Streber og antihelt : Kjønn og klasse i Vigdis Hjorths Hjulskift og Therese Bohmans Aftonland

Abstract

The topics for this thesis are gender and power. I willdo a literary analysis of Vigdis Hjorths Hjulskift and Therese Bohmans Aftonland. Through the power critical angle, I wish to investigate the distribution of power, capital and class differences, while the feminist reading allows me to also focus on differences between genders. I wish to focus on the protagonists, powerful career women who represent the cultural middle class, and their orientation in a world colored by patriarchal values. This research is based on the topic of feminism and has its theoretical base in Judith Butlers Bodies that matter and Pierre Bourdieus Masculine domination and the Distinction. A sociological criticique of the jugdement of taste. Through the research question "How are the topics gender and power treated in the novels Hjulskift and Aftonland?" I have tried to get an answer to whether the two Scandinavian novels contribute to the discourse of gender and sexes, and especially the discourse on powerful women who have succeededin their careers. My research method is narratology, and for this purpose I use Petter Aaslestads Narratologi. En innføring i anvendt fortellerteori. Trough the literary analysis, I seek to find evidence that the two novels communicate certain values and ideologies on the topics of gender and power