| Sumario: | At first sight, Människor kring en bro (1935) by Josef Kjellgren (1907-1948) and De Teleurgang van de Waterhoek (1927) by Stijn Streuvels (1871-1969) seem to be very different novels, although both narratives depict to a certain extent the building of a bridge as a step in the modernization process. Kjellgren's characters are at work in urban surroundings – Stockholm – Streuvels's figures build a bridge in a rural area in Flanders. Careful reading reveals a significant number of structural and factual similarities. On the back cover of Människor kring en bro the book is presented as a 'kollektiv arbetsroman', in other words, a collective or community novel, a qualification that applies to Streuvels's novel too, although it has never been presented as a collective novel. In this article, I will discuss both factual and structural similarities as well as the differences between the two novels, and I will do so by using various approaches, one of the techniques being the use of copular clauses. In the past, Streuvels's novel has been studied time and again from a psychological perspective. Mira, one of the novel's characters, has not only tantalized the novel's male characters, but she has also mesmerized many scholars. By comparing the novel to Kjellgren's narrative - especially by focusing on collective behaviour and collective characteristics - I will try to show that the novel's many layers can only be exposed by highlighting structural features. Furthermore, the use of copular clauses will shed light on the individual and collective layers of Kjellgren's novel.
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