Claustrophobic Families. Reading Queer/ly in Changing Contexts. In Conversation with Jenny Björklund
nordlitt continues the mini-series on Queer Theory and literature with the help of Jenny Björklund, Uppsala University. We ask what queer literature and reading might mean in a time and place where gay and lesbian parenting has become normalized. Jenny guides us through a novel by Viktoria Myrén about a mother who abandons her children, making literary detours to Victoria Benedictsson, August Strindberg, Margareta Suber, and Sara Stridsberg. We learn about Sweden's pro-natalist history and wonder if literary deaths can be read as acts of resistance. Last but not least, we emphasize the joy of co-writing and the importance of saying Yes! (00:00:17) Introduction Jenny Björklund (00:00:28) How Did Jenny Björklund End Up at the Intersection between Literary and Gender Studies? (00:03:01) Moving Towards Queer Studies from Gender Studies (00:06:47) What Happens to Queer When it Becomes Canonized? (00:11:36) The “Pro-Natalist Tradition” in Sweden (00:20:06) Queerness in Literature and Reading (00:23:23) Queer Reading and the Concept of Death (00:33:54) Paranoid and Reparative Reading (00:38:00) The Body and Figurations (00:45:38) Viktoria Myrén’s Novel I en familj finns inga fiender (There Are No Enemies in a Family) (00:50:52) Queer Aspects of the Novel (00:58:26) Marie as an Unreliable Narrator? (01:03:02) The Structure Failing the Individual (01:06:15) Leaving and Abandoning (01:09:54) Family Conflict as War? (01:18:09) Ambiguous Ending (01:28:19) What Advice Would You Give Your Student-Self? Bibliography, further information, and comments are available on Experiment Geisteswissenschaften. https://exgeist.hypotheses.org/ Idea and conception: Stefanie von Schnurbein Cut: Cecilia Falkman