This thesis is a study of social alienation in two novels by Sara Lidman, Regnspiran (1958) and Bära mistel (1960). Taking the Swedish ”people’s home” and the normative view of people that it entailed as its point of departure, it examines the different kinds of alienation present in Lidman’s work. The analysis consists of three main parts. Part one examines geographical alienation in the novels, as well as the process of racialization of bodies that are considered out of place. Part two considers how different types of masculinity is represented in the novels, as they intersect structures of religion, class and sexuality. The third and last part is concentrated on the main character of the novels, Linda Ståhl, and the deviant female artist in general. The conclusion is that the novels lends a voice to people in many different kinds of alienation. It also poses questions about identity that run even deeper. Through imitation and stage art, the main characters build layers of identity that questions the idea of an essential, ”real” identity. Processes that genders and racializes people become visible, and the performative acts that create identity are heightened and put in focus.

This essay examines the nature of Sara Lidmans novel Bära mistel by drawing on theories of Kate Soper and Greg Garrard. The analysis examines the culture surrounding the characters Linda Ståhl and Björn Ceder in relation to the nature of the north. It considers concepts such as the imminent presence of nature versus a distance to it, the idealization of nature, the connection between nature and God, and the problems that follow society’s way of looking at Norrland as wilderness. Simultaneously I analyze how nature and culture tend to overlap and thus one often becomes a product of the other.