Sweet Pahlen : A Digital Humanities analysis of food and desire in Agnes von Krusenstjerna’s Fröknarna von Pahlen

This thesis investigates how sweets contribute to the construction of gender, sexuality and class in Agnes von Krusenstjerna’s Fröknarna von Pahlen, with a focus on desire, shame and guilt. Using close reading and computational methods such as collocation and concordance analysis, the study shows that sweets are not decoration but play an active role in shaping characters, emotions and transgressions. Chocolate is linked to care and queer desire, while sugar and caramels signal pleasure, shame and social disruption. Sweets also function as class markers and are often tied to dangerous or forbidden acts. By foregrounding sweets as cultural codes that both reinforce and challenge dominant norms, this thesis offers a new perspective on Krusenstjerna’s work and contributes to feminist food studies, literary analysis and digital humanities.