The Mother Conflict in Lars Norén's Dramatic Works of the 1980s

We have had her here all the time inside of you, in your thoughts and your guilt she has sucked you out of your strength and your, well, feeling for this family. It is her mother-in-law Margareta in Autumn and Winter (1987) talks about. With her despairing words she expresses the unresolved, often repressed mother conflict, which comes to the fore in many plays by renown Swedish playwright Lars Norén. In this book Björn Apelkvist deals with the controversial question concerning the potentially destructive power of mothers and its consequences. Power in itself is neither good nor bad. However, remaining unconscious, growing without recognition, or accompanied by guilt and shame, it tends to turn into a negative force. The problematical relation to the mother is often expressed by the grown-up children in the plays, but may just as often be verbalized by the mothers themselves. Norén s artistic capacity to give all his created characters equally important voices, makes his plays highly realistic and counteracts one- sided viewpoints. Instead, the responsibility falls upon all the members of the family, in a Dostoevskian manner.