Doing Class: Intersectional Encounters in Swedish Contemporary Fiction

This project investigates how class is depicted in Swedish contemporary fiction. Based on literature’s ability to uncover and renegotiate societal as well as emotional and artistic processes, it examines how class is charged with new political meanings and aesthetical expression. The aim is deeper knowledge of the political role of art and post-industrial society’s obscured images of class, as perceptions of work, identity, life style and the welfare state are rapidly changing. In the analyses, class is treated as performative and relational, but also as a set of specific experiences.

The study combines norm-critical perspectives, cultural and textual analysis, and aspects of affect theory and sociology of culture. An intersectional approach is used, with an enhanced awareness of how class interacts with gender and ethnicity.