nordlitt – Skandinavistische Literaturforschung im Gespräch nordlitt

Kristina Malmio, University of Helsinki, shares her research on local and global tendencies in Finland-Swedish literature with the help of two complex novels by Monika Fagerholm (The American Girl) and Hannele Mikaela Taivassalo (In Transit). We muse about the status of a privileged minority literature and discuss the shifting locations of centers and peripheries. We explore in-between-spaces and other metaphors of literary spaces and look at movements of novels and their characters between countries, continents and cultures. Finally, we are encouraged: Trust yourself! Literature takes you everywhere.

Timestamps:

(00:00:31) Kristina Malmio’s Way to Literature Studies and Scandinavian Studies 

(00:05:00) The Society of Swedish Literature in Finland 

(00:09:21) Historical and Contemporary Finland-Swedish Literature

(00:18:10) Minor Literature and World Literature

(00:23:02) Introducing Monika Fagerholm and The American Girl

(00:30:45) Postmodern Literature and Kaleidoscopic Collaging

(00:37:32) Fagerholm’s Constructing of Space 

(00:34:48) Reconstructing the Belief in Narration   

(00:41:11) The Reception in the US

(00:48:00) The Polycentric and Networked Novel

(01:01:12) Fagerholm on the Scandinavian Literature Scene 

(01:04:43) Introducing Hannele Mikaela Taivassalo and In Transit

(01:14:13) The Chronotope of the Road and Bodily Experiences

(01:22:19) Anchoring in Space

(01:24:06) The Image of the North Pole Explorer

(01:29:33) Space in Contemporary Poetry 

(01:30:40) Advice to Student Self 

(01:31:43) An Announcement 

Bibliography, further information, and comments are available on Experiment Geisteswissenschaften.

https://exgeist.hypotheses.org/

Idea and conception: Stefanie von Schnurbein

Cut: Cecilia Falkman

Do you have questions or comments for us at nordlitt? Please contact us at: niexgeis@hu-berlin.de

Ellen Rees from the Center for Ibsen Studies at Oslo University introduces Henrik Ibsen as a theatre practitioner. She unfolds surprising resonances between French musical comedies by Eugène Scribe and Henrik Ibsen's most famous plays, A Doll's House and Hedda Gabler. We question romantic distinctions between high literature and popular theatre, and discuss Ellen's new theory on Ibsen's way to realism through the vaudeville. We are confronted with deadly links between money and love, and are reminded of the existence of academic bullying. But in the end, we are reminded of the joy of shouting out our crazy discoveries in the halls of venerable academic institutions.

(00:30:00) Introducing Ellen Rees 

(00:02:12) How Did Ellen Rees End Up in Scandinavian Studies?

(00:06:00) The Centre for Ibsen Studies at Oslo University 

(00:09:30) Who was Henrik Ibsen?

(00:12:24) Doing Research on Ibsen 

(00:18:19) Ibsen as a Theatre Practitioner

(00:23:27) The Method and Process of Comparing

(00:28:20) Theatre History and the Vaudeville Genre

(00:38:42) Questioning the Idea of the Modern Breakthrough           

(00:45:42) A Doll’s House and Hedda Gabler in Comparison with Scribe 

(00:53:45) Ibsen’s Contemporary Audience

(00:57:35) Ibsen and Comedy 

(00:59:17) Hedda Gabler and Le budget d’une jeune ménage

(01:12:35) Parodic Strategies

(01:14:13) Student Question 

(01:17: 27) The Crisis of Modernity

(01:22:06) The Position of Theatre Within the Global Literary System

(01:28:28) Announcement: Online Database

(01:29:59) 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

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

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

In nordlitts zweiter Folge in leiblicher Kopräsenz fragt Dörte Linke, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, mit der dänischen Autorin Charlotte Weitze danach, wie man einen Klimaroman schreibt. Wir diskutieren existenzielle Thriller, begegnen queeren Schnee- und Rosenmenschen und ringen gemeinsam um die Bedeutung von Sexualität und Gewalt in Weitzes Romanen. Durch naturphilosophische Lektüren von Josefine Klougarts Romanen setzen wir uns Lebenswirrwarr, Sterblichkeit, Erinnerung und Liebe aus. Außerdem geht es um Literatur als Erkenntnisform, Literaturwissenschaft als Möglichkeit des „making kin", und nicht zuletzt präsentieren wir das erste technische nordlitt-Malheur.



