Flickstaden : Flickbokens diskurs och sadomasochism i Agnes von Krusenstjernas Ninas dagbok, Helenas första kärlek och Fröknarna von Pahlen

• Main Author: Jakobsson, Hilda
• Format: Others
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Stockholms universitet, Avdelningen för litteraturvetenskap 2009
• Subjects: Agnes von Krusenstjerna; girls fiction; sadomasochism; gender theory; queer theory; flickböcker; genusteori; queerteori
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-78481

The object of this essay is the Swedish author Agnes von Krusenstjerna's novels Ninas dagbok (The diary of Nina) and Helenas första kärlek (Helena's first love) as well as the cycle novel Fröknarna von Pahlen (The misses von Pahlen). The purpose is to explore her use of the discourse of girls' fiction, which I analyse by the depiciton of women's sexual awakening, and her depiction of sadomasochism. The theories of Elaine Showalter, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault and Judith Butler are used. Women's sexual awakening is depicted similarly in the novels but more explicitly in Fröknarna von Pahlen. In Ninas dagbok and Helenas första kärlek there is an eroticization of dominance and submission, which is not explicitly sadomasochistic. In Fröknarna von Pahlen, sadomasochism is explicitly described as a "perverted" sexuality and reveals the inequality in the violent sexuality, which is described as "normal". The sexuality that is included in Fröknarna von Pahlen's ending utopia is a female same-sex sexuality, which is a further development of the intimate friendships that are often depicted through the discourse of girls' fiction. Accordingly, Fröknarna von Pahlen and its ending utopia can be interpreted as a "city of girls", that is a further developement of subjects such as female same-sex sexuality and sadomasochism that can only be implied within the discourse of girls' fiction.