«Neanche i nostri pensieri più intimi ci appartengono»: lo scienziato come strumento del potere in Kallocain (1940) di Karin Boye

Karin Boye's sci-fi novel Kallocain (1940), set in a near-future dystopia, is one of the great Swedish classics of the 20th century. This essay explores the portrayal of the scientist, and the representation of scientific discovery in the text, as a response to the international order in the years of the Second World War and in relation to recurring archetypes of scientists in fiction. A fictitious character and a research chemist, the protagonist Leo Kall is helpless in the hands of powerful authorities, unscrupulous in his pursuit of professional advancement and inhuman in his personal relationships. While Kall starts fearing his own anticonstitutional emotions and his invention - the mind-reading drug kallocain used by the state against dissidents - the novel engages in a discourse regarding man's free will and the freedom of scientific resaerch. As a model citizen, can Kall allow himself to come into contact with his innermost feelings? Can he, as a scientific researcher, be held responsible for what use the authoritarian state makes of his invention? Is he in control of his creature? Ultimately, and in view of the fact that Kallocain is a secret memoir, written in the first person by the imprisoned Leo kall, the article also wishes to discuss the questions that the novel poses on the relationship between science and literature. A chemist and a prisoner in a world where art has disappeared, Kall experiences a hitherto unfelt sense of freedom through his autobiographical writing.