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‘A queer way of loving’ : sexual reorientation and gender identity transition in contemporary Swedish literature

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Abstract
The aim of this article is to examine the troubles and emotional turbulences concomitant with the experience of sexual and gender-related otherness as they are depicted in contemporary Swedish literature. Within the framework of the special issue on “Border Crossings, Rites of Passage, and Liminal Experiences”, literary portraits of troubling queer life journeys provide interesting material since they foreground various transitory situations and transformative events that can be characterised as liminal, i.e. on the threshold of a new stage while leaving behind an old. The literary figures in question repeatedly have to decide whether they dare to cross certain borders or should stay where they are, either in a concrete physical or in a metaphorical meaning. To explore the linkages between sexual and gender identity, place, transgression, and emotional belonging, I will draw on Arnold van Gennep's concept of “rites of passage” and Sara Ahmed's queer phenomenological approach that explores how individuals are shaped by their physical and emotional orientation in the world. Being orientated, Ahmed explains, means feeling at home, knowing where one stands. However, deviating from the position which society has intended for one unsettles this feeling and calls for reorientation.

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MLA
Wennerscheid, Sophie. “’A Queer Way of Loving’ : Sexual Reorientation and Gender Identity Transition in Contemporary Swedish Literature.” DIGEST. JOURNAL OF DIVERSITY AND GENDER STUDIES, vol. 5, no. 2, 2018, pp. 63–82, doi:10.11116/digest.5.2.4.
APA
Wennerscheid, S. (2018). ’A queer way of loving’ : sexual reorientation and gender identity transition in contemporary Swedish literature. DIGEST. JOURNAL OF DIVERSITY AND GENDER STUDIES, 5(2), 63–82. https://doi.org/10.11116/digest.5.2.4
Chicago author-date
Wennerscheid, Sophie. 2018. “’A Queer Way of Loving’ : Sexual Reorientation and Gender Identity Transition in Contemporary Swedish Literature.” DIGEST. JOURNAL OF DIVERSITY AND GENDER STUDIES 5 (2): 63–82. https://doi.org/10.11116/digest.5.2.4.
Chicago author-date (all authors)
Wennerscheid, Sophie. 2018. “’A Queer Way of Loving’ : Sexual Reorientation and Gender Identity Transition in Contemporary Swedish Literature.” DIGEST. JOURNAL OF DIVERSITY AND GENDER STUDIES 5 (2): 63–82. doi:10.11116/digest.5.2.4.
Vancouver
1.
Wennerscheid S. ’A queer way of loving’ : sexual reorientation and gender identity transition in contemporary Swedish literature. DIGEST JOURNAL OF DIVERSITY AND GENDER STUDIES. 2018;5(2):63–82.
IEEE
[1]
S. Wennerscheid, “’A queer way of loving’ : sexual reorientation and gender identity transition in contemporary Swedish literature,” DIGEST. JOURNAL OF DIVERSITY AND GENDER STUDIES, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 63–82, 2018.
@article{8511555,
  abstract     = {{The aim of this article is to examine the troubles and emotional turbulences concomitant with the experience of sexual and gender-related otherness as they are depicted in contemporary Swedish literature. Within the framework of the special issue on “Border Crossings, Rites of Passage, and Liminal Experiences”, literary portraits of troubling queer life journeys provide interesting material since they foreground various transitory situations and transformative events that can be characterised as liminal, i.e. on the threshold of a new stage while leaving behind an old. The literary figures in question repeatedly have to decide whether they dare to cross certain borders or should stay where they are, either in a concrete physical or in a metaphorical meaning. To explore the linkages between sexual and gender identity, place, transgression, and emotional belonging, I will draw on Arnold van Gennep's concept of “rites of passage” and Sara Ahmed's queer phenomenological approach that explores how individuals are shaped by their physical and emotional orientation in the world. Being orientated, Ahmed explains, means feeling at home, knowing where one stands. However, deviating from the position which society has intended for one unsettles this feeling and calls for reorientation.}},
  author       = {{Wennerscheid, Sophie}},
  issn         = {{2593-0273}},
  journal      = {{DIGEST. JOURNAL OF DIVERSITY AND GENDER STUDIES}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{63--82}},
  title        = {{‘A queer way of loving’ : sexual reorientation and gender identity transition in contemporary Swedish literature}},
  url          = {{http://doi.org/10.11116/digest.5.2.4}},
  volume       = {{5}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}

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