This thesis is engaged in the formation of the concept of class in the second generation of the Czech (Bohemian) Working-Class Movement. I selected time termination, because of the beginning of the 1890s involved onset of second generation of working-class movement, which deflected from radikalism the first generation of pioneers to engagement oscillating between reformism of Bebel and revisionism of Bernstein. Even since the early 1890s gradually alternated Class about itself (Klasse an sich) at precisely defined Class for itself (Klasse für sich). Thesis seeks to answer the question: Why occured to the above-mentioned phenomenon in the second generation? The traditional explanation of Marxist Historians about the end of Persecutory Phase and logical accession Mass Party seems too schematic. The year 1914 is selected as an upper time milestone, because the First World War caused a series of high quantitative and qualitative transitions in social relations: proletarianization of wide classes in society; fatal deteroration of living, social, health and political conditions of workers. The Working Classes in the prewar and wartime periods are two different social phenomena, which ought to analyse historically separately. The thesis is conceptually draws on Benedict Anderson's seminal work Imagined...

L’expérimentation sociale de Titus Salt (1803-1876) à travers sa communauté industrielle modèle de Saltaire, dans la région du Yorkshire, a été considérée jusqu’à nos jours comme une référence pour répondre aux maux urbains résultant de la rapide industrialisation du début du dix-neuvième siècle. L’enjeu de cette recherche est de contextualiser cette expérience, débutée en 1853, dans le mouvement de réformes sociales entre 1850 et 1880 à Bradford que nous considérons comme la ville à l’origine de Saltaire. Nous centrerons cette étude sur les différents aspects et influences alors à l’oeuvre dans la promotion de l’évolution ouvrière, tels que le bien-être social mais aussi les pressions économiques, politiques et religieuses. A travers cette comparaison nous constaterons l’étendue de la participation réformatrice et innovatrice sociale du village sous la direction de Titus Salt et observerons dans quelle mesure l’expérimentation à Saltaire prit part à l’avancée de la condition des ouvriers du textile lainier. / Titus Salt’s social experiment conducted through his model industrial community of Saltaire, in Yorkshire, has been perceived and presented this far as a solution to the contemporary issues resulting from rapid industrialisation. The aim of the present research is to put into context this experiment, started in 1853, within the wider social reform movement that occurred from 1850 to 1880 in Bradford- which we consider as the “mother town” of Saltaire. This study focuses on the various influences promoting the advancement of the factory workers’ conditions, such as social welfare concerns but also religious, political and economical pressures, in order to see their achievements on the urban life. This comparative study is aiming to demonstrate the extent to which the model village, under Titus Salt’s leadership, took part in the social reformation and in the progress of the worsted trade workers’ circumstances.

Bengt Lidforss (1868–1913) was professor of botany between 1910 and 1913. But after the turn of the century he also emerged as a charismatic leader within the Swedish working-class movement. He became one of its foremost publicists. In the social democratic newspaper Arbetet in Malmö he wrote about natural sciences but also about political, philosophical and literary issues. As a literary critic Lidforss was the keenest protector of the Scanian literary school, and his struggle for Ola Hansson and Vilhelm Ekelund has made its mark in Swedish literary history, as have his contributions in favour of Gustaf Fröding and August Strindberg, culminating in the polemic articles during the Strindberg Feud (1910–11). Skönhetsdyrkare och socialdemokrat. Studier i Bengt Lidforss litteraturkritiska gärning (Worshipper of Beauty And Social Democrat. Studies in Bengt Lidforss’ Achievement As A Literary Critic) emphasises the paradoxic combination of Lidforss’ fundamentally socialist views and a strong belief in art. To him art was not isolated from society but quite the contrary; a significant factor in the changing of society. The new socialistic human being should be ennobled by arts instead of emasculated by religion. With the help of Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of “field”, it is shown how Lidforss, by attacking leading middle-class newspapers and publicists, created for himself and Arbetet a constantly stronger position within the field of journalism. Within the field of literary criticism he attacked the middle-class critics, and thus participated in associating Strindberg and Fröding as well as the young Scanian writers with the working-class movement. Lidforss’ literary taste was seen as an alternative to middle-class taste and the worshipping of beauty thereby became fashionable among socialists. The fact that one finds sympathies not only for symbolism but also for decadent descriptions with Lidforss the socialist, has to do with the fact that the descriptions of the discomfort of the heroes revealed the disadvantages of the capitalist society. Nevertheless Lidforss’ issued warnings against programmatic pessimism, since he was of the opinion that literature should strengthen people in their struggle. When it came to the plight of the human being under capitalism he was a pessimist, but he believed the stronger in a future socialist society. The terms for the artists would be more tolerable in such a society, he prophesied. He admitted that revolutionary poetry could be useful but was of the opinion that the quality of art would lessen if it consciously served politics. The revolutionary poetry he praised in his reviews was poetry he found genuine and coming from the heart. He did not favour pronounced tendencies, but he liked to use poetry in a political context. / Bengt Lidforss (1868–1913) var botaniker, men också publicist och socialist. Skandalomsusad och färgstark har han porträtterats av ett stort antal skönlitterära författare, allt ifrån August Strindberg till Inger Alfvén. Hans mångsidiga medarbetarskap i Arbetet hjälpte tidningen fram till en uppmärksammad position. I denna bok skildras hans kamp för en ledande position också inom det litterära fältet. Lidforss var en skönhetsdyrkare av stora mått men samtidigt socialdemokrat. Detta ledde till att han stred på många kulturella arenor – inte bara mot kritiker, författare, och Svenska Akademien, utan också mot inflytelserika män inom kyrka och politik. Skönhetsdyrkare och socialdemokrat ger oss oväntade svar på vad dessa bataljer handlade om och vi får möta Lidforss samtida giganter som Fredrik Böök, Vilhelm Ekelund, Albert Engström, Verner von Heidenstam, Oscar Levertin, August Strindberg med flera.

This thesis explores the representation of emotion and feeling in the 1910’s and 1920’s fictional works of Swedish working class writer Karl Östman, against the historical background of the working class movement and its social communities. The material consists mainly of three collections of short stories (Pilgrims, A Fiddle and a Woman and Hunger) and one novel (The Broad Road). The author analyses how emotions arise and are represented, the relationship between emotion and action, the individual and collective practices of feeling, as well as the emotional reactions following suffering. Dreams of love and compassion are also addressed to investigate whether the texts point to the possibility of a new emotional community for the working class. The theoretical basis of the thesis is Barbara H. Rosenwein’s concept of ”emotional communities”, along with Sara Ahmed’s theories of emotions as patterns of action. The thesis argues that all actions in Östman’s fiction are, fundamentally, emotional reactions. To gain an understanding of capitalism and class society as the causes of oppression, Östman’s characters must first understand their own emotions from the perspective of a socialist emotional community, rather than the prevailing emotional community of working class men. Only then can their emotional response to suffering become anger and action rather than hopelessness. Östman identifies the great shame of the worker not as his vulnerable position under capitalism but as the culture of non-feeling that workers impose on one another – a change of perspective that becomes a call for action. If read attentive to the role of emotions in the text, the thesis argues, Östman’s fiction possesses an urgency and a complexity previously not accredited to him.