Performance som politisk aktivism - Om den svenska receptionen av Valerie Solanas SCUM-manifest med fokus på Malin Arnells performance I didn't do it for nothing

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this thesis has been to illustrate the performative aspects of the expressions created by the Swedish reception of Valerie Solanas’ Scum Manifesto, by focusing on Malin Arnell’s performance piece I didn’t do it for nothing. Arnell’s performance works as a connecting point on which Judith Butler's account of performativity and Louis Althusser's theory of interpellation has been applied. The discussion investigates whether the feminist and cultural context, that has Sara Stridsberg’s Swedish translation of the Scum Manifesto as a catalyst, can be described as a movement. The performative speech act is an utterance that works as a tool for action. The performative is not only implemented linguistically, but also through repetition of physical movements and attributes, which in relation to art means that art works not only passively mirror the world but actively contribute to shape it. To be interpellated is to be called into being as a subject. Ideology interpellates individuals into subjects and gives them a name to relate to. The methodology of this thesis has been to analyse I didn’t do it for nothing in relation to performativity and interpellation, while placing the performance among other Swedish cultural expressions that draws on the Scum Manifesto. In each expression that repeats Solanas’ words, new contexts for the manifesto arise, as does the opportunity to spread its contents, towards a rearrangement of gender power relations. The collective context creates an address for practitioners, readers and audiences; a name that assembles them: SCUM.