Ibsen's Nora Revisited

NO. 3 - 2005 NIKK magasin

CHALLENGING GENDER NORMS IBSEN’S NORA REVISITED Fatherhood in Ibsen

Idealised Fathers and Murderous Moms

Fear of Falling

NIKK - Nordic Institute for Women's Studies and Gender Research Photo: Leif Gabrielsen

Why Ibsen is still important

The year 2006 marks the 100th anniversary of the death of the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen.Throughout this year, a wide range of events will be arranged all over the world, highlighting the importance of Ibsen’s legacy and providing opportunities for fresh interpretations of his work. Ibsen proclaims the freedom of the individual:“For me freedom is the greatest and highest condition for life”, Ibsen wrote in a letter in 1882. He has made generations reflect on fundamental rights and values. Many of the social and personal conflicts in his plays are still relevant, as are the gender norms he challenges when he lets Nora leave because she no longer wants to live the confined life of a doll. Even today, some of his texts are censured and some of his plays prohibited in parts of the world. Toril Moi, Professor of Literature at Duke University, USA and originally from Norway, says that Ibsen’s literary work is unique because he is perhaps the only male author of the 1800s who perceived the situation of women to be at least as interesting as that of men, in both a philosophical and dramatic sense.As part of the ten-year anniversary of NIKK Toril Moi gave a lecture at the University of Oslo on November 28 entitled “’First and foremost a human being: Gender, body and theatre in A Doll’s House”. In this annual English edition of NIKK magasin we report from this lecture, which was based on parts of her forthcoming book on Henrik Ibsen’s plays. Unni Langås, Professor of Scandinavian Literature at Agder University College in Norway discusses in her article why Nora in A Doll’s House is such a strong character in European drama and why she still is important for feminists worldwide. Her suggestion is that the audience can identify with and sympathize with Nora, who is so obviously trapped in a gender hierarchy, which calls for a very painful decision. She has to choose between the family, the children and a decent life for herself. Despite progress in the formal regulations of gender equality, this is still a highly relevant question for women today. As in A Doll´s House the patriarchal father appears in almost all of Ibsen’s works. In the play The Wild Duck the family relationship is represented through the father-child relationship. In his article Jørgen Lorentzen at the Centre for Women’s Studies and Gender Research at the University of Oslo explores three forms of fatherhood in The Wild Duck: the patriarchal father, the fallen father, and the loving, but helpless father. Ibsen’s dramatizations of fatherhood are part of a contemporary social debate in which fathers and paternal authority are subjected to a sweeping critique. Again we see how Ibsen confronts us with problems and topics still relevant today. Fatherhood, authority and masculinity in today’s society are precisely the topics of several other research contributions in this issue.

Trine Lynggard Editor NO. 3 - 2005 NIKK magasin 3

NORA - challenging fixed ideas In Ibsen’s play, fixed ideas of what a woman is are challenged by Nora’s actual performance.When she performs acts that are generally reserved for men, or withdraws from practices associated with women, she shows the gender attribution of these acts to be social constructions. PAGE 4

NORA – A Human Being – The key sentence in A Doll’s House is Nora’s assertion that she is “first and foremost a human being”. But Nora does not claim her humanity before she has explicitly rejected three other identities: the doll, the wife, and the mother,Toril Moi pointed out in her lecture held at the University of Oslo in connection with NIKKs ten-years anniversary.

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IBSEN´S THREE FATHERS The patriarchal father, the fallen father, and the loving, but helpless father are significant forms of fatherhood in Ibsen’s drama that correspond to actual father roles in

NO. 3 - 2005 Ibsen’s time, among them the role of his own father. NIKK magasin SIDE 10

CHALLENGING GENDER NORMS IBSEN’S NORA REVISITED Texts of Scandal Manly or Unmanly? Fatherhood in Ibsen What place do feelings and intimacy The group of unmanly men is an have within the literary field? Do forms important category in the definition of typical womens literature such as the of masculinity. Idealised Fathers and Murderous Moms letter or the personal confidence count PAGE 27 Fear of Falling for proper literature? PAGE 14 Parenthood in Murder- NIKK - Nordic Institute for Women's Studies and Gender Research suicide news NIKK magasin 3 - 2005 How fatherhood, motherhood ISSN 1502-1521 Love and Authority Mother sets the limits, and violence are connected in PUBLISHED BY: NIKK – the Nordic Institute for but Father resolves conflicts. newspaper narration. Women's Studies and Gender Research A study of the parenting PAGE 32 CHIEF EDITOR: of Norwegian youth. Solveig Bergman, director of NIKK [email protected] PAGE 18 EDITOR: Trine Lynggard [email protected] Speeding Boys TRANSLATORS: Examining the myth of Finnish Heidi Granquist, Connie Stultz, working-class, car-oriented, fast-driving John Mason and drink-loving masculinity. GRAPHIC DESIGN: PAGE 23 Alien Design PRINTING: CDDU Repro PRINTED IN: 11.000 copies COVER PHOTO: Joanna Butler. JUNI DAHR in her performance "IBSEN WOMEN" For more info, see www.dahr.no 4 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2005

CHALLENGING GENDER NORMS Ibsen’s Nora Revisited

By UNNI LANGÅS

Professor of Scandinavian Literature at Agder University College, Kristiansand, Norway [email protected]

Photo: Joanna Butler. JUNI DAHR as NORA in her performance "IBSEN WOMEN". For more info, see www.dahr.no

Why is Nora such an influential character in global feminism? What is the power of A Doll’s House from 1879, which still affects readers and audience worldwide? And how can gender theory contribute to a new reading of this drama? I will suggest that Nora’s lasting success is due to her actions during the whole play, where her performance brings to light the many layers of strong norms that she is struggling with. These norms constitute the gendered patterns of power in society, and through the disclosure of norms, A Doll’s House presents itself as an analysis of how gender and gender subordination is produced. NO. 3 - 2005 NIKK magasin 5

