Berättad berusning : Kulturella föreställningar i berättelser om berusade personer

Sammanfattning: This thesis discusses narratives about drunken people. The narratives are orally told as well as collected in the archives and are also written texts about people who are intoxicated. The intent of this research is to examine the social and cultural meaning of narratives about intoxicated people and in which way they reflect normative knowledge and experiences. The narratives are approached from three different angles; narratives that show the contemporary social and cultural order, narratives that maintain the order and narratives that provoke it.In the thesis I compare differences and similarities in two different times; the early modern peasant society and late modern society. The narratives reflect social hierarchies and they allude to subjects like work, people in power, masculinity and ideas about the way Swedes and “non-Swedes”  drink. Other visible themes refer to the body and the relation between young people and established adults. The so called cautionary narratives tell us about the danger of drinking too much alcohol. Some of the cautionary stories contain warnings that are not addressed to drinking, but to other undesirable acts. The provocative narratives challenge unspoken rules and norms in society. The drinking stories also show freedom from bodily discipline and other social bonds. Certain places and people are associated with intoxication.The drinking narratives from the old days and nowadays are, in many ways alike, they have the same function through time. They are based on oppositions such as privacy and publicity, culture and nature, bodily functions and intellect. When they are told they indirectly show the normative view of life, by being the opposite.