A Complicit Reading Strategy: Exposing Censored Themes of Intimacy in Swedish Alfhild Agrell’s Räddad
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3986/pkn.v46.i1.02Keywords:
feminist literary criticism, women’s writing, Swedish drama, Agrell, Alfhild, intimacy, censorship, self-censorshipAbstract
This article proposes an ethical reading position by taking the author’s socio-historic censorious situation into account and by adopting a complicit reading strategy in order to expose silenced themes of intimacy. It does so through textual references to the 1883 play Räddad (Saved) by the Swedish female playwright Alfhild Agrell. By taking the point of departure in Helen Freshwater’s idea of an inclusive model of censorship, Judith Butler’s theory of reiteration, and Toril Moi’s claims of the political potential of a reading mode starting in the concerns of the text, I establish the theoretical basis for a complicit reading strategy. I then present the gendered period-specific censorious situation of the 1880s in Sweden, in which the aesthetics of idealism influenced censorship in the theatres and also regulated playwriting. I demonstrate a vacillation between self-censoring and exposing themes of intimacy in Agrell’s play, proposing that this should be regarded as a specific rhetoric produced by an awareness of gendered censorship. Finally, by leaning on phenomenological and new materialist instruments of analysis, I present an embodied reading strategy for Agrell’s play in response to its specific individual poetics and concerns, to expose its full gender/feminist potential.
References
Agrell, Alfhild. <em>Räddad in Dramatiska arbeten 1. 1883</em>. Dramawebben, Litteraturbanken. Web. Accessed 5 December 2022. https://litteraturbanken.se/txt/lb999200183/lb999200183.pdf.
Bartky, Sandra Lee. <em>“Sympathy and Solidarity” and Other Essays</em>. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002.
Bourdieu, Pierre. <em>The Rules of Art: Genesis and Structure of the Literary Field</em>. Transl. Susan Emanuel. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1996.
Brooks, Peter. <em>The Melodramatic Imagination: Balzac, Henry James, Melodrama, and the Mode of Excess</em>. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1985.
Butler, Judith. <em>Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative</em>. London; New York, NY: Routledge, 1997.
Butler, Judith. “Ruled Out: Vocabularies of the Censor.” <em>Censorship and Silencing: Practices of Cultural Regulation</em>. Ed. Robert C. Post. Los Angeles, CA: Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1998. 17–42.
Cohen, Margaret. <em>The Sentimental Education of the Novel</em>. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999.
Freshwater, Helen. “Towards a Redefinition of Censorship.” <em>Censorship & Cultural Regulation in the Modern Age</em>. Ed. Beate Müller. Amsterdam; New York, NY: Rodopi 2004. 225–245.
Gedin, David. <em>Fältets herrar: Framväxten av en modern författarroll: Artonhundraåttitalet</em>. Eslöv: B. Östlings bokförlag; Symposion, 2004.
Giddens, Anthony. <em>The Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love, and Eroticism in Modern Societies</em>. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992.
Hermansson, Gunilla. “Almqvist, Euphrosyne och problemet med världslitteraturen.” <em>Almqvistvariationer: Receptionsstudier och omläsningar</em>. Ed. Anders Burman and Jon Viklund. Göteborg; Stockholm: Makadam förlag, 2018. 191–214.
Jameson, Frederic R. “Beyond the Cave: Demystifying the Ideology of Modernism.” <em>The Bulletin of the Midwest Modern Language Association</em> 8.1 (1975): 1–20.
Johansson Lindh, Birgitta. <em>Som en vildfågel i en bur: Identitet, kärlek, frihet och melodramatiska inslag i Alfhild Agrells, Victoria Benedictssons och Anne Charlotte Lefflers 1880-talsdramatik</em>. Göteborg; Stockholm: Makadam förlag, 2019.
LaCapra, Dominick. <em>Writing History, Writing Trauma</em>. Baltimore, MD; London: The John Hopkins University Press, 2001.
Lauritzen, Monica. <em>Sanningens vägar: Anne Charlotte Lefflers liv och dikt</em>. Stockholm: Bonnier, 2012.
Levine, Michael G. <em>Writing Through Repression: Literature, Censorship, Psychoanalysis</em>. Baltimore, MD; London: The John Hopkins University Press, 1994.
Lindh Estelle, Birgitta. “Experience of Intimacy and Melodramatic Strategies as Resistance in Scandinavian Modern Breakthrough-Plays.” <em>Representations, Scenes and Scenarios of Intimacy in Women’s Writing</em>. Ed. Carmen Beatrice Duţu. Bucharest: Pro Universitaria (in press).
