Impossible Possibilities. Lesbian Love in 1920s Norwegian Literature. In Conversation With Per Esben Svelstad

Per Esben Svelstad, NTNU Trondheim, introduces the first
Norwegian novel discussing lesbian love, Borghild Krane's
Følelsers forvirring. We discover an uncanonized author, learn
about homocultural codes in the inter-war years and a queer
intertext by Stefan Zweig. Detours to poet Åsmund Sveen and
novelists Sigrid Undset and Ebba Haslund create insights into
early literary portrayals of homoerotic desire. We speculate
about differences between queer studies in the Nordic countries,
look at the relation between academia and activism and the
possibility of finding community in literature and literary
studies.


(00:00:36) Introduction Per Espen Svelstad


(00:01:56) How Did Per Esben Encounter Queer Literary Studies?


(00:04:58) Why Queer Literary Studies Aren’t as Common in Norway


(00:10:36) Comparing Sweden and Norway in that Aspect


(00:13:11) Intersections between Nationalsocialist Tendencies and
Homosexuality


(00:24:10) Borghild Krane’s novel Følelsers forvirring 


(00:32:21) Trying out Different Possibilities of Homosexual Life
in Literature


(00:37:15) A Transnational Homosexual Community


(00:40:00) Paranoid and Reparative Reading


(00:47:00) Krane’s Interest in Sigrid Undset and the Topic of
Sexuality 


(00:57:34) Homosexuality as a Struggle among other Struggles


(01:00:58) Stefan Zweig’s Verwirrung der Gefühle as an Intertext
to Krane’s Novel


(01:10:25) "Homocultural Code"


(01:19:58) Finding Gay Communities Through Literature


(01:23:12) Knowledge, Narration and the Mirror Motif


(01:32:21) What Advice Would You Give Your Student-Self?


Alle Literaturangaben, weitere Kommentare auf dem Experiment
Geisteswissenschaften-Blog.


https://exgeist.hypotheses.org/


Idee und Konzeption: Stefanie von Schnurbein


Schnitt: Cecilia Falkman