(00:00:27) Einleitung

(00:01:55) Dörte Linkes Weg zur Skandinavistik und ihre Forschungsinteressen

(00:12:15) Zur Autorin Charlotte Weitze und ihrem Roman Den afskyelige (The Abominable)

(00:17:12) Hybrid-Wesen und ihr Verhältnis zur Umwelt 

(00:23:24) Realität vs. Fantastik

(00:27:52) Auflösung der alten Naturtheorien

(00:32:44) Charlotte Weitzes Roman Rosarium

(00:35:59) Intersektion von Aggression, Ernährung und Sexualität

(00:41:24) Die Figur Kenneth in Den afskyelige

(00:44:32) Sexualität

(00:48:59) Verbindung von Sexualität, Natur und Schuld

(01:02:10) Umgang mit Klimawandel

(01:09:02) Die Autorin Josefine Klougart und Om mørke (Über die Dunkelheit)

(01:14:32) Ökokritik

(01:17:52) Umwelten bilden

(01:24:53) Natur und Mensch bei Klougart

(01:33:04) Was macht und kann Literaturwissenschaft?

(01:54:39) Was würdest Du Deinem Studierenden-Ich raten?    



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

https://exgeist.hypotheses.org/category/nordlitt

Idee und Konzeption: Stefanie von Schnurbein

Schnitt: Cecilia Falkman

nordlitt trifft sich erstmals gemeinsam in einem Raum. Mit Sabine Meyer, Universität Greifswald folgen wir den Erzählfäden, die sich um die Person Lili Elbe spannen und den Versuchen, diesen mit Hilfe von Literaturwissenschaft, Autobiographieforschung, Geschichtswissenschaft und Medizingeschichte auf die Spur zu kommen. Es geht um eine frühe geschlechtsangleichende Operation, um die Anfänge der Sexualwissenschaft, um queere Künstler*innenleben, um die verzwickten Beziehungen zwischen Trans-, Inter- und Homosexualität, vor allem aber um einen queeren Text, der sich bemüht, das Ideal der Heterosexualität zu erhalten. Außerdem fragen wir nach Identifikationen und Obsessionen in der Wissenschaft, nach Kritik als Hilfestellung und sprechen über die Freuden der Archiv- und Editionsarbeit.



(00:00:52) Vorstellung Sabine Meyer

(00:04:08) Sabine Meyers Forschungsinteressen und Schwerpunkte

(00:08:40) Obsession und Queer Studies

(00:23:57) Zur Person Lili Elbe

(00:33:47) Archivarbeit und Biographie 

(00:38:18) Entstehung der Sexualwissenschaft

(00:46:20) Mehr zu Lili Elbes Biographie 

(01:03:08) Rekapitulation der Vorgeschichte

(01:04:40) Eine menschliche Tragödie?

(01:08:29) Erste Veröffentlichung des Textes 

(01:13:27) Homophobe Erzählweisen

(01:32:03) Briefe von Lili an den deutschen Freund

(01:35:06) Genre und „Entqueerung“

(01:46:24) Queering durch Intertextualität

(01:48:44) Lebendige Quellenkritik und Archivarbeit

(01:54:16) Wer darf trans-Geschichten erzählen?

(02:00:34) Die Zukunft von Queer Studies?

(02:04:54) Was würdest Du Deinem Studierenden-Ich raten?



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

https://exgeist.hypotheses.org/category/nordlitt

Idee und Konzeption: Stefanie von Schnurbein

Schnitt: Cecilia Falkman