he American philosopher and estimated from the perspective of the because, as she puts it: “It was almost like feminist Judith Butler (1999) characters themselves, but in doing so, being a man.” Thas introduced the concept of they almost always refer to the prevailing In her proud revelations of her deed gender performativity in order to opinion. They are citing powerful con- to Mrs. Linde, Nora experiences a scepti- understand how gender is working. She ventions that precede and enable the for- cal response. “You’re just a child, Nora,” challenges the notion of gender as a sort mation of gendered subjects. The focus Mrs. Linde says and refers to the strong of natural thing, inevitably tied to our of the play is specifically to expose how conventions where a woman is consid- bodies, while instead insisting on the certain actions are carried out in opposi- ered a childlike creature. Nora’s childlike- political and emotional effects of how tion to general gender norms. ness is of course both a role that she is we are physically shaped. In a similar In Ibsen’s play, fixed ideas about what playing and a notion produced by speech way, Ibsen changes the focus of the a woman is are challenged by Nora’s actu- acts like those of Mrs. Linde. When she nineteenth century gender debate and al performance. When she performs acts struggles to make Mrs. Linde believe her, ideology from nature to culture, from that are generally reserved for men, or it is in part due to the unlikely fact that a being to performing. withdraws from practices associated with child has been acting as the manager of In a climate where woman is eco- women, she shows the gender attribution the family when the husband was ill. nomically, legally and politically subor- of these acts to be social constructions Krogstad is the one who teaches Nora dinated because she is woman, Ibsen and thereby contests their reified status. the more far-reaching consequences of shows the effects of this system, and at Nora’s two most provocative actions her actions. In their first conversation, he the same time demonstrates how gender take place before and after the negotia- has to remind her of the facts in the case, operates on the level of spoken and per- tions that we see unfolding during the and it becomes clear that Nora has her formed acts. This manifestation must be play’s time span. Firstly, she takes up a own values and understanding of the law. understood as a sign of the modernity of loan in order to go to Italy with her hus- She consequently refers to the critical sit- Ibsen’s play, as well as an intrinsic quali- band, Torvald Helmer, so that he can uation, both for her father and for her ty of the dramatic genre as such. recover from a serious illness. Because she husband, and cannot accept that her Gender is always connected to bod- is a married woman, she is not legally behaviour should be illegal. When he ies, to materiality, but at the same time, permitted to conduct this kind of finan- confronts her with the fact that the false gender difference is never just a func- cial transaction. Moreover, since her document can condemn her in court, she tion of bodily differences. It is always father is mortally ill, she does not want to does not believe it. Her law is simply dif- characterized by discursive practices. In ask him for his signature and conse- ferent. Butler’s view, the concept of gender is quently forges the certificate of debt. The further development is funda- always normative, and that is why it is Secondly, after having experienced mentally linked to Helmer and his empowered to draw distinctive lines – the harsh consequences of this act during responses to events which he does not to include, exclude, and discriminate. the play, she decides to leave her husband fully understand the depths and impli- Gender is a process where norms and and three children at the end. Both cations of. These responses reveal, how- regulations materialize, and this materi- actions radically break with prevailing ever, how systematically Helmer cites alization takes place by means of a fre- laws, the first of which is legal and the discourses that produce and corroborate quent reiteration of these very norms. second of which is an unwritten consen- male power hierarchies. Judith Butler seeks to incorporate sus of how a mother and wife is supposed First he reinforces Krogstad’s threat the materiality of the body in her conse- to behave. Flanked by these two major by underlining his disgust towards peo- quent underlining of the fact that gen- plot complications, Nora’s performance ple who forge someone else’s name and der is both producer and product, that repeatedly puts her own ideas, hopes, and get away with it “by tricks and decep- the subject within these frames of con- illusions in conflict with the surrounding tion.” He also explains this kind of dition must relate to discursive effects sanctions and restrictions. unethical conduct as essentially tied to based on a cultural gendering and eval- Nora’s own understanding of her mothers: “Nearly all the people who’ve uation of the body, and that it is possi- financial activities collides brutally with become corrupted early in life have had ble to defer and change the given norms the attitudes that are slowly but surely liars as mothers.” The consequence is because they are not natural, but shaped brought to light in the dialogues with the that Nora’s fear grows, and suddenly she by human beings. other characters. In her eyes, she has con- refuses to see her children. ducted a heroic rescue project for the sake Then he decides not to give back Acting like a man of her husband’s health. To this end, she Krogstad his job in spite of Nora’s very Ibsen’s play develops around a conflict has not only acted as an autonomous per- insistent requests, partly because he can- which raises the following questions: son with her own business affairs, but she not stand Krogstad, and partly because What is a woman supposed to do? And has also saved money and taken on some he needs to confirm his authority as a what does she do? Nora is staged within a copying in order to pay back the loan. man and director. Then, when he has context where the value of her actions is This enterprise has given her self-esteem, read the letter from Krogstad, he reveals 6 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2005

his lack of integrity when he first con- along in order to please Helmer and nification. Instead, her various roles and demns Nora for being “– a hypocrite, a manipulate him, but also because she actions investigate the frames of activity liar, – worse still, – a criminal!”, and sec- does not want to disclose her many that are culturally given and accepted ondly when he forgives her after all, secrets, trivial and serious. for female behaviour. When constantly only because Krogstad has returned the In response to Helmers explicit anti- running into difficulties created by the forged document. loan policy, she says about potential conflict between her intentions and Helmers reactions expose the goal of creditors, “Them? Who cares about ideals, the narrow pattern of accepted his thinking and acting, namely to pro- them?” In this way, she appears to him conduct, and the quality and value of tect his own reputation as director of the and to the audience as an irresponsible, the offered roles, she is brought to ques- bank and head of the family. Even his even cynical, person who cares about tion the powerful norms that govern her erotic life depends on the gender hierar- nothing else than her own little private life. chy: “I wouldn’t be a man if precisely universe. This narcissistic carelessness is this feminine helplessness didn’t make labeled female by Helmer: “Nora, Nora, Identification and deeper you twice as attractive to me.” Finally, you’re a typical woman!” understanding Helmer appeals to Nora’s consciousness With this statement, he is clearly cit- Why then is Nora a strong character in by bringing in cultural and religious ing common knowledge and simultane- European drama and why is she still conventions, as well as his own well- ously confirming it. His speech act defines important for feminists? known patronizing attitude when she is a woman as superficial and narrow-mind- The impact at a personal and politi- about to leave. ed, while Nora’s spoken attitudes corre- cal level is that the audience can identi- Trying to fight the attempts to spondingly invite him to do so. Nora is fy with and sympathize with Nora, who incarcerate her within conventions, using femininity as a way of hiding her is so obviously trapped in a gender hier- Nora seeks to dispute the frames of her secret, and at this moment, she does not archy, which calls for a very painful entrapment and transgress the prevail- really comprehend the implications of this decision. Why does she have to choose ing understanding of what a woman is strategy. But the beholder, who knows her between the family and children, and a supposed to do. Opposing the blame to be acting a part, will probably under- decent life for herself? Despite progress directed towards her because of the loan stand that Nora’s lack of care could be illu- in the formal regulations of gender and forged signature, she answers with sory, and the gradual revelation of her equality, this is still a highly relevant another kind of logic. When Helmer financial enterprise certainly confirms this question for women today. appeals to her consciousness as wife and suspicion. The impact at a theoretical level is mother, she replies that she no longer Noras pivotal performance is the that Nora’s way of performing exposes believes in those concepts. tarantella dance, which is Helmers how she struggles to define herself and She explicitly challenges both choice for her appearance at the mas- her female identity in opposition to unwritten and written laws of the socie- querade. As a Neapolitan fisher girl she legal and cultural norms. By disclosing ty in which she has lived her life and is supposed to incarnate youth, sensual- how gender is produced through a formed her personality. Nora’s experi- ity, eroticism, and chastity. Her role is a materializing of bodily and verbal acts, ence in a culture with two sets of norms, perfect reply to male desire, a desire that A Doll’s House gives us a deeper under- one for men and one for women, makes Helmer verbalizes very explicitly when standing of the effects and operations of her rethink the conditions of being a the couple returns home from the party. gender as such. woman. Her concluding act is to leave a For Nora, however, the dance has a situation where her actions are not much broader significance. The actual appreciated, but condemned, exactly performance is staged as a rehearsal because she has tried to act like a man before the ball, and Nora uses the situa- while being a woman. tion in an attempt to control the course REFERENCES Butler, Judith: Gender Trouble. Feminism and the of events. Desperately afraid of seeing Subversion of Identity (1990), Routledge, London and New Acting like a woman Helmer open the letter from Krogstad York 1999 Nora’s behavior is more smoothly which will ruin his reputation, Nora is ––– : Bodies that Matter. On the Discursive Limits of ‘Sex’, Routledge, London and New York 1993 accepted when she is acting like a prepared to die. The tarantella is a dra- Ibsen, Henrik:A Dolls’ House (1991), English translation by woman. Her femininity is a forceful and matic climax and a last feast before Joan Tindale, Solum, Oslo 2002 Langås, Unni:“What Did Nora Do? Thinking Gender with divulging demonstration of how gender catastrophe. In this scene, Nora uses her A Doll’s House,” in Ibsen Studies, forthcoming is performed. In Nora various historic body as a sign for a crisis that cannot be versions of womanliness are collected verbally represented. The body is her Professor Unni Langås is Head of the and exposed. She is a child, a liar, a ultimate language. research project Kroppens betydning. dancer, a doll, a narcissist, a flirt, a Nora’s performance opposes those Konstruksjoner av kjønn i nordisk seductress, and so on, and she clearly concepts of gender that connect it either litteratur. acts out her different roles. She plays to a core of identity or to superficial sig- http://www.hia.no/hum/nordisk/kroppen NO. 3 - 2005 NIKK magasin 7

