Frihetskonst Författarroll och modernitet genom Sven Lindqvists tidiga författarskap

Sammanfattning: This study is focused on the early writing of Swedish author Sven Lindqvist (born in 1932). The aim of the study is to investigate Lindqvist’s conception of literature, how it is presented, how it develops and how it materializes in his literary production between 1955 and 1962.The introduction describes Lindqvist’s first encounters with the literary situation in the early 1950’s. It sets out from the conflict between art and society and between modernism and modernity that is central for the question Lindqvist poses in the early part of his career: Why write literature?Part one deals with Lindqvist’s debut and the issue that serves as a foundation of his authorship: the role of literature in a time when literature on the one hand has gained autonomy, but on the other hand has become isolated from society.Part two deals with Lindqvist’s ambition to give the essay a significant role in this situation, as a literary art form able to transgress the assumed boundary between literature and society.Part three investigates how Lindqvist approaches the question of the role of literature from two seemingly irreconcilable perspectives: a romantic one (that emphasizes the timeless and irreplaceable value of literature) and a pragmatic one (that emphasizes the societal function of literature). In Praktika, he formulates a utopian literary programme – frihetskonst (art of emancipation) – extolling the uselessness of art within the framework of the utility concept of modernity. One can say that he ends up as a reformist avant-gardist, arguing for the usefulness uselessness of literature.In the epilogue the question is posed as to why Lindqvist in his subsequent works abandoned the artistic and societal utopia he had developed in Praktika.