Dikt i rörelse. Ingrid Sjöstrand och poesins retorik i kvinnornas fredsrörelse 1979-1982

Abstract

Poetry has held a significant position in the argumentation employed by the social movements of Sweden ever since their growth during the later decades of the nineteenth century. This tradition lived on in the new social movements that from the late 1970’s opposed atomic energy and nuclear weapons. Using a number of poems by the writer Ingrid Sjöstrand (born 1922) as a point of departure, this thesis investigates rhetorical actions performed with the aid of poetry in situations involving the organisation Kvinnokamp för fred (Women’s Struggle for Peace) from its inception in 1979 through 1982. The central questions addressed are the following: What characterizes the rhetorical situations to which the poems relate and how do the poems relate to them? What are the purposes of the poems? How, i.e. with what rhetorical and literary approaches and strategies, do the poems present their arguments? To what degree and in what ways do rhetorical and aesthetic functions interact? What information do the poems present about the pertinent movements? How do the poems contribute to the movements’ production of knowledge? In the first chapter, Kvinnokamp för fred and the rhetorical position of the poems are considered from the perspective of the women’s movement. Kvinnokamp för fred dealt with the broad issues of human survival with specific emphasis on the ideologies of radical feminism and the feminist cultural movement. Three poems on sisterhood are analyzed in the second chapter. The relationship of these poems to the women’s movement is focused, as are their contributions to the production of knowledge concerning the concept sister and to the construction of collective identity within the movement. Chapter three describes the rhetorical situation from the perspective of alternative movements. In Sjöstrand’s socially critical texts the causes of society's problems are linked to the short-sighted rationality directed at economic results that governs modern society. The fourth chapter deals with two poems against nuclear power specifically directed toward readers and listeners with roots in the workers' movement. The emphasis here is on how the poems are adapted to the situation and constructed to appeal to this specific audience. Three poems against nuclear armament are discussed in chapter five. The poems’ methods of persuasion are spotlighted as is the relationship between aesthetics and rhetorics. The most important results of the thesis are summarized in the concluding chapter. Sjöstrand’s poems of use are characterized by their implementation of compressed forms of classical rhetorical concepts in their argumentation. Through this technique, Sjöstrand weaves together rhetorical and esthetic functions in the poems. The complexity and the limited concretization of the poems' arguments allows for a collaborative audience, thus contributing to the poems' rhetorical effectiveness and cognitive functions. The analyses reveal how these poems contribute to the creation of awareness, readiness to act and collective identity, and in so doing provide a platform for a concluding discussion on the nature and characteristics of the literary genre poetry of use.