Smakdomarna och Fredrika Runeberg explicit subjektivitet och värdering i svensk litteraturhistorieskrivning
This essay is a study of explicit subjectivity and valuation in Swedish literary historiography from a power perspective. The methodology involves qualitative perusal of literary handbooks from 1915 to 1999. The author Fredrika Runeberg is taken as a window, in that I have examined if and how she is described in the selected handbooks. The main purpose has been to see if subjectivity in disparaging terms and condemnation of authorship have become more evident during the years under consideration. I have related the twelve selected handbooks to Hallberg's five methods for literary historiography. This has been done to see if the degree of explicit subjectivity correlates to the method chosen. Professor of Literature Gunnar Hansson states that explicit subjectivity has become more extreme with increased space given descriptions in Swedish literary handbooks during recent years. The authors of the handbooks present their judgements as "objective" and generalized facts. Fredrika Runeberg is mentioned in eleven of the twelve selected literary handbooks. She is mainly portrayed in relationship to her husband, the national poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg. In handbooks from the 1980s and onward the sociological method dominates. This means that interest in the social situation pertaining to Fredrika Runeberg's authorship is shown by the increased space given to her presentation. In only one of these handbooks is her authorship described in disparaging terms. In my study I cannot find that subjectivity has become more extreme during the years considered. The method chosen for literary historiography, in general, however, correlates well with the mode of presentation used to depict Fredrika Runeberg and her authorship.