IBSEN’S NORA: “First and foremost a human being”

By journalist TURID ØVREBØ

-The key sentence in “A Doll’s House” is Nora’s assertion that she is “first and foremost a human being”. But Nora does not claim her humanity before she has explicitly rejected three other identities: the doll, the wife, and the moth- er, Toril Moi points out. Photo: oanna Butler.WOMEN" "IBSEN in her performance JUNI DAHR www.dahr.no 8 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2005

oril Moi, professor of considers to be a precursor to A Doll’s into a “mechanical doll”. But while Literature at Duke University, House. Nora dances, Mrs. Linde, who also TUSA and originally from – Corinne is forced to remain silent knows Nora’s secret, comes into the Norway, is regarded as one of the during gatherings simply because she is room. Mrs. Linde sees Nora’s pain; she world’s leading researchers in gender a woman, and she complains that she also sees that the men do not see it. studies. Her latest book, a study of the just as well could have been “a doll easi- They only see Nora’s wildly agitating Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, ly improved by mechanics”. Whether body, Moi pointed out. She emphasized will be published as Ibsens modernisme Corinne is forced to be silent or she is that this scene invites the audience to by Pax Forlag in Oslo in May and as accused of being theatrical, she is see Nora both as Helmer and Dr. Rank Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of reduced to being a mere body. In the see her and as Mrs. Linde sees her. Modernism: Art, Theater, Philosophy first case, the body becomes a grave; in – Whereas the first two theatricalize by Oxford University in August. As part the second, a theatrical performance. In her, the third sees her as a suffering of the ten-year anniversary of NIKK, either case, she is not listened to, her human being. But the scene does not Moi gave a lecture at the University of words are not heard, and her humanity ask us to choose between the two per- Oslo on 28 November entitled “’First is not acknowledged. Consequently, spectives. If we try to choose, we will and foremost a human being: Gender, Corinne is trapped in a dilemma in find that both possibilities result in a body and theatre in A Doll’s House”. which she is either theatricalized or loss. Ibsen’s dual perspective, which I This lecture, which was based on parts forced into silence, Toril Moi explained. view as the awareness that it has become of chapter 7 in Moi’s forthcoming book, Like Corinne, Nora tries to assert impossible in the modern world to dis- will be published in Norwegian in the her own existence by finding her voice. tinguish between the theatrical and the Norwegian journal Samtiden in Corrine loses her voice and dies without authentic, plays a central role in Ibsen’s February. bening understood or acknowledged. modernism, Toril Moi claimed. In her lecture Moi contended that Ibsen’s Nora, however, finds her own She showed that the audience knows Ibsen’s literary work is unique because voice and asserts her humanity: “I even more about what is at stake for he is perhaps the only male author of believe that first and foremost I am a Nora because they have just heard that the 1800s who perceived the situation human being, just as much as you are.” she has decided to commit suicide when of women to be at leat as interesting as (p. 84; translation amended) Helmer learns the truth: that of men, in both a philosophical and dramatic sense. Nora’s tarantella KROGSTAD: You mean you...? – A woman should not have to Toril Moi also accentuated the tarantel- NORA: Now I have the courage. choose between being a woman and la scene in the second act as a perform- KROGSTAD: You can’t frighten me! A being a human being, but women must ance in which Nora demonstrates her precious pampered little thing like you... often make this choice in literature and own humanity as opposed to her “doll- NORA: I’ll show you! I’ll show you! in the culture at large. In the works of ness”. KROGSTAD: Under the ice, maybe? Ibsen, uniquely, women are not present- – Because of all the melodramatic Down in the cold, black water? Then ed with this choice, she said. elements found in the tarantella scene, it being washed up in the spring, bloated, is easy to conclude that the scene only hairless, unrecognizable... The doll as a literary figure shows how Nora theatricalizes her own NORA: You can’t frighten me. (p. 56) When Nora attempts to explain how body, and in this way she consents to she feels about her life and marriage, she being reduced to a doll. The scene, how- – This masterful exchange conveys uses the doll figure to describe her for- ever, goes beyond such a limited read- to the audience the picture that Nora mer self. She says that her father “used ing, Moi underlined. In her point of has in her head while she dances the to call me his baby doll, and he played view Nora’s tarantella is a graphic pres- tarantella. It explains why Nora cannot with me as I used to play with my dolls” entation of a woman’s struggle to make help but answering “It does” when (p. 82). She, herself, carries on the tra- her existence heard, to make it count. Helmer says that she is dancing as if her dition: ”And the children in turn have She also explained that the tarantella life depended on it. Ibsen demonstrates been my dolls.” (p. 83). Nora leaves scene shows more than Nora as a once again the power of the theatre to because she no longer wants to live the dancer. It also dramatizes two different convey a person’s inner suffering. This life of a doll. Toril Moi emphasized in ways of regarding her dance. gives those of us sitting in the audience her lecture that the doll is the most – First, we have the two men. I sus- a precious opportunity, Moi said: If we important metaphor in “A Doll’s pect that they view her through a the- do not acknowledge Nora’s humanity, House” and made a comparison with atrical, semi-pornographic lens. For then perhaps nobody will. the use of the doll figure in Corinne, ou them, Nora’s dance is an exhibition of l’Italie by Germaine de Staël, a novel she her body; their view of her turns her NO. 3 - 2005 NIKK magasin 9

