This article analyses the relationship between the doctrine of socialist realism and Scandinavian (Danish and Swedish) working-class literature. It focuses on three authors who were part of the Scandinavian delegation at the First Congress of the Soviet Writers’ Union in Moscow – the Swedes Moa Martinson (1890–1964) and Harry Martinson (1904–78), and the Dane Martin Andersen Nexø (1869–1954) – and also on a number of influential working-class writers and critics who contributed to the discussions of socialist realism in Scandinavia: the Swedes Ivar Lo-Johansson (1901–90) and Erik Blomberg (1894–1965), and the Danes Julius Bomholt (1896–1969), Harald Herdal (1900–79) and Hans Kirk (1898–1962). Even if the direct impact of socialist realism in Scandinavia was limited, it still received attention in literary debates. This article argues that the analysis of the relationship between socialist realism and Scandinavian working-class literature can generate new insights not only about two specific left literary cultures, but also regarding the conceptualization of such cultures in an international context. The nature of the relation and the exchange between the doctrine of socialist realism and Scandinavian working-class literature in the late 1930s, the article argues, emphasizes the heterogeneity of the cultural geography of socialist world literature due to its multifaceted manifestations in different national and regional contexts. Thus, the study of this literature must stress the existence of many, different and even potentially conflicting left literatures.

Kapitlet diskuterar två litterära skildringar av prekära arbetsförhållanden: David Ericssons roman Taxfree (2004), som handlar om transportarbete, och Elinor Torps litterära reportagebok om städarbete Rent åt helvete (2023). Dess syfte är att belysa och diskutera skönlitteraturens förmåga att bidra till förståelse av klassamhället och, i förlängningen, till kampen mot dom orättvisor som präglar detta samhälle.

The history of Swedish working-class literature is often described as an evolution from a politically charged literature within the labour movement to a significant strand in national literature. However, this narrative obscures the fact that the labour movement has remained a crucial platform for working-class literature in Sweden at least until the 1970s, particularly through trade-union magazines where literature has been published and discussed. One effect of this has been that research on Swedish working-class literature has predominantly focused on prominent works and authors in national literature, thereby overlooking the complexity of its history and of its relationship to the national literary canon.

This essay aims to restore some of this lost complexity and contribute to a more nuanced historical account through a case study of the publication and discussion of working-class literature in one of the most important Swedish trade union publications: Kommunalarbetaren [The Municipal Worker], the membership magazine of the Swedish Municipal Workers’ Trade Union Association. The study is divided into two parts: a survey of literature published and discussed in the magazine from 1911 to 1970, and a detailed analysis of its literary content in 1970.

The essay addresses three key questions: the extent to which Kommunalarbetaren served as a platform for working-class literature; whether Kommunalarbetaren can be understood as being part of a labour-movement counter public sphere where specific kinds of working-class literature are published and where this literature is understood in specific ways; and how an analysis of its literary material can enrich the understanding of Swedish working-class literature’s history and its relationship to the national literary canon. The two main findings are that Kommunalarbetaren highlighted authors and works other than those recognized in national literature, and that it often emphasized the authors’ personal labour experiences and engagement in the social-democratic labour movement. The latter contrasts with the dominant focus in the realm of national literature where the working-class writers who received the most attention often had rather limited experiences of manual labour or aligned with radical Left ideologies. Thus, Kommunalarbetaren represents a labour-movement counter literary sphere with a distinct working-class literature and a distinct discourse about this literature.

This chapter argues for the importance of developing an understanding of working-class literature that both acknowledges its heterogeneity and historicity and makes it possible to conceptualise it as a cross-historical and transnational phenomenon. It begins by documenting recent critical and theoretical trends in the study of working-class literature and argues that this collection of essays contributes to these debates by focusing on three key areas; the relationship between working-class literature and the canon within specific national traditions, the ways in which working-class literature establishes itself within nations and national literatures, and the role played by international exchanges in the construction of working-class literature. This chapter continues by summarising the various essays included in the volume and concludes by considering some of the avenues for further research which are prompted by those essays, particularly the need to attend to working-class literature beyond Europe and the Anglosphere.

This book offers a pioneering study of the national, transnational, and international dimensions of working-class literature. It explores both the historically and geographically varied nature of the relationship between working-class literatures and national ‘canons’, and the importance of international and transnational exchanges in the development of working-class literature. Through a series of detailed case studies (its sixteen essays analyse working-class literatures from the early nineteenth century to the present day and cover thirteen countries across three continents) this collection not only analyses the factors which lead to the incorporation or exclusion of working-class literature from a given national ‘canon’, but also traces the various ways in which working-class literatures participate in international networks of exchange. With its wide historical range, extensive geographical coverage and broad definition of working-class literature, which includes samba poetry as well as socialist realism, this collection charts new territory for the study of working-class literature.

In Writing Class, Magnus Nilsson offers a groundbreaking exploration of how contemporary Swedish literature responds to the rise of precarious labour. Focusing on literary portrayals of working-class experiences of labour-market precarity in the post-welfare state era, Nilsson examines how authors engage with the socio-economic transformations that have reshaped Sweden’s labour market since the turn of the millennium. Through close readings of novels, poetry, drama, reportage, and graphic narratives, the book reveals how literature not only helps readers understand the realities of precarious labour but also contributes to the political imaginaries that shape resistance to it.

Nilsson situates his analysis within broader scholarly debates on the precariat, precarity, and precariousness. In particular, Writing Class engages critically with Guy Standing’s notion of the precariat as a distinct global class, by showing how Swedish literature often portrays precarious workers as part of a broadly defined working class, deeply embedded in national histories of labour struggle and welfare reform, often advocating for traditional labour-movement politics and union organising as the best response to labour-market precarity.

Nilsson explores how contemporary Swedish literature about precarious labour both engages with and reconfigures the tradition of working-class literature. While older working-class literature often portrayed workers from within a politically organised and ideologically unified class, contemporary authors write about a fragmented and politically unorganised precariat. Nilsson argues that these authors do not merely represent an existing class but actively contribute to its formation as a class-for-itself. Furthermore, Nilsson identifies many references to the tradition of working-class literature that serve as rhetorical signals, inviting readers to interpret new texts within the framework of working-class literature.

Nilsson challenges the assumption that working-class literature must be written from within the class in a biographical sense. Instead, he proposes a political understanding of class, where ideological commitment and engagement with the labour movement are central. This reframing allows contemporary authors writing about precarious labour to be seen as continuing the tradition of working-class literature, albeit in new forms suited to today’s socio-economic realities.

Drawing on thinkers such as Toril Moi, Rita Felski, and Axel Honneth, Writing Class underscores literature’s capacity to generate situated knowledge, embrace complexity, and inspire political action. A vital contribution to literary studies, cultural theory, and labour history, Writing Class is essential reading for scholars interested in the intersections of literature, class, and political economy in the Nordic context and beyond.