Moi, Toril. “Appropriating Bourdieu: Feminist Theory and Pierre Bourdieu’s Sociology of Culture.” <em>New Literary History</em> 4.22 (1991): 1017–1049.
Moi, Toril. <em>Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of Modernism: Art, Theatre, Philosophy</em>. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Moi, Toril. <em>Revolution of the Ordinary: Literary Studies after Wittgenstein, Austin and Cavell</em>. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2017.
Molnár, István. <em>“Det gör godt att skåda”: Bildning, moral och underhålllning i dramatic och offentlig debatt under teatersäsongen 1868–69 i Stockholm</em>. Stockholm: Stift. för utgivning av teatervetenskapliga studier, 1991.
Müller, Beate. “Censorship and Cultural Regulation: Mapping the Territory.” <em>Censorship & Cultural Regulation in the Modern Age</em>. Ed. Beate Müller. Amsterdam; New York, NY: Rodopi 2004. 1–31.
Nordin Hennel, Ingeborg. “En stjärnskådespelerska.” <em>Ny svensk teaterhistoria. Bd 2. 1800-talets teater</em>. Ed. Ulla-Britta Lagerroth and Ingeborg Nordin Hennel. Hedemora: Gidlund 2007. 218–39.
Nordin Hennel, Ingeborg. “Strid är sanning, frid är lögn: Om Alfhild Agrell och Anne Charlotte Edgren Leffler.” <em>Nordisk kvinnolitteraturhistoria: Fadershuset 1800–1900</em>. Ed. Elisabeth Møller Jensen et al. Höganäs: Bokförlaget Bra böcker, 1993. 512–527.
Parry, Bronwyn C. “Inventing Iris: Negotiating the Unexpected Spatialities of Intimacy.” <em>History of the Human Sciences</em> 21.4 (2008): 34–48.
Skeggs, Beverly. <em>Formations of Class and Gender</em>. London: Sage, 1997.
Rajiva, Jay. <em>Postcolonial Trauma and the Ethical Tactility of Reading</em>. Doctoral thesis. Toronto: University of Toronto, Department of English, 2014.
Reay, Diane. “Gendering Bourdieu’s Concepts of Capitals? Emotional Capital, Women and Social Class.” <em>Sociological Review</em> 52.1 (2004): 57–74.
Schück, Henrik, and Karl Warburg. <em>Illustrerad svensk litteraturhistoria, band 7: Den nya tiden</em>. Stockholm: Geber, 1932.
Tjäder, Per Arne. “Åttiotalsgenerationen.” <em>Den svenska litteraturen 3: De liberala genombrotten: 1830–1890</em>. Ed. Sven Delblanc and Lars Lönnroth. Stockholm: Bonnier, 1988. 200–219.
Wirmark, Margareta. <em>Noras systrar: Nordisk dramatik och teater 1879–1899</em>. Stockholm: Carlsson bokförlag, 2000.
Bartky, Sandra Lee. <em>“Sympathy and Solidarity” and Other Essays</em>. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002.
Bourdieu, Pierre. <em>The Rules of Art: Genesis and Structure of the Literary Field</em>. Transl. Susan Emanuel. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1996.
Brooks, Peter. <em>The Melodramatic Imagination: Balzac, Henry James, Melodrama, and the Mode of Excess</em>. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1985.
Butler, Judith. <em>Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative</em>. London; New York, NY: Routledge, 1997.
Butler, Judith. “Ruled Out: Vocabularies of the Censor.” <em>Censorship and Silencing: Practices of Cultural Regulation</em>. Ed. Robert C. Post. Los Angeles, CA: Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1998. 17–42.
Cohen, Margaret. <em>The Sentimental Education of the Novel</em>. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999.
Freshwater, Helen. “Towards a Redefinition of Censorship.” <em>Censorship & Cultural Regulation in the Modern Age</em>. Ed. Beate Müller. Amsterdam; New York, NY: Rodopi 2004. 225–245.
Gedin, David. <em>Fältets herrar: Framväxten av en modern författarroll: Artonhundraåttitalet</em>. Eslöv: B. Östlings bokförlag; Symposion, 2004.
Giddens, Anthony. <em>The Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love, and Eroticism in Modern Societies</em>. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992.
