Tukt och trots : Tematiska perspektiv på idrott i Per Olov Enquists Sekonden (1971)

Sammanfattning

This thesis explores the thematic significance of sport in Per Olov Enquist’s novel Sekonden (1971). Through a hermeneutic textual analysis, grounded in Michel Foucault’s concept of disciplinary practices and Raewyn Connell’s theory of masculinity, the study analyzes how the novel portrays the tension between discipline and liberation within a twentieth-century working-class context. The analysis highlights how masculinity is constructed, reproduced and challenged through the norms of sport and how competition shape the identities of both father and son. The thesis also investigates sport as a potential path to social mobility, while emphasizing how this possibility is marked by fragility, shame and the risk of exclusion. The study shows that sport in Sekonden functions as a dual force: a disciplinary practice that shapes body and character, but also a space for community, resistance and existential orientation. In doing so, it offers a new perspective on the relationship between sport, power masculinity and social mobility in Swedish literature.