Wife, mother, daughter own unconsidered acceptance of the tra- Nora even makes a point of saying that In this way Moi showed in her lecture ditional understanding of women’s posi- she chooses to leave her children, pre- how Nora refuses to be a doll, but she tion. Here Nora admits that she forged cisely because she is not yet a sufficient- also emphasized that Nora refuses to her father’s signature in order to borrow ly independent individual to raise them: define herself as a wife and a mother in money to save her husband. Krogstad «As I am now, I can never be anything the following dialogue: then explains to her that she has com- to them» (1998, p. 85). As long as mar- mitted a crime, and claims that there is riage and motherhood are incompatible HELMER. It’s outrageous. That you can no difference between what he once did, with women’s existence as individuals betray your most sacred duties in this way. and what Nora did, and that the law and citizens, Nora does not want any of NORA. What do you count as my most and society will come to treat them both these things. sacred duties? as criminals. Nora regards this as an HELMER. And I have to tell you! Are insult: She acted as a good wife and Something devine they not the duties to your husband and mother should, in the best interest of – When Helmer asks what must happen your children? the family. for her to return to him, Nora answers NORA. I have other equally sacred duties. – What makes the conversation that something divine must occur: HELMER. No, you don’t. What “duties” between Krogstad and Nora so Hegelian «That our life together could become a might you have in mind? is the conflict between society’s law marriage» (Toril Moi’s translation from NORA. My duties to myself. referred to by Krogstad and Nora’s feel- the Norwegian). For Nora the differ- HELMER. You are first and foremost a ings of obligation as a wife and daugh- ence between a life together and mar- wife and a mother. ter, rather than as an individual. riage (which Nora now regards as an NORA. I no longer believe that. I believe According to Hegel, the family is not a unattainable dream) is the same as the that I am first and foremost a human group of individuals, but a kind of difference between living together with being, just as much as you, - or, at least, organic unit. This unit of generic mem- and without love, not in Helmer’s tradi- that I’ll try to become one. bers is led by the father, who is the fam- tional sense, but in a new, utopian sense. (Toril Moi’s translation from the ily’s only connection to the state. Nora demands nothing less than that Norwegian text.) Through his interaction with other men the concept of love be infused with a outside the family, the man achieves his revolutionary new content. A Doll’s Moi argued against many critics individuality. Men become citizens and House rejects traditional definitions of who have insisted that if Nora wants to participate in the life of the society love. What will count as love between a be a human being, she cannot continue while women remain confined within man and a woman in a world where to be a woman. Such assertions assume the family unit, Moi stated. women too demand to be acknowl- that a woman must choose between For Hegel women never really edged as individuals? What will it take regarding herself as a women or as a become self-conscious individuals. They for two modern individuals to build a human being. This is a traditional trap do not have access to the universal relationship (whether we call it marriage of gender discrimination (a point Moi (state, law, science, art), and they do not or, simply, a life together) based on free- has previously discussed in her essay “I care about this either. In the first act, dom, equality and love? These are ques- am a woman”). Such arguments refuse Moi claimed, Nora is the personifica- tions Ibsen continually returns to. And to admit that a woman can represent the tion of the Hegelian woman. She is we do as well, Toril Moi concluded. universal just as much or just as well as superficial, irresponsible, concerned a man. They are prisoners of a picture of exclusively with her own family’s well gender in which the woman is always being, and has no relationship to the the particular, always the relative, never law (the universal). But by the end of the ordinary, never the norm. The fact the play, all this has changed. Nora has that Ibsen himself never places her undergone a transformation. She began humanity in opposition to her feminin- as a Hegelian mother and daughter, and ity is evidence of his political radicalism she ends up realizing that she must and his greatness as an author, Moi said. become an individual and that this can only happen if she has a direct relation- Refutation of Hegel ship with the society in which she lives, Moi claimed that A Doll’s House can be not indirectly through her husband: read as a refutation of Hegel’s conserva- “But I’m not content any more with tive theory on women’s role in the fam- what most people say, or with what it Unless something else is noted, all quotes from A Doll’s House come from Henrik Ibsen, Four Major Plays:A Doll’s ily and marriage. A key passage in the says in books. I have to think things out House, Ghosts, Hedda Gabler,The Master Builder, trans. first act, she showed, establishes Nora’s for myself, and get things clear.” (p. 82). James McFarlane, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1998. 10 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2005

Wild Duck Fathers

By JØRGEN LORENTZEN Researcher at Centre for Women’s Studies and Gender Research, University of Oslo [email protected]

In the play The Wild Duck Henrik Ibsen illustrates three fathers by presenting three different forms of fatherhood: the patriarchal father, the fallen father, and the loving, but helpless father. They are significant forms of fatherhood in Ibsen’s drama that correspond to actual father roles in Ibsen’s time.

n the play we meet three real tive at illustrating the significance that their son Gregers. In this fight we rec- father figures in three father-child the various father roles may hold for the ognize gender-oriented positions: Mrs. Irelationships: Werle-Gregers, Ekdal- next generation. Almost as in a novel, Werle is emotional and long-suffering, Hjalmar, and Hjalmar-Hedvig. One key we can read of the life connections “sickly” and “high-strung,” as Werle aspect of Ibsen’s dramas is the manner in between three generations in this tightly calls her. Werle is rational and authori- which he weaves together these father constructed drama. tarian. The rationality emerges since the roles. He does not separate them as marriage was not based on love, but on three distinct forms of fatherhood, but The Patriarchal Father economic motivation. Later it became instead demonstrates how they are Old Werle in The Wild Duck is a patri- apparent that Werle had miscalculated, interconnected through relationships, arch willing to do anything to save his and a large dowry did not accompany dissolutions and continuity/discontinu- own skin, including abandoning his the marriage. The economic motivation ity. In The Wild Duck the focus is on own son. But in the end Werle emerges is clear in Werle’s persistent hate, as the family relationships, or the “family as the only one who seems capable of expressed in the drama by Werle’s bitter sorrows,” and more precisely, the family changing both his attitudes and per- comment: represented through the father-child spective on life, and the only one capa- Werle: [...] From being a child, you’ve relationship. ble of creating a relationship of truth always had a sickly conscience. It’s a her- I can hardly think of a more perva- and openness in his new marriage to itage from your mother, Gregers... one sive motif in Ibsen’s works than father- Mrs. Sørby. thing she did leave you. hood. However, fatherhood is not what At the opening of the play, we Gregers: (with a contemptuous smile). most of us associate with Ibsen’s dramas. become acquainted with Werle, both as That must have been a bitter pill to swal- Fatherhood lies in the background, a “stud” who has had erotic escapes and low when you found you had miscalculat- ahead of the drama and underlying the as a father who, in his instrumental rea- ed, after expecting her to bring you a for- dramatic interactions and scenes. son, has not publicly acknowledged for tune. (VI: 196) Fatherhood is pervasive, yet kept dis- the past 16 years that he actually has a In the same conversation between cretely in the background. son. His estrangement from his son is father and son at the end of the third Ibsen’s dramatizations of father- demonstrated in a number of ways. For act, the father’s authoritarian role also hood are part of a contemporary social example, Werle has not written one per- emerges. Gregers says: “I didn’t dare. I debate in which fathers and paternal sonal word to his son during their 16- was scared... too much of a coward. I can’t authority are subjected to a sweeping years of separation; instead, their corre- tell you how frightened of you I was then critique. The spotlight is placed on the spondence has been strictly businesslike. and for a long time after, too” (VI: 196). father, both on and off stage, and he Their family life has consisted of an Because Gregers was so frightened of his must explain himself. The role of the ongoing battle between Mr. and Mrs. father, he stayed away from him for 16 father is not taken for granted. Werle, and the most important fight years. In the end, the loss of his son has The Wild Duck is especially effec- between the couple was for power over cruel consequences for Werle, who loses NO. 3 - 2005 NIKK magasin 11 Photo: Leif Gabruelsen 12 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2005

