EN UNDERSÖKNING AV BEGREPPET ’READYMADE’-LITTERATUR – med huvudfokus på Enrique Vila-Matas roman Dublinesk

Abstract

This essay examines the usage of the ‘readymade’-technique in the literature by the spanish author Enrique Vila- Matas. Specifically in his novel Dublinesk. The concept ‘readymade’ was originally created by the french artist Marcel Duchamp and the term ‘readymade novel’ is now frequently used in articles covering the contemporary literature. The essay also has a comparative perspective when it comes to differences in usage and definition of the ‘readymade’-tehnique between earlier époques and the contemporary. The aspects which are being emphasized in the articles is also found in some contemporary research on Vila-Matas´ literature, even though it is not spcifically called ‘readymade literature’. A conclusion in the essay is that Vila-Matas explicitly declared usage of the concept ‘readymade’ might have lead chritics and theorists even more to use the term in relation to his work, even though it is possible to look at most of his writings as taking place within the ‘readymade’ domain. Another result of the investigation is that some of the characteristics in the Vila-Matas novel rather seem to be part of a technique and genre of today which on several occasions is being called ‘reality hunger’.