Moderskonflikten i Lars Noréns åttiotalsdramatik

Sammanfattning: This dissertation presents a close study of fourteen central dramas written by the Swedish author Lars Norén (1944-) between 1979 and 1990. The question at issue is the unfinished condition of the relation to the mother, mainly among the grown-up, in most cases middle-aged children portrayed in the plays. In the crisis of intimacy, Norén's major thematic motif in his dramatic works of the 1980s ("åttiotalsdramatiken"), a problematically intensified mother domination emerges as a central problem. What appears to be a suffocating maternal oppression and its destructive conditions and consequences cause a tangible and recurring psychological conflict in these plays. The destructively overloaded emotional tension in the relation to the mother is thus systematically analyzed as a primary psychological obstacle or difficulty. Brought to form in various ways and from different perspectives, it is a problematic that ultimately pertains to all the characters. Norén´s texts are studied separately, with a main focus on their thematic content and without any significant references to specific theatrical productions. Informative viewpoints by the American existential psychologist Rollo May (1909-94) are presented as a basic theoretical framework for the study. May´s theory of a typically "Orestian" conflict in family situations with dominating mothers, presented in his book Man´s Search for Himself in 1953, is - among other relevant perspectives - referred to as a thematically explanatory background for the actual studies carried out in the thesis. An important starting point is also a critical overview of previous research on Norén. Among other things attention is paid to the caution displayed regarding the central function of the mother, as well as to the reductive treatment of the essential element of everyday realism at the heart of Norén´s plays. Both of these appear to be predominant tendencies in significant earlier studies of Norén. Orestes (1979) emerges as a prototype for the typical Norénian family crisis, as shown by his plays of the early 1980s. During this period the destructive, if in many ways veiled, power of the mother comes to the fore in similar ways in Underjordens leende (1981), and in the famous so called ´restaurant trilogy´ including Natten är dagens mor (1982), Kaos är granne med Gud (1982) and Stillheten (1984). This motif appears more indirectly in the ´couple relation trilogy´ constituted by Demoner (1982), Vilstolen (1982) and Nattvarden (1983). Here conflicts caused by imprintings or internalized notions of hostile, all-powerful mothers are at the very core in three contiguous dramatical settings. The overall image of family ties defined by maternal domination and fatherly absence is explored further in Norén´s plays of the late 1980s. This unfolds in a process increasingly shedding light also on the formerly more enigmatic image of the mother figures themselves. In the summer reunion play Hebriana (1987), and onwards through the classical formalism of the so called bourgeois quartets - including Höst och vinter (1987) and Bobby Fischer bor i Pasadena (1988) - with their recurring focus on an aging parent couple and two grown up children interrelating, the mother conflict remains central. Finally the perspective of the mother herself is definitively emphasized in Den sista kvartetten (1989). At the same time, the precarious struggle against the destructive psychological impact stemming from the mother relation is further elaborated and diversified. The latter element becomes perhaps most outspoken and externally dramatized in Eugene O´Neills finishing monologue, in Norén´s depiction of the aging playwright in Och ge oss skuggorna, completed in 1990. The movement towards a direct confrontation of the repressed mother conflict is the central theme of the thesis, the final outcome mainly being a deepened insight into and a specified knowledge of this central dilemma. However, attention is paid also to the reverse movement represented by Narcissism as a psychological defence strategy in Norén´s dramatic works of the 1980s. As discussed in a concluding chapter, Narcissistic tendencies appear to be strongly present in Demoner, Nattvarden and Hebriana, in a manner revealing significant connections to the problematic mother relations described in the plays.