This paper aims to analyze the 19th century novel Money (Original title: ”Pengar”, 1885) by Victoria Benedictsson (1850–1888) and its possible correlation to the contemporary decadence movement. The decadence movement was most prominent at the end of the 19th century, and can be understood as a reactionary movement to modernity in which growing secularization, industrialization, and urbanization create feelings of displacement, moral decay, and anxiety, all of which shows in the literature belonging to this genre. The method used for this paper is a comparative analysis of decadent themes and motifs used in the novel. As a reference point I use a number of literature scientific and idea-historical works made on decadence, as well as on the authorship of Benedictsson. The analysis is divided into seven sections. The first section discusses one of the novel’s more prominent themes: the will and ability to act. The second part deals with themes of illness and flower metaphors. The third section looks at signs of secularization and religious themes. The fourth discusses disillusionment of previously romanticized ideas and the upheaval of values. The fifth examines feelings of anxiety and pessimism. The sixth section focuses on gender roles and fear of the sexual. The seventh section examines how the view on money changes throughout the novel. The paper ends in a summarized discussion of the analysis. The results I have gathered in this paper show that the novel contains a number of common themes of decadence, but also that these almost always are paired with a moral argument that advocates for societal change. The main source for the decadence experienced in the novel is the marriage and its inequality. Because of the marriage, the protagonist sees herself having turned into a ”fallen” woman and experiences strong feelings of anxiety and pessimism. Due to this, the novel can be seen to contain a characteristic decadent fall in which the main character is experiencing their own and their surrounding society’s decline. The novel portrays two different views on decadence, one argued by the main character and one by the surrounding society. By having the protagonist experiencing and arguing for another decadence than her surrounding environment, Benedictsson is able to criticize her contemporary society for their hypocrisy and faults concerning traditional marriage and gender roles. The novel also criticizes the expanding capitalism, which is seen to objectify the female body into a commodity that is sold through the guise of traditional marriage. The novel is also seen to be influenced by the increasing secularization and criticizes christianity for defending said marriage.

The aim for this study is to compare Victoria Benedictsson’s position and views in the morality debate during the modern breakthough in the nordics. The works that I have choosen for this study is firstly Benedictsson’s book Money, published in 1885 and secondly the play Theories, written in 1887 and published in 1994. I will research whether or not Benedictsson’s position in the debate will change since there are only two years in between them. Money is published in the beginning of the morality debate and Theories at the end, wich will make the essence of the discussion.

Victoria Benedictsson (1850-1888) skrev romanen Fru Marianne i en tid präglad av den industriella revolutionen och en framväxande modernitet. En analys av romanens pastorala ideal – i vilken mån romanen formulerar villkoren för ett gott liv som ett liv närmare naturen – gör det möjligt att placera henne bland de författare från samma tid, däribland August Strindberg och Verner von Heidenstam, som reagerade på det nya samhälle som växte fram under slutet av 1800-talet och skrev en litteratur som visade på ett alternativ. Analysen genomförs med hjälp av ett ekokritiskt perspektiv vilket medför att synen på pastoral går från att uppfatta den lantliga miljön enbart som en kuliss för mänsklig aktivitet till att uppfatta den som medaktör och med ett inneboende värde i likhet med människan. Det ekokritiska perspektivet belyser romanens hållbara förhållningssätt till naturen; genom att låta kvinnans emancipation i ett agrart samhälle öppna upp för en uppvärderande vision av naturen och en jämlik relation mellan natur och människa skapar romanen en framtidsorienterad berättelse med stor aktualitet.

The aim of this master thesis is to examine how female identity is formed in two novels and two short stories from the 1880’s. As a framework we rely on the method outlined by Pierre Bourdieu when he approaches the cultural and social worlds through the concept of fields. To understand the female position during that time we use Michel Foucault’s work about the history of sex, Thomas Laqueur’s theories about the rise of sexes and Karin Johannisson’s study about the exploration of the dark continent (i.e. women) during the 19th century. The concept of gender and identity is based on theories by Judith Butler and Ervin Goffman who describes them as processes rather than entities “doings” rather than “beings”. Our main question is to find out how female identities are formed in four literary works from the 1880’s. To approach our material we use ideal analysis and ideal types developed on the basis of Efrat Tseëlon’s studies about five paradoxes that circumscribe the concept “woman” through history. The objects of investigation are the novels Fru Marianne and Berta Funcke and the short stories Ur mörkret and Pyrrhussegrar written by Victoria Benedictsson and Mathilda Malling. Our conclusions reveals that the female identities in the works observed by us is formed under strong impact of several paradoxes that surrounds the conception of “woman” and we can see the protagonists struggle against those conceptions trying to find a possible way of existence. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this essay is to examine how men is portrayed in three short stories, ”En omvändelsehistoria”, ”Far och son” and ”Jeppa”, from the debut Från Skåne by Victoria Benedictsson. I also investigate the ideas of masculinity during the 1880s. Unmanliness, paternity and manly tears are other concepts that I have been examining with close–reading as the method. The essay begins with a short recap of the earlier research about Benedictsson. Her debut as well as the perspective of masculinity on the work of female authors has been almost ignored by the academic sphere and my aim was to do something about it. Firstly, I discuss unmanliness in the peasant culture, secondly, paternity and absence and thirdly, unmanliness and manly tears. My result shows that the different ideas of masculinity affect the characters in many ways. For example, the elderly in the stories mostly falls down in unmanliness. I have come to the conclusion that the fear of being unmanly urge the men, or the boys, to act manly and follow the ideals.

