Betongfeeling. En studie av Nationalteaterns dramatik

Abstract

This thesis examines how five selected dramas by Nationalteatern relates to Swedish working-class literature, but the text also serves the purpose of emphasizing the fact that Nationalteatern should be more recognized in the comparative literature sphere. Building on sociology of literature, the analysis shows that motifs such as strike, class and injustice appear in the dramas of Nationalteatern Krogen (1970), Nick Carter – dubbelagent (1970), Sune – får jag knäppa din blazer? (1971), Barn i Betong (1971) and Speedy Gonzalez I (1973). The dramas examined in this text were selected based on the fact that they were all written and played in the 1970’s in Sweden. Therefore, my text also opens up to a wider study of the connection between the free group theater in the 1970’s and Swedish working-class literature. This text will account for a new insight into the dramas of Nationalteatern. Even though they are well known as one of the free group theaters during the 1970’s, Nationalteatern and their work are hardly mentioned in the reference works that deal with Swedish working-class literature. This text shows that they most certainly should be included, and highlighted in this context. The conclusion that Nationalteatern portrays motifs common for Swedish working-class literature, demonstrates that this free group theater can be seen to give prominence to a similar theme as the genre tradition of Swedish working-class drama. Thus, this text shows that Nationalteatern uses its theater to demonstrate society’s inequalities and exclusion. But this also leads us to the conclusion that Nationalteatern’s texts are of importance in a working-class literary context; through their texts, they contribute to Swedish working-class literature, and more particularly to the subgenre of Swedish working-class drama.