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”Tideräkning” : En mikrohistorisk studie av den f.d. främlingslegionären Sven Bloms tankar, minnen och leverne efter sitt deltagande i det stora kriget. / “A New Era” : A Microhistorical Study of the Life, Thoughts and Memories of Former Foreign Legionnaire Sven Blom After His Experience in the Great War.

This essay examines the final part of the life of former volunteer foreign legionary Sven Blom, and is part of a project which started in 2017 with my first essay: Red Trousers and Watery Mud. : Sven Blom’s Experience of the First World War: a Case-study, which explores the Swedish volunteer Sven Bloms’ experience of the First World War in the French foreign legion. My second essay: Dear Mr. Blom: Swedish Voices from the Western Front (2019), widens the scope to the other Swedish volunteers which served in the French foreign legion through their letters sent to Sven.In this final essay, I examine Sven Bloms life after the war through the source material in his archive. The overarching question posed to the material is: How does Sven Bloms thoughts, literary texts, letters and life compare and connect with the mentality and discourses present in France and Paris after Sven’s involvement in the First World War? Based on the use of Microhistorical theory, several parts of Sven’s life are examined in order to answer the large question through the small life that was Sven’s: How did he lead his life to his death in 1931, and what part did he play in the social circles which he took part in? How did he remember his fallen comrades and the war which claimed their lives? And how does his own writings, letters and diaries reflect on his view on life, and the war? Through the obituaries of Sven Blom, how is he remembered by his friends? And how does previously unexplored source material about Sven Bloms early life and demobilization help explain his agency?Through Sven Bloms eyes we are given a window into a postwar France and Paris torn by war and filled with a desire for life, having experienced want and death. Sven lived through these “Les années folles”, “the roaring twenties” of French society. Through Sven we are given access to the French process of healing, and through his experiences and thoughts, shared by many, he gives an account of a nation, a city and a people moving forward.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-88595
Date January 2019
CreatorsOlsson, Carl
PublisherLinnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper (KV)
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageSwedish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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