Den spruckna metallen : En psykoanalytisk läsning av Karin Boyes roman Kris

Sammanfattning: Karin Boyes Crisis (Kris) was published in 1934 as a contribution to the contemporary ideas of moral issues, challenging the dominating traditionalism within the literature critisism. With different kinds of stylistic procedures is Crises expressing a self which seeks to relieve itself from the repressing experience of Language. The text shows an attempt to create meaning beyond the conventional system of linguistic signs, beyond the tradition of literature. The focus in the essay is the self; the self is the basic structure and the theme of the text. Crisis shows it’s self-assuredness and points out a dialogue with the nietzschean philosophy. Nietzsche claims that the truth is a rhetorical creation, something which the language produces in the will of power. He expresses this standpoint with an effective simulate: the metal. My essay points out how this symbolic element functions in the text. The narrative structure leads to a solution of Malin’s, the protagonist’s, crisis: the dialogical structure of rebirth. The ritual pattern leads the protagonist to confront the inner Mother, a discussion taking it’s stand in Julia Kristeva’s psychoanalytical theory. This structure is set to redraft and expose the linguistic bound to a dualistic gendered system. It also brings out the sensual and the passion as a part of the linguistic structure. The analysis reveals a process where Malin seeks the solution in “Siv”. The narrative of Crisis is made up of sections to illustrate Malin´s inner struggle against the traditionalism, the religious system and the inner longing for passion. For Malin the transformation is initiated by the passion for Siv, a fellow student, and this passion confirms Malin´s new perspective on the world. “Siv” is formulated as a metaphor for a new sight and a new voice — the sight and voice of the self. On the meta-level is the passion formulated as a passion for creation, between the text and the reader. The novel ends in the creation of the artistic self—the artist-as-woman.