<p>By reading three 21st century books am I trying to see how the female friendship is described in literature of our days. The books are Rebell med frusna fötter by Johanna Nilsson, Lutherska badet by Unni Drougge and I närheten av solen by Hanna Wallsten. They are all written by Swedish authors and taking place in Stockholm in the early years of 2000. I am doing a critical reading against the roles of “heteronormativitet” as the word is described by Tiina Rosenberg and Fanny Ambjörnsson trying to see how the characters are following or breaking these roles. The books are also read comparative to each other. I am doing what I call a “väninneläsning” where the female friends are being the narrative engine in the story, helping the main character to construct a new and stronger subjective self. My conclusions by this reading are that the friendship is opening up for a change of the roles of relation(ships) between women and man. It creates a possibility of a life were the women can choose to live in a “vänskapsfamilj”, a friendship family. The power of choice gives her a new strength in demanding equal rights compared to the man.</p>

By reading three 21st century books am I trying to see how the female friendship is described in literature of our days. The books are Rebell med frusna fötter by Johanna Nilsson, Lutherska badet by Unni Drougge and I närheten av solen by Hanna Wallsten. They are all written by Swedish authors and taking place in Stockholm in the early years of 2000. I am doing a critical reading against the roles of “heteronormativitet” as the word is described by Tiina Rosenberg and Fanny Ambjörnsson trying to see how the characters are following or breaking these roles. The books are also read comparative to each other. I am doing what I call a “väninneläsning” where the female friends are being the narrative engine in the story, helping the main character to construct a new and stronger subjective self. My conclusions by this reading are that the friendship is opening up for a change of the roles of relation(ships) between women and man. It creates a possibility of a life were the women can choose to live in a “vänskapsfamilj”, a friendship family. The power of choice gives her a new strength in demanding equal rights compared to the man.

I denna uppsats undersöks vänskapsmotivet i romancegenren, med fokus på kvinnliga vänskaper. Romanerna Beach Read (2019), People We Meet On Vacation (2020) och Book Lovers (2021) av Emily Henry står som representanter för genren. Syftet är att studera hur kvinnlig vänskap porträtteras och huruvida den får ta plats jämte romansen. Mieke Bals Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative (2017) används för att göra narratologiska analyser av karaktärerna, med fokus på begreppen ”kvalifikation” och ”kvalifikation genom funktion”. Detta belyser inte bara karaktärernas egenskaper utan också deras roller och funktion i narrativet. Även Elizabeth Abels artikel ”(E)Merging Identities: The Dynamics of Female Friendship in Contemporary Fiction by Women” (1981) tas upp för att kategorisera olika typer av fiktiva väninnerelationer, där komplementaritet eller identifikation mellan kvinnokaraktärerna är faktorn som särskiljer dem. Slutsatsen i uppsatsen är att vänskaperna hamnar i narrativets periferi. Även om relationerna ser väldigt olika ut i verken, och väninnorna i varje verk på detaljnivå har olika roller, så sammanhålls de alla av att väninnan används för att främja romantiken. Genren böckerna arbetar inom påverkar dess möjlighet att skildra något annat än komplementära väninneskildringar. / This study examines the motif of friendship in the romance genre, focusing on female friendships. The novels Beach Read (2019), People We Meet On Vacation (2020) and Book Lovers (2021) by Emily Henry works as representatives for the genre. The purpose of the study is to explore the portrayal of friendship between women and whether it's allowed any space next to the romance. Mieke Bal's Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative (2017) is used to analyze the characters, focusing on the concept of "qualification" and "qualification by function”. This illustrates not only the character's individual characteristics, but also their roles and function in the narrative. Elizabeth Abel's article ”(E)Merging Identities: The Dynamics of Female Friendship in Contemporary Fiction by Women” (1981) is also brought up to categorize different types of fictional female friendships, where complementarity or identification between the female characters are the factor that differentiates them. The conclusion of the study is that the friendships do end up in the narrative's periphery. Although the relationships look very different in the respective works, and though the friends on a detailed level have different roles, they are all united in the sense that the female friend is predominantly used to promote the romance. The genre of these novels affects their ability to depict anything other than complementary friendship portrayals.