Berit Åström

Jenny Bonnevier

This edited collection examines the central role that webs of kinship and families play in the fiction of N.K. Jemisin, arguing that they ca function as centers of resistance, means of oppression, or both. In doing so, Jemisin's work challenges readers to re-imagine the intimate relations of their present.

Relations of Power and Resistance

Kinship in the Fiction of N. K. Jemisin

Disa Bergnehr

This edited volume addresses how single mothers and fathers are represented in novels, self-help literature, daily newspapers, film and television, as well as within their own narratives in interviews on social media. With proportions varying between countries, the number of single parents has been increasing steadily since the 1970s in the Western world. Contributions to this volume analyse how various societies respond to these parents and family forms. Through a range of materials, methodologies and national perspectives, chapters make up three sections to cover single mothers, single fathers and solo mothers (single women who became parents through assisted reproductive technologies). The authors reveal that single parenthood is divided along the lines of gender and socioeconomic status, with age, sexuality and the reason for being a single parent coming into play. Berit Astrom is Associate Professor of English Literature at Umea University, Sweden. Her research focuses on the representation of mothers, motherhood and mothering in literature, film and television. Her recent publications include The Absent Mother in the Cultural Imagination (2017). Disa Bergnehr is Professor of Education at Linnaeus University, Sweden. Her primary research areas are (nuclear, single and refugee) family life, home-school relations, schooling in disadvantaged areas, childrens socialization, and childrens and parents' wellbeing and agency.

Representations and Resistance in an International Context

Single Parents

This anthology explores the recurring trope of the dead or absent mother in Western cultural productions. Across historical periods and genres, this dialogue has been employed to articulate and debate questions of politics and religion, social and cultural change as well as issues of power and authority within the family. Åström seeks to investigate the many functions and meanings of the dialogue by covering extensive material from the 1200s to 2014 including hagiography, romances, folktales, plays, novels, children’s literature and graphic novels, as well as film and television. This is achieved by looking at the discourse both as products of the time and culture that produced the various narratives, and as part of an on-going cultural conversation that spans the centuries, resulting in an innovative text that will be of great interest to all scholars of gender, feminist and media studies.

Missing, Presumed Dead

The Absent Mother in the Cultural Imagination

Karin Lövgren

Annelie Bränström Öhman

Therése Persson

Eva Söderberg

Johanna Sjöberg

Begrepp som ”flicka” och ”tant” är tänjbara och ibland motsägelsefulla. De kan vara uttryck för genus, förbundna med kultur, kroppsideal, livsförlopp och normer. I Att konstruera en kvinna använder författarna flickan, tjejen, kvinnan och tanten för att skärskåda ålders- och könsordningar och tillgängliggöra forskning om kön, ålder och åldrande. Flickan ser vi oftast som ett barn, men ordet har också kommit att användas om tjejer och unga kvinnor. Tanten i sin tur har kommit att bli en symbol för ”det lilla livet” med hantverk och långkok, men även för självständighet och kritisk blick: hon söker inte behaga utan kan säga emot och visar civilkurage. Både tanten och flickan används ibland på ett åldersöverskridande och subversivt sätt. Författarna diskuterar hur kulturella föreställningar skapas och återspeglas i medierade sammanhang: i skönlitteratur, tidningar, tecknade barnfilmer, bloggar och olika populärkulturella sammanhang – men också i människors egna berättelser. Har vi idag ett uppluckrat ålderslandskap där människor är friare från normer om ”passande beteende” och kan iscensätta sina liv som de önskar utan att behöva förhålla sig till sociala tidtabeller?

Berättelser om normer, flickor och tanter

Att konstruera en kvinna

Tanya Horeck

Katarina Gregersdotter

With its powerful images of rape and revenge, Stieg Larsson's bestselling Millennium trilogy has made a major impact on the contemporary crime novel. This collection explores the role that rape plays in contemporary crime fiction, examining the sexually violent images at the heart of the Millennium trilogy in its many guises – from novels, to Swedish film adaptations, to Hollywood blockbuster. At the centre of discussion is Larsson's female heroine, Lisbeth Salander, one of popular culture's most unforgettable characters. The collection evaluates her status as a twenty-first century heroine, arguing that what makes Salander so interesting and culturally relevant, is her blend of vulnerability and violence.Putting Larsson's work into dialogue with a range of contemporary Scandinavian and Anglophone crime novelists, including Jo Nesbø, Håkan Nesser, Mo Hayder and Val McDermid, these essays offer cross-cultural insights into how notions of sexual violence, victims and vengeance are constructed. Opening up a range of vital new questions, the book interrogates the very terms by which we understand and encounter violent images in popular fiction and film.

Contemporary Scandinavian and Anglophone Crime Fiction

Rape in Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy and Beyond

Berit Åström

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