Menstruation och klimakteriet har fått förnyad aktualitet i Sverige: i radio, tv-program, poddar och på sociala medier har dessa övergångsåldrar fått stor uppmärksamhet under de senaste fem åren. Det märks inte minst i den självhjälpslitteratur som riktar sig till den menstruerande flickan och till kvinnan i klimakteriet. I bästsäljande böcker om hormoner och deras inverkan på våra kroppar får den medelålders kvinnan råd om hur hon kan hantera hormonsvägningar från pre- till post-menopaus på ett alltmer intrikat sätt. Parallellt får flickan i puberteten via handböcker om mens stärkande tips och råd om hur hon bäst kan bemästra den hormonella omställning som påverkar henne. I denna presentation sätter vi dessa berättelser i kontakt med varandra och reflekterar över vad de säger om vår samtids syn på övergångsåldrar och åldrande. Vad är det som ska undvikas? Vad är det som ska vinnas? Syftet är att utforska hur denna litteratur skildrar önskade och oönskade subjektspositioner – före, innan och efter den hormonella övergång som beskrivs. Vi återvänder till teorier om åldrande och sårbarhet. Resultaten visar att dessa övergångsberättelser har en feministisk potential men också återinstallerar det ”starka subjekt” som feministisk och queerteoretisk forskning sökt att destabilisera. I presentationen funderar vi på var otidsenliga fenomen som skam, sårbarhet och ickekontroll hör hemma i samtidens powerfeministiska diskurs.
The balance recipe: the art of managing menopause in the hormone stories of self-help literature
In recent years, menopause as a phase of transformation has received great media attention in a Swedish context. It is then not only specifically concerning the time when menstruation ceases – but about a longer period of time when female bodies undergo an adjustment with a focus on hormonal changes. In books such as Hormonstark (Hormone strong) (2020), Perimenopower (2018) and Livet med klimakteriet (Life with Menopause) (2020), the stressed reader in the middle of the career receives knowledge, tips, ideas and inspiring stories about how to deal with the fluctuating hormones that are said to affect the body during menopause. In this article, we start from these books with a poststructuralist feminist perspective on narratives and body control on the hormone stories of self-help literature. The aim is to explore how the literature represents women's menopause and hormonal bodies in a broader sense, and how women are encouraged to act in relation to this. The results show that hormone narratives may have feminist potential, but that they primarily make menopause an individual rather than structural matter. Further, they also reveal a close resemblance between the hormonal narratives and a biocapitalist contemporary, with an aging female body as a lucrative threat.
During the last few decades, the concept of ”literacy” has had a growing impact on the vast fields of education. Although the uses of the concept are multifaceted and diverse, the hegemonic policy discourse as supported by the OECD treats literacy as an individual competence closely tied to the development of explicit reading strategies. This article examines what the concept of literacy means for literary studies in general and literature education in particular. We argue that there are reasons to critically reflect upon the effects
of invoking the concept of literacy in the field of literature education. With the aid of theorists like Rita Felski and Toril Moi, our main focus is to examine the risks of centering attention on the ”subject” (the student and his/her abilities) instead of the ”object” (in our case, the works of fiction). By turning to Gert Biesta and Emmanuel Lévinas, we argue that there is an educational value in acknowledging and appreciating what lies beyond the scope of the student’s immediate understanding.
Att det har gått över åttio år sedan Aksel Sandemose formulerade Jantelagen hindrar inte att den fortfarande är ett gångbart namn på kollektivismens avigsidor: den svenska avundsjukan, småsintheten, det dåliga självförtroendet och så vidare. I denna antologi vrider och vänder åtta forskare på vårt förhållande till denna "lag". Utifrån litteraturvetenskapliga, filosofiska, medievetenskapliga och etnologiska perspektiv diskuterar de huruvida de återkommande hänvisningarna till Jantelagen i själva verket säger mer om den individualism som utger sig för att vara lagens motsats än om lagen själv. Finns det rent av något i Jantelagen att bejaka i en tid när den liberala individualismen alltmer framstår som en återvändsgränd och subjektets autonomi blir alltmer diffus?
