Att skriva någon annans liv. Porträtteringen av historiska kvinnor i tre fiktiva biografier

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to analyze three works that are regarded as fictional biographies. In all three selected works the protagonists are historical Swedish women who are known for being a part of the cultural sphere of their time. Two of them are also recognized as important and somewhat pivotal characters in the struggle for women’s rights at the turn of the 19th century. The analyzed works, however, accentuate the women’s private life. The selected works are Siri (2011) by Lena Einhorn from, Den kärleken (2012) by Tove Leffler and Jag skulle vara din hund (om jag bara finge vara i din närhet) (2009) by Anneli Jordahl. The aim is to see how the three works are dealing with facts and fiction, how they represent the historical women in terms of documentary and fictional form. To this Gérard Genette’s theory about the nature of fiction has been used and also his narrative tools. A number of critics have also been used to follow how media have received the three works. The results show that all three of the works ties a double contract with the reader which makes the reading manipulative, the reader don’t know when it’s fiction or when it’s fact. The question of how the image of the historical person can be affected by this genre has also been asked. The fictional biographies are creating a factious identity of the historical person and the moral consequences of this have been drawn to consideration. A main reason for this is the nature of the genre: its novel-form. This form has the ability to psychologize, to “be inside the characters head”, and because of that is mainly focusing on the private and the personal of the character. This is problematic in the three works this essay is analyzing because of their manipulative nature. Because of the focus on the private sphere the women’s public achievements that are important in Swedish history don’t get enough attention and the reader can be given a misleading image of the historical person.