his heir when Gregers rejects all his that is solid, acceptable and strong of tinual problematizing of fatherhood inheritance rights out of contempt for character, and who thus falls by the throughout his works. The most his father. wayside, leaves little source material amenable of the fallen fathers is possibly It is often overlooked that Werle about his own demise. While bourgeois old Ekdal in The Wild Duck. loses even more than this. He also loses men write autobiographies about their Old Ekdal experiences a greater fall his other potential heir, his illegitimate masculine achievements, there are very than Knud Ibsen. He is prosecuted for child, Hedvig. When Hedvig dies, this few who write extensively about their illegal logging, imprisoned for several opportunity is also lost, and Werle finds own failures and unmanliness. years, and returns a broken man. His himself completely alone again. His There is a much-discussed fallen punishment is even harder to bear loneliness is also expressed in particular father in the Norwegian material from because his partner and friend, Werle, passages when he touches upon his own the 1800s, though, namely Henrik lets him down by allowing him to take suffering. In a conversation with Ibsen’s own family history. His father, all the blame for the illegal logging. He Gregers, he says: “I’m a lonely man Knud Ibsen, was a successful business- has been both punished and betrayed, Gregers; I’ve always felt lonely, all my life; man in Skien, who married Marichen, and upon his return he finds that the but especially now that I’m getting on a the daughter of the well-to-do John man who betrayed him has become one bit in years” (VI: 148). He also says later: Andreas Altenburg. When Knud Ibsen of the city’s most prominent men. He “Laughter doesn’t come so easily to a lone- received an inheritance following the seeks isolation in the attic and drowns ly man, Gregers” (VI: 150). death of his father-in-law in 1830, the his sorrows in alcohol. Old Ekdal has Werle’s authoritarian and economic Ibsen family became one of the most lost his masculinity and tries to restore it rationality has not achieved any results. prosperous in Skien. However, just a metaphorically by putting on his old On the contrary, he has failed miserably. few years later in 1834-35, Knud Ibsen lieutenant’s uniform once in a while and The fight between Mr. and Mrs. Werle, lost the entire fortune. Partly due to going on an illusionary hunt in the or a family drama based on economics over-investment and poor management attic. rather than love, leads to loss for both and partly due to an economic reces- His son, Hjalmar Ekdal, is also husband and wife, to the son’s blind, sion, the family was forced to give up all greatly affected by his father’s downfall. unrealistic idealism and, ultimately, to its property. The family had to move He withdrew behind the blinds when the death of the illegitimate child. from their patrician villa in Skien to a his father was imprisoned, he has since In 1884 The Norwegian National smaller house in the country. The father moved into the dark attic with his own Assembly debated the issue of separate never recovered from this fall from their family, and we come to know him as a property rights for married women. In a economic and social class. He died a person with amazingly little self-insight petition dated 12 April 1884, Norway’s poor, lonely alcoholic in 1877. and inflated notions of his masculinity most acclaimed authors at that time, Henrik Ibsen, who was the family’s and of his own role as provider. Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Henrik Ibsen, eldest son, left his father immediately Hjalmar’s self-absorption falls into a Jonas Lie and Alexander Kielland wrote after his confirmation in 1843 and totally different category than old to the Norwegian National Assembly, probably made a visit home in 1850 Werle’s authoritarian egoism. Therefore, requesting that women be granted sepa- before leaving for Christiania. After this, it is not his striking egocentrism, but his rate property rights. They also criticized father and son never saw each other comical way of taking himself too seri- the Assembly for its unwillingness to go again. Nor did Henrik ever send a letter ously that makes him a rather pathetic all the way and make these rights auto- or greetings directly to his father and and wretched fellow. matic. In April of the same year Henrik this can be seen as evidence of the pain This creates a strong ambivalence in Ibsen had begun writing The Wild the father’s downfall inflicted on the the character; clearly comical, but utter- Duck. Its theme was the consequences son. ly without self-insight into his own of a failed marriage, in which the issue While historical documentation on comic effect, and at the same time, of economics and love played a key role. Knud and Henrik Ibsen lacks reflections clearly pathetic, but apparently with on the downfall, it nonetheless tells great self-confidence. The Fallen Father indirectly of the great emotional cost of Hjalmar behaves exactly the oppo- The other form of fatherhood in The such a downfall: social marginalization, site of what we saw in Henrik Ibsen’s Wild Duck consists of the relationship loss of face and position, isolation and relationship to his own father. While between old Ekdal and Hjalmar Ekdal. loneliness, cooling of family relation- Henrik leaves his father at an early age The fallen father has received little ships (between mother and father, as and never sees or contacts him again, attention although this form of father- well as between father and son), and Hjalmar and his father seek out each hood was probably not so unusual in finally alcoholism and abject poverty. In other in their sorrow over the father’s the 1800s. This omission has a likely this context, the term unmanliness is downfall. cause: The patriarch who does not mas- relevant. Henrik Ibsen’s relationship to Hjalmar’s relationship to both his ter the task of building a masculinity his father emerges, though, in the con- father and his illegitimate child Hedvig NO. 3 - 2005 NIKK magasin 13

