The Double Bind. Romanen som (freds)förhandling/
Kort beskrivning
Projektets syfte är att undersöka och genomföra en skrivandets praktik, som med teoretikern Gayatri Spivaks begrepp ”double bind” kan förstås som en förhandling. ”Double bind” innebär i korthet mottagandet av instruktioner där det ena budskapet negerar det andra, vilket omöjliggör ett gensvar som är ”rätt”. Medan Spivak använder begreppet för att teoretiskt analysera estetik och etik i en globaliserad samtid vill jag förstå the double bind som en konstnärlig verksamhet, en skrivande förhandling mellan motstridiga utgångspunkter. Projektets centrala frågeställningar är: Kan romanen uppfattas och utföras som en förhandling mellan våld och icke-våld, och vad karaktäriserar i så fall denna praktik? Går det att utveckla en metod för gestaltning baserad på förhandling?
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.