Pär Lagerkvist, tidningarna och kritiken. Mottagandet av Bödeln och Dvärgen i svensk dagspress.

Sammanfattning: The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine how two novels written by the Swedish author Pär Lagerkvist have been received by the critics in the Swedish daily press concerning their contemporary anchorage. During the time these novels were published, Pär Lagerkvist, through his authorship, expressed a conception of and an attitude towards contemporary political directions. The first of the two novels, The Hangman, was published in 1933, and the second, The Dwarf, in 1944. A second aim is to examine how the two novels contemporary anchorage is reflected in the reviews. The final aim is to examine whether the criticism differs depending on the ideological view of the newspapers. This qualitative study is based upon a total of 25 reviews from the Swedish daily press. The theoretical approach mainly comes from two Swedish professors in Sociology of Literature, Lars Furuland and Johan Svedjedal. My method of analysis is a textual one, analysis of ideas and ideology, focusing on the aspect of signification of a text. The conclusion of this study shows that the critics in many ways appear to be quite similar in their critic. It is, however, not possible to detect any uniform line in their criticism. When it comes to The Hangman, the critics show a tendency to discuss the element of contemporary anchorage to a greater extent than in the case with The Dwarf. This study also shows that the criticism differs depending on the ideological view of the newspapers.