This dissertation examines the concept of anonymous writing where the focus of the study more specifically lies on pseudonymity and the notion that most pseudonymous authors – more often than not – choose to write with different pen names as opposed to just one. The French literary theorist, Gérard Genette, explains this phenomenon by describing pseudonym-use as an addiction that quite simply tends to cause authors to overdose in an abundance of fictitious names. Such was the case with many Scandinavian authors such as Søren Kierkegaard, Karen Blixen, and Victoria Benedictsson– all of which used different pen names but their cases of polypseudonymity differ greatly. To better understand why this is, I´ve chosen to limit my study to the latter of the three and her most-used pseudonyms: Tardif, O. Tvist, and Ernst Ahlgren. Benedictsson’s case can quite simply be considered unique since her latest pseudonym, E. A., was her alter ego and thus an intricate part of her writer persona. Alongside Gérard Genette’s, this paper greatly relies on the French philosopher Michel Foucault’s studies of anonymous practices in order to determine the functions that are most often attributed to pseudonyms. Most commonly, pseudonyms can be seen as a technique that serves to hide the author’s identity; to help improve their chances at publication. Furthermore, pen names can have the ability to enrich the status of the name and, thus, the influence and the effect of the literary work itself. In accordance with all names – fictional or not – pseudonyms may also have a classifying function, as well as a symbolic one. These general functions are examined through Benedictsson’s example where her pseudonyms are analyzed both individually and in comparison to one another. Their functions are largely dependant on the situation and context in which the pseudonyms were used. In other words, they differ greatly in regards to the person that the author corresponded with, as well as the type of media in which the pseudonyms tended to appear– such as letters, novels, newspapers, as well as Benedictsson’s journals. Even more eye-catching is, perhaps, the fact that the functions of these pseudonyms vary concerning specific phases of the author’s literary career.

Uppsatsen analyserar Victoria Benedictssons ”Ur mörkret” (1888) och Anne Charlotte Lefflers ”Barnet” (1883), två noveller som tillkom under en period i Sverige då frågor om kön debatterades flitigt. Syftet med uppsatsen är att bidra med kunskap om hur värdegrundsarbete angående könsnormer och -värden kan bedrivas i svenskundervisningen på gymnasieskolan. Analysarbetet är därmed uppdelat i två delar: en litterär analys av verkens gestaltning och framställning av kön och könsnormer, och en didaktisk tillämpning av verken i värdegrundsarbete. Den litterära analysen utgår från olika genusteorier, bland annat används Judith Butlers teori om den heterosexuella matrisen för att belysa hur genus konstrueras i relation till andra människor. Den didaktiska tillämpningen utgår från litteraturdidaktiska teorier och främst synen på litteratur som värdeförmedlare och Chambers boksamtal används för att uppmärksamma ett möjligt arbetssätt. Analysen visar att novellerna förmedlar könsnormer som antar att kvinnan är underordnad mannen och att mannen innehar ett naturligt förnuft och dygd. Resultatet visar även att det finns potential att använda novellerna i en kombinerad litteraturundervisning och värdegrundsarbete för att granska könsnormer.

Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att utföra en komparativ analys av fem läromedel i svenska 2 i gymnasieskolan. Vi besvarar en frågeställning som rör hur fördelningen mellan kvinnliga och manliga författare ser ut i läromedlen. Vi besvarar även en fråga gällande hur kvinnliga och manliga författare framställs i läromedlen med avseende på allmänna beskrivningar av författarnas lynne, karaktär samt litterära produktion. För att besvara dessa frågeställningar använder vi oss av två teoretiska utgångspunkter, Yvonne Hirdmans genussystem samt Gisela Håkansson och Catrin Norrbys samtalsstilar. I den här uppsatsen kommer vi fram till att de läromedel vi har analyserat visar en klar majoritet av manliga författare sett till hur ofta de nämns och hur mycket utrymme de får i respektive läromedel.