”Og dog havde Barnets Død medført en stor Forandring i hans Moders Liv” : Mor-son-relationer i Alfhild Agrells Räddad (1882) och Adda Ravnkildes Judith Fürste (1884)

Sammanfattning: This thesis is a study of motherhood in Afhild Agrell’s play Räddad (first performed in 1882 at The Royal Theater in Stockholm) and Adda Ravnkilde posthumously published novel Judith Fürste (1884) with a focus on the relationship between mother and son. I study how the mothers wish to raise their sons, how mother and son interact with one another, the family dynamic’s influence on their motherhood and finally how they shape their identity as mothers when their motherhood is first threatened (often by their husbands) and then after the death of their sons. By analyzing two works by women authors of the Modern Breakthrough, I examine how motherhood is represented in literature from this period with a unique focus—mothers of sons. During this period, despite advancements in the rights of women including equal inheritance and increased access to education and professions such as teacher, doctor and dentist, many of the rights gained pertained to unmarried women—how an unmarried woman was to support herself was a central question. Literature from this period illustrates the struggles that woman faced upon marriage—often they had to give up their desire to work and focus on being wives and mothers instead. However, in the two works I have selected, the main female characters’ motherhood is threatened. Motherhood is a crucial part of both mothers’ identity and Agrell’s play and Ravnkilde’s novel follow the shaping of the main characters’ identity as mothers, the following threat to this identity and the crisis that arises after the death of their sons. I analyze this identity-arc and how being mothers to sons shapes and complicates this arc.