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