The aim of this dissertation is to examine how the lyrical subject is presented in Tomas Tranströmer’s poetry and prose. Crucial concepts such as the lyrical subject, autobiography, and the memoir are thoroughly discussed and defined based on modern research.
The first chapter is devoted entirely to Tranströmer’s prose. Unlike previous studies, this dissertation seeks to establish the genre to which the poet’s memoirs belong. The comparative analysis I use in my dissertation enables us to see both the differences and the similarities in the way that Tranströmer presents the lyrical subject in his prose and poetry. I have taken into account the motifs used by Tranströmer in his memoirs as well as in his poetry.
The next chapter discusses the Swedish reception of modernism, a literary movement, which also according to Tranströmer himself, greatly influenced his literary debut in Sweden in the 1950s.
The subsequent chapters of my dissertation are devoted to an analysis of Tomas Tranströmer’s poems, which I classify on the basis of how they express the lyrical subject. I analyze both the way the lyrical subject is expressed and its place in the poem. Even though Tomas Tranströmer often uses his own experiences in his works, he transforms them in order to make them more universal. Thus, the lyrical subject is not identical with the poet himself. At the same time, the way the lyrical subject is expressed in a poem highlights its personal character.
In the conclusion of the dissertation it is argued that further research is needed to establish whether the selection of Tomas Tranströmer's poems made by the editors of various anthologies may have influenced the reception of his poetry as being objective and impersonal.