is unusual. He is the only man in the spawned from the Ekdal family and no When Hjalmar pulled down the drama, and one of the few in all of other. While Gregers and Hjalmar are blinds, his mind and soul remained Ibsen’s works, who openly expresses each in their own way negatively affect- undeveloped, and thus we meet a child- love. For this reason, this part must be ed by their childhoods, Hedvig is the ish disposition with the same longing taken seriously, and I will do just that in exact opposite. She has grown up with for love as Hedvig. As a grown person the next aspect of fatherhood brought love and expresses love. who tries to act like an adult, he forth in The Wild Duck. Gregers does not see this. He is so becomes cowardly and helpless, largely deprived of love that he is not able to see guided by the whims and suggestions of The Loving, love when it is present. His admission of others (which he does not manage to see but Helpless Father the truth is therefore based on blindness through), except at home, where he Many Ibsen critics have taken Gregers’ to the truth that is right in front of him, attempts to play the role of the father. It plan in relation to the Ekdal family too the Ekdal family’s relative happiness. is thus a loving, but helpless father role literally. That is, a genuine idealism lies And it is in this context that we must that he plays. at the bottom of his play-acting, and he understand the inversion of the stage A reading such as this, emphasizing knows the truth about the Ekdal fami- rooms. Hjalmar’s ability to love, makes the trag- ly’s false foundation. The Werle family is wealthy, but ic aspect of the play emerge even more There are good reasons to doubt loveless, while the Ekdal family is poor, clearly. Hjalmar becomes more than a that Gregers’ discourse is the truest one but filled with love and warmth. Werle self-absorbed idiot without the ability to in this work. Everything suggests that is characterized by a patriarch’s rational- understand what is happening. In his Werle is Hedvig’s biological father and ity and emotional absence, while own way he has tried to achieve a gen- that Werle has actively manipulated the Hjalmar is continually present, over- uine marriage and give Hedvig a life of situation so that Hjalmar is prepared to emotional and non-rational. Werle’s love. Gregers not only leads Hedvig into marry Gina. The other true narrative in choice of a spouse was based on eco- death - he also kills the attempt to estab- this drama is in fact that Hjalmar clear- nomics, Hjalmar’s on love. lish a family based on love. Hjalmar ly married Gina for love and that he has However, it should not be ignored thus becomes even more of a tragic fig- always regarded Hedvig as his own that Hjalmar’s ability to care is limited ure, first subjected to old Werle’s game, daughter, loving her more than any- at times. His self-pity makes it some- then exposed to Gregers’ game, which thing else in the world. Hjalmar has times difficult for him to show real car- he believes in just as much. He believes achieved a good marriage based on love ing. He forgets to bring something tasty just as easily in Gregers’ proposition as rather than economic motives, in con- to Hedvig from the party at old Werle’s in Werle’s. The tragedy lies in this com- trast to the marriage of old Werle. as he promised, and asks her to be satis- bination of Gregers’ false idealism and Similarly, the relationship between fied with a menu instead. He is not will- Hjalmar’s lack of inner strength and Gina, Hedvig and Hjalmar (and old ing to take responsibility for her eyes sense of responsibility. Ekdal) is characterized by solidarity and when she takes over his job to earn The Ekdal family is the personifica- a great deal of trust in and caring for money for the family, so that he can go tion of the patriarchy as comic tragedy each other. There is love within the up to the dark attic: and a portrait of the infeasibility of the Ekdal family, in contrast to the Werle Hjalmar: But don’t ruin your eyes! loving father role at the end of the family. In a conversation with Gregers D’you hear? I’m not taking any responsi- 1800s. in the fifth act, after Gregers has dis- bility; you have to take the responsibility closed Werle’s plot against the family, yourself. Understand? (VI: 179) Hjalmar exclaims: Hjalmar is not a mature, responsible Hjalmar: I can’t tell you how I loved father. He likes to be seen as the father BIBLIOGRAPHY Bjørnson, Bjørnstjerne, Henrik Ibsen, Jonas Lie and that child. I can’t tell you how happy I felt in the house, but he does not act with Alexander Kielland 1884: Skrivelse til Stortinget ang. gifte every time I came home to my modest the authority, which would indicate that kvinners særeie. Oslo: Stortinget, Dokument no. 92. room and she would come running across he in fact is the father. In many ways he Høst, Else 1967:The Wild Duck av Henrik Ibsen. Oslo: Aschehoug. to me, with her poor sweet, strained little is truly “a man with a childish disposi- Ibsen, Henrik 1960:“The Wild Duck.” In The Oxford Ibsen, eyes. (VI: 235) tion,” as Relling points out within the Volume VI.Translated and edited by James McFarlane. London: Oxford University Press. Hedvig’s relationship to her father is play. He trusts others with an absolute Ibsen, Henrik 1964: Ibsen’s Letters and Speeches. Edited by also shown in a clearly positive light. naivety and changes according to whom Evert Sprinchorn. New York: Hill and Wang. Tosh, John 1999:A Man’s Place. Masculinity and the Middle- She runs to meet him, sits on his lap, he is talking to. The consequence of this Class Home in Victorian England.London:Yale University expresses love for her father and mani- is that it becomes difficult to talk about Press. fests purity and goodness, always seek- Hjalmar as egotistical in the true mean- ing out love. As the others, however, ing of the word since we can hardly This article is an excerpt in English of an Hedvig is a product of the family she speak of the presence of any ego in article in the Norwegian journal grows up in, and her feelings of love are Hjalmar at all. “Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning 2-2005. 14 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2005

TEXTS OF SCANDAL Feelings and intimacy in literature

By ANNE BIRGITTE RICHARD Lecturer at Roskilde University, Denmark [email protected] Photo: Scanpix/Susanne Mertz NO. 3 - 2005 NIKK magasin 15

Conflicts between the writings of female authors and the more elevated literary canon have been legion. I wish here to discuss a particular example of this that deals with the placement of feelings and of intimacy within the literary field.

riteria for literary and artistic scandal in its outspoken statements quality of confidentiality and scandal. assessment have for many about femininity, which are simultane- This is a feature that can be related Cdecades now relied upon ously undermined by the play between directly to revelations from biographical modernism’s understanding of a good voices, images and narratives. Equally life, to stories of marriage, sexuality and piece of work as a text – or a picture – widely read and translated was Syv drug misuse – or indirectly to truths characterised by being a complex and Søstre sad (Seven Sisters sat) (1923) (see from the world of women that trans- self-contained entity, in which feelings Jørgensen 2005), an epistolary novel in gress a limit of normality – and literari- and the private domain are expressed by which the only voices heard are those ness – and that both appeal to and repel means of a cool and reflected form. generated by the intersecting correspon- readers. That apart, these writers are sty- These are criteria that relate only with dence. Michaëlis was internationally listically different. Michaëlis writes with difficulty to a range of forms typical of well-informed and involved – in the feelings and pathos overlaying her lan- women’s literature, such as the letter or fight against Nazism, for example – and guage, in a way that strikes the reader the personal confidence. Do these count had to flee to USA, returning to with a sense of ‘Too much!’ in relation as proper literature, or do they rather Denmark in 1950, where she had been to literary norms that place a considered belong in a pre-aesthetic space? We forgotten. In the 1970s she came to the and cool reproduction of feelings at the recognise the debate from the 1970s, attention of the new school of female top of the agenda. Ditlevsen has a when poems and novels deriving from researchers, and her writings have in directness that vibrates between the the female world of experience were recent years been treated in a number of grotesque, the ironic and the seriously lumped together, dismissed as function- places (von Eyben 2003, Nielsen 2002, private confidence. Their writer’s des- al literature and criticised for their naïve Jørgensen 2005). However, she remains tiny might resemble that of the much view of language as a spontaneous medi- on the verges of the canon. maligned feminist functional literature, um for reproducing authentic experi- but their immodest surrender to not ence and for creating a common con- Tove Ditlevsen: particularly politically correct fantasies sciousness of social and psychological part of the canon also went against the grain of the femi- relations. The assessing eye had difficul- My second example is Tove Ditlevsen nist canon of the time. ty distinguishing between texts. (1917-1976), who achieved consider- By way of experiment I will apply able popularity with her poems, her another view of their texts inspired by Karin Michaëlis: novels taken from a working class street the last 10 years’ discussion of avant- on the verges of canon (Barndommens Gade (Childhood’s garde art and literature, which is charac- This is a blindness which I will illustrate Street), 1944), her children’s books terised not least by the break with a by pinpointing two Danish writers, one about Annalise (1959-69) and her modernist perception of autonomy and from each end of the 20th century. memoirs (Barndom, Ungdom, Gift, representation. Avant-garde works are Karin Michaëlis (1872-1950) was very (Childhood, Youth, Married), 1967- often described as being heteronomous, widely read and translated in her own 1971), but in a constantly unresolved working as they do on and with the day and known especially for her novel conflict with the modernist Parnassus. boundaries between art, institution and Den farlige Alder (The Dangerous Age) Only during the last 10 years, more reality. Furthermore by being willing to (1910), which uses wit and a play of than 20 years after her death, has she incorporate fragments of the private voices and diary notes alongside sensual really been taken seriously as a poet and dimension with other quotations from and painterly imagery to present the become a part of the canon, even for the art, the media and the surrounding real- female menopause as a fate that is literary theorist. ity as a whole into a work, using this to regarded as being the product of gender A feature which the writings of these propose a discussion of the concept of and upbringing. The novel created a two authors have in common is their art – and of the work itself, since it is 16 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2005