Kerstin Thorvall skrev egentligen samma berättelse hela sitt författarliv, oavsett om hon riktade sig till barn, ungdomar eller vuxna. Hon menade själv att hon aldrig växte upp ordentligt även om kroppen åldrades: hon förblev "femton år inuti", i en evig trotsålder. Studien undersöker hennes böcker för barn och vuxna som en helhet. Som en berättelse om närhet och det svåra att vara i nära relationer. Men också om den enkla glädjen i att dansa, teckna, älska och arbeta. Berättelsen varieras och förskjuts över tid, men samma motiv återkommer utan att någon egentlig utveckling sker. I boken undersöks detta repetitiva drag - oförmågan att försonas, fördjupas och utvecklas - som en genomförd hållning i Thorvalls författarskap. I Thorvalls romaner ifrågasätts vår samtids ideal om åldrande och livsberättande. Istället för värdighet, progression och mognad gestaltar Thorvall den svåra konsten att misslyckas.
The article discusses how picture books can be useful in the teaching of literature in secondary school and upper secondary school. Through analysis of three picture books the article argues that picture books among other things can stimulate booktalks, develop knowledge about narratology and multimodality and support students ability to "read for the plot".
Om Isak Sundströms diktsamling Vi är många som har berörts i djupet av våra hjärtan och albumet Antropofagernas rike.
This article discusses how feelings about and experiences of sexuality and pleasure are depicted in children’s books by Swedish author Kerstin Thorvall. It is well known that Thorvall wrote about sexuality in an outspoken and unconventional way for adults in the 1970s. Less known is that she already had touched upon these topics in her novels for young children in the 1960s and early 70s. This article analyses four of those children’s novels and argues that one has to use a broad definition of sexuality in order to capture the way children´s literature articulate erotic experiences. Hélène Cixous’ concept of “feminine jouissance” is therefore used to analyse the way Thorvall writes about lust and pleasure. This “feminine jouissance” is not directed towards a specific person or centered on specific parts of the body (as is the “masculine monosexual jouissance” according to Cixous) but is instead directed towards a variety of objects and centred on the whole body, involving all senses. The article also investigates how the relation between adult (hetero)sexuality and children’s imagined innocence is challenged in Thorvall’s writings, drawing on Tison Pugh’s queer theoretical study from 2010 on heterosexuality in children’s literature. Thorvall’s depiction of sexuality crosses boundaries between adults and children – and between adult literature and children’s literature – since the language used to express pleasure is the same whether Thorvall writes for young people or adults.
This article explores novels from the 60’s and 70’s, targeted primarily towards children in the so-called intermediate age (age 9–12), by Swedish author Kerstin Thorvall. Thorvall was both a part of, and a forerunner to, the rejuvenation of children’s literature that took place in the 1960’s in Sweden – a time when books written for young boys and girls became known as ”youth literature”. This article argues that one of Thorvall’s contributions to this rejuvenation concerned her portrayal of boys and their relation to the mother, the family and the home. Boys have traditionally been depicted in outdoor environments associated with adventure: for instance, the woods, the water or in city neighbourhoods. Magnus Öhrn has classified such locations as ”boyhood territory”. Thorvall effectively re-situated this territory indoors – in the apartment or in the house. In Thorvall’s books, the boy’s subjectivity is shaped in relation to his mother and other intimate relations within the home. Whereas the individuation process for boys traditionally entails dissociation from the mother, in Thorvalls novels, the boy’s identity formation is relational, dependent and intertwined with relations within the home. Utilising the Bakhtinian chronotope as an analytical tool, the article explores how the plot constructs this identity formation both spatially and emotionally. Thorvall makes use of the home in a very concrete manner – through the boy’s movements between kitchen, hall and bedroom. The article argues that by placing boys in what has traditionally been regarded as “girlhood territory” Thorvall effectively revises the “boy book” genre. Instead of introducing girl characters into the adventures of the boy book, she exposes boy characters to the realism of traditionally “female” domestic settings.
This article deals with contemporary feminist comics and graphic novels. It discusses the connection between irony and criticism by using the theories of Michail Bakhtin and Eve Sedgwick. The article explores reparative strategies of resistance as alternatives to criticism and irony in novels by Anneli Furmark and Matilda Ruta.
Recension av avhandlingen Likt ett brustet halleluja. Trons och tvivlets tematik i Christine Falkenlands prosa av Anna Clara Törnqvist