Syfte med den här avhandlingen är att empiriskt kartlägga framväxten och utvecklingen av varietéunderhållningen i Stockholm 1870-1920, för att kunna förstå både förhållandet till dess transnationella förebilder, ekonomiska dynamik, kulturella dragningskraft, samt förklara hur genren kom att uppfattas i den offentliga debatten. Med teorier hämtade från Antonio Gramsci och Pierre Bourdieu diskuteras varietéerna som ett uttryck för det sena 1800-talets samhällsförändringar och marknadskapitalistiska dynamik, som bl.a. synliggjordes i nya urbana livsstilar och mönster. Resultatet av dessa undersökningar visar hur den tyska, brittiska, amerikanska och franska varietéunderhållningen influerade den svenska motsvarigheten. Samtidigt var faktorer som de nationella och lokala ekonomiska, politiska och sociala förhållandena avgörande i skapandet av de specifika uttrycksformer varietéunderhållning fick i Stockholm. Avhandlingen visar också hur varietésalongernas sociala praktiker, genom en medveten disciplineringssträvan från såväl entreprenörer som politiker, kom att genomgå en förändringsprocess där den sociala samvaron minskade till förmån för en allt starkare fokus på föreställningarnas innehåll. Genom sina samhällsutmanande drag kom varietéunderhållningen även att fungera som plattform varifrån viktiga värden och normer förhandlades och medierades. Detta bidrog till att underhållningsformen blev en måltavla för sedlighets- och nykterhetsrörelsen. Moulin Rouge på svenska är, genom att sätta fokus på hur entreprenörer, artister, skribenter, musikkompositörer och kritiker tänkte och agerade i den framväxande offentliga urbaniteten, ett viktigt bidrag i förståelsen av hur den tidiga svenska massproducerade populärkulturen tog form i slutet av 1800-talet. / The purpose of this dissertation is to chart and analyze the growth and development of variety entertainment in Stockholm 1870-1920 in order to reach an understanding of its transnational models, economic dynamics, and cultural attraction, as well as to explain how this genre was understood in the public debate. With the help of theories derived from Antonio Gramsci and Pierre Bourdieu variety entertainment is discussed as an expression of the social changes and the dynamics of market capitalism that became visible in new urban life styles and patterns at the end of the 19th century. The results of this investigation show how German, British, American and French variety entertainment influenced their Swedish counterparts. At the same time factors such as national and local economics and existing political and social conditions were determinants in the creation of the specific forms of expression that variety entertainment assumed in Stockholm. The dissertation also shows how social practice in the variety halls went through a process of change due to a conscious attempt on the part of both the entrepreneurs and politicians to discipline behaviour. In this process social interaction declined and a sharper focus came to be placed on the content of the performances. Because many of its characteristics challenged social values, variety entertainment came to function as a platform for the mediation of important norms and values. This was a contributing factor in making this form of entertainment a target for the temperance and morality movements. By focussing on how the entrepreneurs, actors, writers, composers and critics thought and acted in the growing public urbanity, Moulin Rouge in Swedish makes an important contribution to understanding how early mass produced Swedish culture took shape in the end of the 19th century.

Diss. Stockholm : Univ.

Literary descriptions of shifting from and transgressing assigned sex were common in 19th Century Sweden. This thesis forms a contribution to the larger project of writing a history of Swedish trans literature, and develops new interpretations of certain works of fiction by applying a transgender studies perspective. Through trans readings the thesis also examines what potential and possible implications literature might have for trans people beyond the literary realm. Trans readings are able to supplement earlier research by providing a nuanced understanding of the production of trans- and cisgenders. The theoretical perspectives used in the thesis are drawn for the most part from queer and transgender studies. The thesis adopts a conceptual understanding of trans as a movement, and aims to widen the scope of what may be considered relevant to a history of trans literature. The primary objects of analysis are the 1833 autobiography of widely known thief and cross-dresser Lasse-Maja (Lars Molin), C.J.L. Almqvist’s Drottningens juvelsmycke (1834), and Aurora Ljungstedt’s Moderna typer (1874). In closing, two texts from the fin-de-siècle are also closely read; Amanda Kerfstedt’s Reflexer (1901) and Frida Stéenhoff’s “Ett sällsamt öde” (1911). A wide range of other fiction is additionally studied in order to establish a contextual pattern of trans literary traditions. The thesis demonstrates that trans permeates all kinds of fiction, and that the characters analysed construct both trans and cis gender categories. It concludes that trans is done in a variety of ways, and with a variety of meanings in 19th and early 20th century literature. Trans is often depicted as a positive, fruitful and desirable act, through trans characters who are both themselves subjects of erotic desire and who become symbols of liberty and emancipation. Other trans figures however are often counter images of what are considered to be correct sexes, and are depicted as threatening and/or ridiculous. Both these negative and positive representations of trans affirm the gender binary. At the same time, they also break and destabilize that same binary, and the trans characters in the study both can and cannot be interpreted as transgressing cis- and heteronormativity respectively.