Hermansson, Gunilla. “Almqvist, Euphrosyne och problemet med världslitteraturen.” <em>Almqvistvariationer: Receptionsstudier och omläsningar</em>. Ed. Anders Burman and Jon Viklund. Göteborg; Stockholm: Makadam förlag, 2018. 191–214.
Jameson, Frederic R. “Beyond the Cave: Demystifying the Ideology of Modernism.” <em>The Bulletin of the Midwest Modern Language Association</em> 8.1 (1975): 1–20.
Johansson Lindh, Birgitta. <em>Som en vildfågel i en bur: Identitet, kärlek, frihet och melodramatiska inslag i Alfhild Agrells, Victoria Benedictssons och Anne Charlotte Lefflers 1880-talsdramatik</em>. Göteborg; Stockholm: Makadam förlag, 2019.
LaCapra, Dominick. <em>Writing History, Writing Trauma</em>. Baltimore, MD; London: The John Hopkins University Press, 2001.
Lauritzen, Monica. <em>Sanningens vägar: Anne Charlotte Lefflers liv och dikt</em>. Stockholm: Bonnier, 2012.
Levine, Michael G. <em>Writing Through Repression: Literature, Censorship, Psychoanalysis</em>. Baltimore, MD; London: The John Hopkins University Press, 1994.
Lindh Estelle, Birgitta. “Experience of Intimacy and Melodramatic Strategies as Resistance in Scandinavian Modern Breakthrough-Plays.” <em>Representations, Scenes and Scenarios of Intimacy in Women’s Writing</em>. Ed. Carmen Beatrice Duţu. Bucharest: Pro Universitaria (in press).
Moi, Toril. “Appropriating Bourdieu: Feminist Theory and Pierre Bourdieu’s Sociology of Culture.” <em>New Literary History</em> 4.22 (1991): 1017–1049.
Moi, Toril. <em>Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of Modernism: Art, Theatre, Philosophy</em>. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Moi, Toril. <em>Revolution of the Ordinary: Literary Studies after Wittgenstein, Austin and Cavell</em>. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2017.
Molnár, István. <em>“Det gör godt att skåda”: Bildning, moral och underhålllning i dramatic och offentlig debatt under teatersäsongen 1868–69 i Stockholm</em>. Stockholm: Stift. för utgivning av teatervetenskapliga studier, 1991.
Müller, Beate. “Censorship and Cultural Regulation: Mapping the Territory.” <em>Censorship & Cultural Regulation in the Modern Age</em>. Ed. Beate Müller. Amsterdam; New York, NY: Rodopi 2004. 1–31.
Nordin Hennel, Ingeborg. “En stjärnskådespelerska.” <em>Ny svensk teaterhistoria. Bd 2. 1800-talets teater</em>. Ed. Ulla-Britta Lagerroth and Ingeborg Nordin Hennel. Hedemora: Gidlund 2007. 218–39.
Nordin Hennel, Ingeborg. “Strid är sanning, frid är lögn: Om Alfhild Agrell och Anne Charlotte Edgren Leffler.” <em>Nordisk kvinnolitteraturhistoria: Fadershuset 1800–1900</em>. Ed. Elisabeth Møller Jensen et al. Höganäs: Bokförlaget Bra böcker, 1993. 512–527.
Parry, Bronwyn C. “Inventing Iris: Negotiating the Unexpected Spatialities of Intimacy.” <em>History of the Human Sciences</em> 21.4 (2008): 34–48.
Skeggs, Beverly. <em>Formations of Class and Gender</em>. London: Sage, 1997.
Rajiva, Jay. <em>Postcolonial Trauma and the Ethical Tactility of Reading</em>. Doctoral thesis. Toronto: University of Toronto, Department of English, 2014.
Reay, Diane. “Gendering Bourdieu’s Concepts of Capitals? Emotional Capital, Women and Social Class.” <em>Sociological Review</em> 52.1 (2004): 57–74.
Schück, Henrik, and Karl Warburg. <em>Illustrerad svensk litteraturhistoria, band 7: Den nya tiden</em>. Stockholm: Geber, 1932.
Tjäder, Per Arne. “Åttiotalsgenerationen.” <em>Den svenska litteraturen 3: De liberala genombrotten: 1830–1890</em>. Ed. Sven Delblanc and Lars Lönnroth. Stockholm: Bonnier, 1988. 200–219.
Wirmark, Margareta. <em>Noras systrar: Nordisk dramatik och teater 1879–1899</em>. Stockholm: Carlsson bokförlag, 2000.
