Bakom signaturerna : Ur Barbro Alvings dagböcker och brev 1936–1959

Sammanfattning: Barbro Alving (1909–1987) was a famous journalist and foreign correspondent. She was also active in radio and wrote books and scripts for films. She worked at the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter 1934–1959, and after that at Vecko-Journalen. Her fame is partly attributed to her coverage of the Olympic games in Berlin and the Spanish civil war 1936. She was active in the fight for women’s emancipation and pacifism. But she was also a human being behind all the work, with a weak constitution, shaky self-confidence, and a lot of self-doubt. Most previous studies and texts about Barbro Alving focus on her journalistic deeds and career. The aim of this study is to apply a new perspective by examining her private texts. She was a non-heterosexual woman in a male dominated profession. She broke norms, which makes her life interesting in her historical and societal context. The aim of the study is to explore Barbro Alving’s self-image and close relationships over the years 1936–1959 through theories about gender and with a microhistorical approach. Due to the length of the period, there is also a question about change and continuity in her self-image. The material used for the study are compilations of Alving’s letters and diaries, spanning over 600 pages. A selection of people and events were chosen, and parts and quotes were picked out for presentation and analysis. A microhistorical approach means to penetrate a person’s mind and feelings and relate these to the societal context. This is seen in the analysis by comparisons of Alving’s life to the norms in mid-century Sweden. The theory used to analyze the results comes from Joan Wallach Scott. Her theory is based on the concept that gender is made up of four fundamental elements, and that there is a reproductive relationship between gender and power.  The results of the study are presented both thematically and chronologically, to follow the structure of the purpose and the questions. Descriptions of Alving’s family, friends and love-interests are followed by a presentation of how she described herself. This is then analyzed through Scott’s theory and related to the societal norms, with integrated comparisons to previous studies. Alving’s self-image over time is analyzed and related to the results in previous studies on the subject. In the finishing part I reflect over the essay itself.