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

nordlitt – Skandinavistische Literaturforschung im Gespräch

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