not always easy to see where the work tives falls away, but within the priest’s letter to Vilhelm, Lise can quote the finishes and reality begins. Neither narrative, too, there are strange slippages author’s introductory considerations Michaëlis nor Ditlevsen can be termed between speech and silence, because the almost word for word. Lise – or perhaps avant-garde artists, but the perspective priest’s wife knows more than she is told. in truth the entire novel – is, like of this discussion of art, which has faith- This knowledge finds expression in her Michaëlis’ priest’s wife, deranged. Lise is fully followed modernism since World diaries. Between all these words – the girl literally deranged, since we meet her dur- War I, can be used to illustrate one who wishes to confess, the diary-writing ing a confinement in a mental hospital, aspect of the collision between elements wife, the evil seducer, the mediating but the derangement spreads uncomfort- in women’s literature and the writing of priest and the Biblical texts – the narra- ably through the novel and its descrip- literary history. tive’s two women are dragged down into tions of people and spaces. In the outer a strange sacrificial position, victims narrative Vilhelm has left his wife and, The indescribable both of their passion and of the male with her, his room, and she makes use of Karin Michaëlis’ novel Over al Forstand participants’ very differing voices. It is an advertisement to get another man to (Beyond all Understanding) of 1907 is a horrifying, and nor is the novel’s pattern move in. This involves him moving framed narrative, in which an unnamed of voices innocent of cultivating this hor- down from the floor above, where he has narrator, along with a number of other ror, which seems both to make the narra- been lodging with a witch-like old people, is on a visit to a manor house. By tive disappear inwards into its own dark woman, into her husband’s bed and into day the guests are separated. In the hollows between the voices and to break the part of her sexual partner. evenings, in the magical atmosphere of through the boundaries of the novel in Reflections about a marriage and its night, they assemble and discuss even its insistence on a knowledge – that of shipwreck that are by turns grotesque, those things that cannot be explained. the priest’s wife – that transcends both all demented and apparently more reflec- And in this setting a priest with a ‘nobly knowledge and fiction’s normal staging tively psychological break down until it shaped face’ steps forward and tells his of narrative hierarchies. no longer becomes possible to find a nor- life story, which gravitates between the mal path out of the novel, one that confidences of two women. One is the The fiction of derangement avoids the catastrophic ending, which is fiancée of the priest of the neighbouring – the code cracks death. Derangement not only belongs to parish, who is carrying with her a secret Tove Ditlevsen’s novel Vilhelms værelse the main character. It is reflected in her which could derail her coming marriage, (Vilhelm’s Room) (1975) also lets the hospital friend, who regularly breaks and the priest speaks both to her and to reader into a strange space, while at the down because of the demands of her her unknowing and principled fiancé. So same time through its construction it immovable family that she should fulfil far we have a relatively traditional makes itself and its own narrative frame- the normal function of a housewife, but Chinese-box structure, and we can prob- work collapse – inwardly and outwardly. beyond that it attaches itself to almost ably work out that the confidence deals In the narrative framework we have a every character and is also turned around with premarital sexuality – as always first person narrator, who wants to tell as a question about where normality is to with Michaëlis of the more demonic the story of the author Lise Mundus’ last be found. There are similarities here to kind. days before she took her own life after Michaëlis’ gallery of off-beat women, The other woman is the priest’s wife, her divorce from Vilhelm. The name of who at the same time insist that their and he describes her reactions. There is the principal character is taken from the fantasies and feelings have their own jus- also another source for her thoughts, novel Ansigterne (Faces) (1968), while tification and their own truth, which since she leaves behind a diary. What the the remainder of the family is different in undermine more rational discourse. But title refers to in the first instance is her the two novels. Furthermore Vilhelms in the place of Michaëlis’ unnamed fram- relations to her husband, which go Værelse contains clear traces of Tove ing narrator, a narrator enters here, who beyond good sense in their jealous and Ditlevsen’s own life, while at the same breaks down the boundaries both anxiety-laden obsession with the man. It time prefiguring her suicide. In this way inwardly towards what is narrated and is not just that she wants to know every- reality repeats the novel just as the novel outwardly towards reality – and in the thing – she does know everything, for repeats reality, by including, for example, process engenders a serious breakdown her powerful feelings allow her to see the exact text of the advertisement that of boundaries between biographical doc- even those things he cannot confide in Tove Ditlevsen herself placed in the per- ument and fiction. While Michaëlis in her. The priest’s narrative concludes with sonal columns a couple of years earlier. particular sets voices and the intimate the death of both women. His wife dies In the novel Lise’s own voice is heard diary in motion, there is in Ditlevsen an of her knowledge, the girl having met in a series of articles for a magazine, in additional move out into the media and and surrendered to her seducer – who which she talks about her marriage, the entire literary institution in her fic- subsequently proves to be the priest’s which is at the same time the author’s. tional account of a breakdown in life and dark reflection in the framed narrative. These two voices are alternately kept at a literature that is at once brutal and frag- The boundary between the two narra- distance and brought together, and, in a ile. NO. 3 - 2005 NIKK magasin 17

tasy, and occasionally a black humour that underlines the porous boundaries between play and earnest in the artistic project. The break with good taste and the appeal to passion rather than reflec- tion, often connected in fiction with a narrative set of events, collides with the canonised taste that discriminates and determines the hierarchy of the literary landscape. Both these writers’ work deals with a questioning of what good litera- ture and good womanhood is, and for that reason demand a reading that is able to think about both taste and gender. The literary canon – in itself a special hybrid in the borderland between litera- ture, politics and pedagogical thought – has had difficulties in accepting this par- ticular mixture and the questions it poses to apparently generally accepted criteria of quality. Such an acceptance also

Photo: Mikael Andersson(Mira7Samfoto demands an abandonment of the illusion that it is possible to write permanent lists The open text of the boundaries between oeuvre, insti- of what constitutes good literature. In In her discussion of the reader’s stance, tution, social space and private life is the meantime in Denmark Tove Rita Felski (2003) proposes that women’s familiar, as I have said, from the avant- Ditlevsen has come in from the cold. (post-)feminist reading should allow an garde tradition as a whole, right back to Karin Michaëlis is still waiting. interplay between readings that are aes- Marcel Duchamps’ – now canonised – thetic, those that are theoretically based installation of a pissoir at an exhibition and those that are grounded in involve- in New York in 1917 under the pseudo- ment or feeling. Literary texts themselves nym of R. Mutt. And not least we are REFERENCES: Tove Ditlevsen (1975):Vilhelms værelse. Gyldendal also create one or more models for read- familiar with it from a range of modern Merete von Eyben (2003): Karin Michaëlis. Incest as ing, and these two novels both create and performance and graphic artists, such as Metaphor and the Illusion of Romantic Love. Peter Lang. Rita Felski (2003): Literature after Feminism.The provide opportunities for a number. The Elke Krystufek (b. 1970) who in her art- University of Chicago Press. reader swallows them but is also repelled work Satisfaction in 1994 masturbated John Chr. Jørgensen (2005): Om breve. Ni essays om brevformen i hverdagen, litteraturen og journalistikken. by them, incensed by their scandalous before an audience, and Hanna Wilke Museum Tusculanums Forlag. breaking of taboos, by Karin Michaëlis’ (1940-1993), who in work created dur- Karin Michaëlis (1907): Over al Forstand. Gyldendalske Boghandel/ Nordisk Forlag insistence on confidences from beyond ing her cancer illness portrayed herself Birgit S. Nielsen (2002): Karin Michaëlis. En europæisk the grave, by Tove Ditlevsen’s scandalous and her sick body in postures that quot- humanist. Museum Tusculanums Forlag. crossing and re-crossing of the threshold ed her youthful works. Anne Birgitte Richard (2005): Køn og Kultur. Museum Tusculanums Forlag. of the novel. Vilhelm’s Room presents in The woman artist presents herself Karen Syberg (1997):Tove Ditlevsen. Myte og liv.Tiderne words the readers’ indignation at them- here as that which she also is, namely an Skifter selves and at their interest in a book that object in a culture that knows only one allows access to a curiosity about the gender, the male, and one look of desire Anne Birgitte Richard, doctorate in author’s premonitions of her own death. – that which is directed at the female. 2005 with the dissertation Køn og Both texts repel their readers and leave The artwork that plays with and against Kultur (Gender and Culture), is them in an ambivalent protest in relation this figure arouses an unrest, which also involved with literary history, editor of to this portrayal, to what it may repre- involves spectators directing their gaze at Nordisk Kvindelitteraturhistorie (Nordic sent – and to the question of what liter- their own spectating, like the reader Women’s Literary History). Currently ature is. chasing lustfully through Tove working on a project about literature, And it is in precisely this area that Ditlevsen’s text. In these two writers’ feelings and affect (including expression, they open the way to a reflection as to lit- texts – as with Hanna Wilke, for instance confession, performance: female positions erature and quality that is developed in – we find a particular blend of coarseness in art and literature) and on, among discussions about a more heteronomous and exposure, a narcissistic display of the others, Karin Michaëlis for a new concept of art and text. The breakdown so-called feminine, the body, desire, fan- Danish history of literature. 18 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2005

