The Author as Persona: Ethnicity, Identity, and Language in Leiva Wenger’s 127 and “Författarna Abstract ”

In recent years, the critical debate in Sweden about so-called “migrant literature” written by 1.5-generation or second-generation authors has become a hot topic. With the publication of Till vår ära (To our Honor) in 2001, Alejandro Leiva Wenger (b. 1976) has often been cited as the initiator of this new literary wave. While much has been written about his debut and the authors who followed in his footsteps – Jonas Hassen Khemiri (b. 1978), Marjaneh Bakhtiari (b. 1980), and Johannes Anyuru (b. 1979) – his theatrical works have received little attention. This article provides an analysis of his first two plays: the monologue 127 and the piece Författarna (The Authors). While the former revisits themes related to suburban areas – such as segregation and social stigma – and explores the emergence of a Swedish sociolect known as förortssvenska, in Författarna, Leiva Wenger turns to the theme of authorship and the implicit demand for authenticity often placed on writers of foreign origin.