Skuggliv : En queer läsning av Maria Gripes Skuggserie

Sammanfattning: My intention with this paper is to look at the possibility of same sex desire in the first three novels of Maria Gripe’s Skuggserie (the shadow series, written in the 1980’s), by doing a queer reading of the texts. The analysis is based on Judith Butlers well known concept “the heterosexual matrix”, which explains how we, when we are forced into a specific sex and gender, obligate ourselves to a specific (hetero)sexuality. Butler also explains how sex and gender are connected and appear in relation to each other. I have analyzed the relations between the characters Berta, Arild, Rosilda and Leónie and the protagonist Carolin (who sometimes dresses and acts like a man, Carl). The conclusion of my analysis is that Skuggserien contain some scenes that can be viewed as queer, for example there is a brief sight of homosexual desire between Rosilda and Carolin/Carl, and Arild and Carolin/Carl. Carolin’s way of changing sex/gender role is also to be understood as a queer act. However, in the third book, Carolin decides to leave her alter ego Carl behind, and my final conclusion is that the novels open up for a queer reading, but in the end return, and thereby adapt themselves, to the hetero sexual matrix.