Fyrtiotalism is the name of a literary movement in Swedish literature in the 1940s. The writers were not a united group, but representated a new generation of literature with a modernist tendency. Their work, influenced by writers such as Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Franz Kafka, T. S. Eliot and the events during World War II, marked the breakthrough and establishment of Modernist Swedish literature. Leading representatives of the movement was Erik Lindegren and Karl Vennberg. Other prominent representatives was Stig Dagerman, the poet Werner Aspenström, novelist Lars Ahlin and critic .