”Sanningen” om den skrivande kvinnan. Makt och sanningsetablerande i den svenska 1930-talspressen

Abstract

This essay intends to study how the established truths in society about female writers in the swedish 1930’s were created by the members of the press, and how the different truths interacted contextually. The portraying of the writers in the newspapers reviews is therefore essential to the essay. The theoretical framework is built on the foundation of Michel Foucault’s discourse theory about how there is no one truth, only contextual truths in contemporary discourses. The theoretical frame is then completed with Ernesto Laclau & Chantal Mouffe’s theory about hegemonic discourses, how opposing discursive truths try to determine itself as society’s dominating truth. Using this methodology we found that the essence of reception changes with the context it’s placed within, and that the reviews - when compared as hegemonic practices - construct a truth in direct opposition to the rivaling hegemonic discourse.