<p>This essay examines expressions of power and resistance, in relation to gender and sexuality, in Karin Boye´s novel Kallocain. I read the novel´s theme of resistance on a level of sexuality. Because differing sexualities and genderpractises are often hidden within the heteronormative mechanisms of oppression, I focus my reading on the meaning of the room and the eye. With theories of Michel Foucault and queer theories, I show how the novel´s rooms in both a material and an immaterial way demarcate based on heteronoramative structures. Further I use the theoretical tools of Foucault and show how looks become the gatekeepers of normativity. I investigate how Judith Butler’s theory on how gender is performatively constructed take shape in the novel and how there can be queer leakage, for example in the potentially homoerotic relation between the two main male characters. I will argue that the heteronormative novelworld of Kallocain contains an emancipating potential in the rooms for resistance created both through the spirit of community in the “fools community” and in other relations, foremost the one between the main male character and the female who is married to him.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA/oai:DiVA.org:sh-1393 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Axelsson, Mia |
| Publisher | Södertörn University College, School of Gender, Culture and History, Huddinge : Institutionen för genus, kultur och historia |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, text |
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