The Double Bind. The Novel as (peace)negotiation
Short description
At the heart of this project is the relation between writing and violence/ non- violence. The premises that conditions writing in its different forms and representations are investigated through an artistic practice. The aim of the project is to examine and perform a writing practice, which with Gayatri Spivak’s concept ”the Double Bind” is to be understood as a negotiation. While Spivak uses the concept to analyse aesthetics and ethics in a global era, I interpret the Double Bind as an artistic operation, a negotiation between contradictory premises. The purpose of this artistic research project on writing as (peace)negotiation is to generate methodological and practical knowledge, to deepen the understanding of the performative character and ethical conditions of the novel, and create a base for an on-going discussion about violence and
The aim of the project is to investigate and implement a writing practice, which can be understood as a negotiation using the theorist Gayatri Spivak's concept of "double bind". "Double bind" means, in short, the reception of instructions where one message negates the other, making a correct response impossible. While Spivak uses the concept to theoretically analyse aesthetics and ethics in a globalised era, the double bind in the project is to be understood as an artistic activity, a writing negotiation between conflicting starting points. The central questions of the project are: Can the novel be perceived and performed as a negotiation between violence and non-violence, and if so, what characterises this practice? Is it possible to develop a method for design based on negotiation?
The project resulted in two books, the lyrical novel Fadern and the essay Mutant. A series of lectures, public talks and articles in journals and newspapers have also emerged from the project. Fadern borders on poetry. Mantras, incantations and symbolic language are used to conjure up a story that drives towards an end, but at the same time repeats the mechanisms of violence. The novel's motifs and aesthetics are both expressions of a kind of negotiation. About girls' position in the world, about who can and cannot speak, about whether violence can be called love. The text's resistance to a dominant narrative technique creates an opening towards non-violence, towards a presence of solidarity.
The lyrical essay Mutant is a dialogue with feminist artists and thinkers, using auto-fictional elements to conduct and describe research. Girls' experiences of violence and shame are examined as crucial to how and why they write. The conditions of writing under a prevailing and violent ideology of change and improvement are analysed. The question of why women write about their lives and what makes the writing voice continue to speak is addressed in relation to illness, motherhood, love and criticism.