Henrik Wallheim, Intrigteknik och läsarintresse i 1700-talets svenska fiktionsprosa. Exemplet Erik Erland Ullmans Den Swenska Fröken (Plot and Reader Interest in 18th-Century Swedish Prose Fiction. The Example of Erik Erland Ullman’s Den Swenska Fröken)

This essay discusses an example of 18th-century Swedish prose fiction – Erik Erland Ullman's (1749–1821) Den Swenska Fröken (1780; ”The Swedish Miss”) – in order to specify questions and methodical outlines for a continued study of the Swedish novel of the time. The focus is on the construction of the plot, and on the related question of how the author tries to arouse and sustain the interest of the reader.

The analysis shows that Ullman's story is not constructed around a continuous plotline connecting the beginning with the end, but around a series of essentially unrelated events which occur in the life of the principal character – a narrative structure which strikingly differs from the currently common opinion that a novel ought to have a ”well-made” plot. However, the principal audience for this kind of story appears to have considered a large number of sensational events to be of greater importance than the stringing together of these into a ”well-made” plot – a taste which is discussed in relation to the changing social make-up of the reading audience.