The sociological understanding of Swedish proletarian literature usually goes like this: in order to become a working class author the ‘proletarian’ writer paradoxically needs to abandon labor. While Eyvind Johnson’s four-part autobiographical Künstlerroman The Novel about Olof (1934–37) at first glance appears to follow that trajectory, this article shows how a particular line of work—namely, the work as a projectionist—in fact plays a fundamental role in the protagonist’s development towards writerly consciousness. 

The article takes as its point of departure the pivotal closing sequence of the third part, in which Olof, employed as a projectionist, starts to read an edition of the Odyssey during the screening of a film. Through a media-archaeological analysis of that scene, the article argues that Olof is reading in the projection room because historically it has functioned precisely as a space for reading. Not only was the projection room secluded and out of reach from the mechanisms of perception control in the auditorium; it also granted a livelihood without claiming all of the worker’s attention. In the words of Michel Foucault, the projection room can thus be regarded as a heterotopia—i.e. a space that simultaneously stands in relation to, and inverts, the power dynamics of all other spaces—both with regard to the cinema building and to capitalist society at large. 

The article shows how Olof ’s willingness and ability to read is indeed connected to his access to this heterotopian space for reading. Moreover, it argues that Olof is reading the Odyssey specifically because the Homeric epic is analogous to the tasks of the projectionist. The repetitive labor of the projectionist makes them a Penelope figure: the former is repeatedly winding and rewinding, while the latter is continually weaving and unweaving.