Forms of Psychologism and Universalization of the Plot in the Novels of the Swedish Writer Majgull Axelsson

The article discusses the narrative strategies of the popular Swedish writer Majgull Axelsson, whose books are renowned due to their psychological depth and various plot universalisation methods. The author addresses one of Axelsson's most famous novels April Witch (1997) to analyse the ways of immersion in the human inner world, the protagonist's multifaceted image, and the function of its fantastic (or magical) element. A recurring feature of Axelsson's narrative strategy is the writer's self-removal from the text: Axelsson tells the “history” (“histories”) of her characters through their consciousness, which creates the effect of presence as well as the complex organization of space and time and some uncertainty (“secret”). The reader perceives the protagonist, Desiree, who is the “April Witch”, as a writer's mask. Using the ability to penetrate her sisters' consciousness, Desiree not only watches them, but also penetrates their thoughts and dreams, which make her story “complete”. There, in the inner space, Axelsson discovers an intense need in the sense of existence and, against all odds, the ability to love. The “magic” element in the novel is intertextual, which, however, does not deprive Desire's image of lively energy and completeness. However, though the episodes when the female protagonist tells about her “journeys” in other people's minds and bodies are very expressive, they fade into the background when the reader observes the life of other people unfolding in a difficult family and social context. Ice and Water, Water and Ice (2008) contains an archetypal stratum that makes Axelsson's novel universally significant. The title of the first chapter, which coincides with the name of the icebreaker the protagonists make their journey on - “Othin” - embeds Axelsson's story in the mythological and archetypal context. The Othin takes people beyond the ordinary. The water surface spreading to the horizon encourages the characters to plunge into their past and, through rethinking it, re-create themselves. The path of self-knowledge leads them to the discovery of their own powers, the ability to live, write, and even love. The basic spatial and natural images and symbols of the novel are ice and water (sea). They make the history of modern, seemingly insignificant people archetypically deep, so the reader can recognise Joseph Campbell's eternal story of The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Moreover, Axelsson's novel is not read as an illustration to popular theory, with its social, scholarly and psychological plans being intrinsically powerful and convincing. In general, along with the motifs of loneliness and emptiness, both novels emphasise the motif of love, their finals showing the desire of the writer and her characters to find unity with the world and other people.

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