brought to the fore by the study of this literature. If read as stand-alone chapters, each contribution gives an overview of the history and research of a particular nation’s working-class literature. If read as an edited collection (which we hope you do), they contribute toward a more complex understanding of the global phenomenon of working-class literature(s).
Working-class literature has, at least since the 1930s, constituted a central strand in Swedish l... more 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.
The conference ‘Is Economic Inequality also a Literary Problem?’ held at Uppsala University, Swed... more The conference ‘Is Economic Inequality also a Literary Problem?’ held at Uppsala University, Sweden, in 2017 raised the following questions: What does literature have to do with inequality? Does it contribute to its reproduction, or can it be a force of resistance? Is it fair to even ask of literature and literary studies that they address the problem of economic inequality? This essay claims the answers to these questions are conditioned by the historical contexts of the critics grappling with them and the literatures that they study. Employing an analysis of the theme of poverty in contemporary Swedish-language working-class literature, I argue that the consecration of this literature as an important strand in Swedish national literature has allowed it to express radical critique of the economic inequalities lying at the heart of capitalism. Furthermore, I argue that this insight could be used as a starting-point for challenging some of the more pessimistic views expressed by critics of working-class literature regarding its political potentials.
This article discusses the tradition of Swedish working-class literature and the relationship bet... more This article discusses the tradition of Swedish working-class literature and the relationship between taste and class. First, I analyze the representation of this relationship in Swedish working-class writer Ivar Lo-Johansson's novel Kungsgatan [King Street] from 1935. Thereafter, I discuss the whole tradition of Swedish working-class literature-in which Lo-Johansson's novel occupies a central position. This tradition constitutes a challenge to received ideas about class and taste, mainly because its consecration as a central strand in Swedish literature and its dissemination to a mass audience in the working class make it problematic to uphold conventional distinctions between popular/working-class and high/bourgeois culture. Finally, I argue that the challenging of these distinctions is not only a key to a better understanding of Lo-Johansson's novel, but it also shows that Swedish working-class literature can serve as a catalyst for re-theorizations within working-class studies of the relationship between class and taste as something that is historically specific, rather than universal.
Review of Coles, Nicholas and Paul Lauter, eds. (2017) A History of American Working-Class Litera... more Review of Coles, Nicholas and Paul Lauter, eds. (2017) A History of American Working-Class Literature, Cambridge University Press Cambridge, UK
With the aim of contributing to scholarly discussions about how to conceptualise the relationship... more With the aim of contributing to scholarly discussions about how to conceptualise the relationship between the art form of comics and the working class, this article analyses the Swedish comics artist Mats Källblad’s graphic novel Hundra år i samma klass [A Hundred Years in the Same Class], focusing on its self-reflexive discussion and problematising of the idea about comics as a working-class art form. Special attention is given to intertextual connections to Swedish working-class literature and to Källblad’s questioning of the idea that the opposition between popular and highbrow culture should be analogous with that between the working class and the bourgeoisie.
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Papers by Magnus Nilsson
These essays map a substantial terrain: the history of working-class literature(s) in Argentina, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Singapore, South Africa and Ireland. Together with the essays in a previous volume – which cover Russia/The Soviet Union, The USA, Finland, Sweden, The UK, and Mexico – they give a complex picture of working-class literature(s) from an international perspective, without losing sight of national specificities.
By capturing a wide range of definitions and literatures, the two volumes give a broad and rich picture of the many-facetted phenomenon of working-class literature(s), disrupt narrow understandings of the concept and phenomenon, as well as identify and discuss some of the most important theoretical and historical questions brought to the fore by the study of this literature.If read as stand-alone chapters, each contribution gives an overview of the history and research of a particular nation’s working-class literature. If read as a whole (which we hope you do), they contribute toward a more complex understanding of the global phenomenon of working-class literature(s).
These essays map a substantial terrain: the history of working-class literature(s) in Russia/The Soviet Union, The USA, Finland, Sweden, The UK, and Mexico. Together they give a complex and comparative – albeit far from comprehensive – picture of working-class literature(s) from an international perspective, without losing sight of national specificities.
By capturing a wide range of definitions and literatures, this collection gives a broad and rich picture of the many-facetted phenomenon of working-class literature(s), disrupts narrow understandings of the concept and phenomenon, as well as identifies and discusses some of the most important theoretical and historical questions brought to the fore by the study of this literature.
If read as stand-alone chapters, each contribution gives an overview of the history and research of a particular nation’s working-class literature. If read as an edited collection (which we hope you do), they contribute toward a more complex understanding of the global phenomenon of working-class literature(s).