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- Convenors:
-
Tone Hellesund
(University of Bergen)
Íris Ellenberger (University of Iceland)
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- Chair:
-
Íris Ellenberger
(University of Iceland)
- Format:
- Panel
- Stream:
- INTERSECTIONALITIES
- Location:
- Room H-202
- Sessions:
- Tuesday 14 June, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
The panel invites explorations of queerness and queer lives in past and contemporary cultures.
Long Abstract:
The ordinary lives of people transgressing norms of genders and sexuality have yet to be extensively explored in Nordic ethnology and folklore studies. We know far too little of the practices around same sex sexualities and gender-transgressions, and we know far too little about the potential cultural importance of such practices in different contexts. These different contexts might be defined by for example time, place, gender, class, and ethnicity.
Currently many archival institutions and museums are eager to mend the historical exclusion of queer history. But which empirical studies do we have, and which sources can offer us knowledge? What do we know about queer lives in the rural districts as well as in the cities, of queer domesticity and intimacy as well as of queer activism, about the mundane and everyday as well as about scandals and court cases? What can queer history tell us about the changing dynamics of societal norms and expectations, change and stability, processes of exclusion as well as of inclusion through the ages?
The panel welcome all projects working on queer history and queer lives in the Nordic countries. What can traditional material such as folk tales, annals and chronicles tell us? What methods and sources are used in studies of contemporary queer lives and cultural conceptions? The panel will bring together scholars studying archival sources with people doing contemporary fieldwork to discern themes and manifestations that repeat themselves through the years or discover if and how reorientations take place.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Tuesday 14 June, 2022, -Paper short abstract:
In this paper I explore representations of gender transgressions in 19th century traditional sources (folk tales, legends etc.) to build a picture of what constituted queerness in rural Iceland during a period when modern ideas of sexuality were still emerging on the mainland of Europe.
Paper long abstract:
The late 19th century was a time of social upheaval in Iceland, like elsewhere in Europe. The traditional agricultural society was gradually being undermined by increased migration to towns and cities, as agricultural workers sought better opportunities and life conditions in emerging urban communities. During uncertain times, Icelanders sought solace in the simple life of their forefathers and there was an increasing interest in the old agricultural society. Tales of strange characters from the 18th and early 19th centuries became increasingly popular among publishers and folklore enthusiasts. These included the stories of which provide us a glimpse of gender transgression among 18th and 19th century women and people categorized as women by the authors.
In this paper I present different representations of gender transgressions in these stories. These include cross-dressing sailor women, “mannish” agricultural workers, women who “fathered” other women’s children and numerous women who went under the nicknames “horny” or “man”. I explore the historical contexts of these texts and how we can use them to build a picture of what constituted queerness among women in a marginal society during a period when modern ideas of sexuality were still being introduced in Europe and had yet to reach the continent’s northern peripheries.
Paper short abstract:
Folk legends can be a great window into the past. This research looks at how women who break hegemonic ideas about femininity and take on roles and qualities more often attributed to men are portrayed in the Icelandic legends of the 19th and 20th century.
Paper long abstract:
Folk legends and narratives can be a great window into the past. They provide us with some information about the world view in the time they were written down but also about the ideas and ideology of the people who wrote them. This lecture focuses on narratives dealing with women who break hegemonic ideas about femininity in Icelandic legend collections from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It looks at the portrayal of those women that are shown taking on male roles or qualities, either for a short period of time or more permanently and what the consequences are for them in the stories.
In the past gender was often perceived as running on a vertical scale. Women with male qualities were perceived as moving up the scale while men with female qualities moved down. Women that take on male roles or qualities for a short period of time are praised in the legends. However, women that do so more permanently and might appear as threat to patriarchal social order are often portrayed as dangerous. Their marital status and the question of class being another intriguing aspect of these particular legends. These dangerous women in legends often appear as sorceresses or outlaws, belonging to the liminal area between the supernatural and the natural, it being emphasized that they are somehow different from “ordinary” women.
Paper short abstract:
In the years 1881-1884, three classmates from the Reykjavík Latin School held diaries in which they described lives that may be called queer. Using the perspective of queer theory, this paper will interrogate the queer space and time which appears in the diaries.
Paper long abstract:
Between 1881 and 1884, three young classmates from the Reykjavík Latin School held diaries that have been preserved in archives in Iceland and Denmark: The naturalist and folklorist Ólafur Davíðsson, the historian Bogi Th. Melsteð, and Gísli Guðmundsson, who committed suicide in 1884. These diaries narrate not only the overlapping events of the writers' lives, but also a time and space that may be called queer: A state of exception that allowed for queer relationships between Latin School students, both in Reykjavík and Copenhagen.
This paper will introduce these diaries and tease out the queer threads that connect them, focusing on the queer time and space inhabited by the writers. The paper will ask: What is the place of the diary in queer historiography? Does the diary stand in a special relation to time and space? What did queer space and time look like in late 19th century Reykjavík? What did it look like in Copenhagen for 19th century Icelanders? And could this collection of diaries point the way to further discoveries for Icelandic queer history?