"En kold og bitter affære": Negative intimiteter i Tomas Lagermand Lundmes Forhud
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"En kold og bitter affære" : Negative intimiteter i Tomas Lagermand Lundmes Forhud. / Juul, Anton.
In: K & K, Vol. 51, No. 136, 30.01.2024, p. 105-128.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - "En kold og bitter affære"
T2 - Negative intimiteter i Tomas Lagermand Lundmes Forhud
AU - Juul, Anton
PY - 2024/1/30
Y1 - 2024/1/30
N2 - In this article, I analyze and discuss the potentials of what I call negative intimacies in Tomas Lagermand Lundmes debut novel Forhud (1998) through the lens of antisocial queer theory. Through Berlants concept of intimacy as inherently threatened by an internal failure, I identify three types of negative intimacies in the novel: 1) Incestuous intimacy, in which the narrator denies the incest taboo and the Oedipus complex as foundation of heteronormative sociality through a perversion of the father figure. 2) Masochistic intimacy, in which the symbolic function of the father as authority is negated through contractual submission. And, lastly, 3) impersonal intimacy, which I argue is the overall mode of intimacy that the novel explores both in its content and as a gesture toward its reader. Impersonal intimacy offers an ethical alternative to heteronormative identity- and relation-based intimacy. In the impersonal intimacy I find what Tim Dean has called an “ethics of alterity”, that is, a radical openness to otherness. In Forhud only strangers can be lovers, which is precisely the queer potential of the novel. I argue that these queer intimacies do not lend themselves to any kind of positive promise of a queer world, but rather a negative critique of heteronormative sexuality. Though Forhud does not express any optimistic hope for another world, it nevertheless stresses the pleasure of being intimate with the stranger.
AB - In this article, I analyze and discuss the potentials of what I call negative intimacies in Tomas Lagermand Lundmes debut novel Forhud (1998) through the lens of antisocial queer theory. Through Berlants concept of intimacy as inherently threatened by an internal failure, I identify three types of negative intimacies in the novel: 1) Incestuous intimacy, in which the narrator denies the incest taboo and the Oedipus complex as foundation of heteronormative sociality through a perversion of the father figure. 2) Masochistic intimacy, in which the symbolic function of the father as authority is negated through contractual submission. And, lastly, 3) impersonal intimacy, which I argue is the overall mode of intimacy that the novel explores both in its content and as a gesture toward its reader. Impersonal intimacy offers an ethical alternative to heteronormative identity- and relation-based intimacy. In the impersonal intimacy I find what Tim Dean has called an “ethics of alterity”, that is, a radical openness to otherness. In Forhud only strangers can be lovers, which is precisely the queer potential of the novel. I argue that these queer intimacies do not lend themselves to any kind of positive promise of a queer world, but rather a negative critique of heteronormative sexuality. Though Forhud does not express any optimistic hope for another world, it nevertheless stresses the pleasure of being intimate with the stranger.
U2 - 10.7146/kok.v51i136.143211
DO - 10.7146/kok.v51i136.143211
M3 - Tidsskriftartikel
VL - 51
SP - 105
EP - 128
JO - K & K
JF - K & K
SN - 0905-6998
IS - 136
ER -
ID: 359794836