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The aim of this study is to address how “skevt” [skewed] girlhood is constructed in relation to age, time, and sexuality in three literary works of the Swedish author Sara Stridsberg: the novel Darling River (2010), the play Konsten att falla (2017) and the short story Tre systrar (2021). In the study, I pose the following questions: How is the skewed girlhood portrayed in relation to constructions of time and age? How does the construction of skewed femininity interact with the construction of sexual practice and sexual desires?     I use the term “skev” – a Scandinavian variation and hybrid of queer – to address how the girlhood is subverted in the texts, as well as to analyze how this not only occurs in relation to heteronormativity, but also within it. To explore this, I work with “skeva” [skewed] readings of the texts. My analysis is based on “skev” [skew] theory and queer temporality, through which I illustrate how the characters of the three literary works are challenging normative assumptions of girlhood and femininity, by performing gender and age as well as sexuality in non-normative ways. I discuss the girl’s bedroom as a form of heterotopia, in which both time and ageing are constructed in a skewed way. Furthermore, I locate a “skev” [skewed] temporality in the texts, connected to an absence of futurity.

This essay takes a closer look at femininity/masculinity, sexuality and queer time and place in Charlaine Harris’ novel Dead Until Dark (2001). The essay’s theoretical framework consists of queer theory and skev theory. Skev is a Swedish word that translates loosely into strange or twisted. Skev theory has queer roots but is used to search for and question forms of normativity other than sexuality. This essay examines Bill and Sookie, the two main characters in Dead Until Dark, with the main aim of analyzing the different ways in which they are portrayed that makes them challenge (and sometimes confirm) norms concerning femininity/masculinity, sexuality and the use of  time and place. The analysis talks about Proper Girls and Proper Boys and how Sookie and Bill may or may not be able and/or willing to be Proper. Monsters and how being a monster impacts Bill’s and Sookie’s Properness is also central to the analysis. In short the essay shows that Bill and Sookie exist in a state of (in)betweenness and that this makes their characters subversive in that they are both skeva.