LOVE, AUTHORI

On Being Mother and Father to Norwegian Teenagers Photo: Henrik Sørensen/BAM/SAMFOTO

By NICOLE HENNUM Dr. Polit., Researcher at the Norwegian Social Research Institute (NOVA) [email protected]

In Norwegian homes, it is the mother who sets the limits. But when a conflict between the mother and a son or daughter escalates, the conflict is resolved by the father. The father’s exercise of power is regarded as legitimate, while that of the mother is seen as incompatible with good motherhood.

his article is based on a study with teenagers (Hennum 2002). The The setting of limits; power of the parenting of Norwegian analysis given describes the setting of and violence Tyouth and uses some of the limits in the private sphere and illus- The setting of limits proved to be a data collected for the study: stories trates a power narrative: power as an ele- practice of authority that could activate about authority and love as narrated by ment in the relations between genera- the power present in relations between 20 couples with a son or a daughter of tions. It shows that gender gains signifi- parents and teenagers. Power was under- about 15 years of age, and 20 interviews cance in these narratives. stood by the parents to be something NO. 3 - 2005 NIKK magasin 19

TY AND POWER

that they had to exercise or use in order ting a limit. involved was hurt and started bleeding. to have their way in limit-setting situa- Detailed descriptions of the exercise The parents also mentioned hitting, tions: locking a door so that their son or of power provided insights into the ways kicking, breaking furniture, throwing daughter could not go out, for example. in which it can provoke violence when hard objects towards the mother or Power was used when conflicts of limits are set – both violence by the par- father, throttling and fighting as violent interest arouse between the parents and ents directed at the teenagers and vio- acts. their teenage child concerning a limit. lence by the teenagers against the par- The violence enacted by the parents The exercise of power was used with the ents. By using violence the teenagers was often provoked by the father pulling intention of gaining a result in one’s destabilized the structure of the author- the son or daughter away from the favour when negotiating a limit. That is, ity relation, while the violence-using mother, usually into their bedroom, in using means which could force the parents ( in general fathers), tried by order to avoid the mother being hit. In other person to act according to one’s these means to re-establish the conven- some cases the father considered it nec- will. There were many means of exercis- tional structure of authority. The essary to hold his son or daughter onto ing power and they were used by both teenagers’ violent acts were triggered by the floor since nothing else worked. the parents and the teenagers. Power negative responses to their requests to Pulling away the teenager, or keeping was thus something that flowed get money or go out. For example, a him or her on the floor was not an easy between the mother, father and teenag- locked door could provoke a fight task, since the teenagers clearly resisted er. Use of violence was the ultimate between father and daughter. In most these acts. The parents in the study form of exercise of power aiming at set- cases, the fight ended when one of those described such situations as involving a 20 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2005

lot of screaming, anger, scuffle: some- times the parties involved were physical- ly hurt and quite often material damage to the home was done. Usually a limit- setting situation involving violence ended with the teenager getting his or her own way. According to the data, violence between generations caused feelings of both guilt and shame in those involved in the action. Therefore such actions were kept as secrets within the family. “It’s not something one wants to talk about, since then both him and me get labelled”, as one mother put it. However, the parents still used the con- Photo: Henrik Sørensen/BAM/SAMFOTO cept “violence” and described an act as resulted in material damage. The did seem to overstep this mark: in some “violent” in relation to the setting of actions also had to have occurred on situations the parents had to protect limits. more than one isolated occasion. themselves against a son or daughter None of the teenagers mentioned Repeated actions made the mothers and who in that case was described as vio- that they used violence at home or that fathers adopt the notion of violence. lent. Violent actions were depicted as their parents used violence against Finally, the actions had to create fear actions carried out by teenagers lacking them. To a very large extent, the (i.e. fear of physical or material dam- control, who “no longer knew what teenagers gave an image of their family age). The fear aroused by the actions [they] were doing”. This stood in con- relations that was in line with cultural had to be so strong that it resulted in the trast to the mothers’ and fathers’ narra- expectations pertaining to youth. They teenager getting his or her way – gaining tives of themselves as responsible adults described themselves as challenging power over the parents – by carrying out who carried out well-considered actions. teenagers and their parents as responsi- such actions. ble parents who set limits. In this way, In their narratives, the parents men- Mothers’ challenges they made themselves and their families tioned two persons exercising violence: The study of the use of authority in seem ordinary, while the parents did the the teenagers and mainly the fathers. families with a 15-year-old child reveals opposite in mentioning the teenagers’ But, as was mentioned earlier, the par- that it is the mother who in practice use of violence. They talked about the ents described their own actions as an instigates the use of power –which often extraordinary. exercise of power with the aim of setting led to violent responses. If the mother limits, not as violent actions. Thus, they did not take the fights over schoolwork, When was violence represented their own exercise of power or when to get home at night, no con- mentioned? as legitimate, while the teenagers’ exer- flicts emerged and neither was there any Not all actions involving open exercise cise of power became illegitimate and requirement of use of power. Few of power were mentioned as violent stigmatizing. Mothers and fathers fathers proved to actually take the ini- actions. Narratives of violence show that regarded extensive exercise of power as a tiative in setting limits. the mothers and fathers described their sign of coercion in the relationship, and The mothers were the ones who set son or daughter as violent, or defined they dissociated themselves from it since the limits in the first instance, since the the actions as violent on the basis of an it threatened the intimacy that they teenagers both turned to their mother overall evaluation of the situation. wished to have with their son or daugh- with different issues and put up resist- There were a number of circum- ter. The fact that mothers and fathers ance against her. In cases where the stances that must be present for an chose not to set limits by using violent mother was very patient or persistent, action to be described as violent or for a action in order to maintain their rela- the father was not drawn into the situa- teenager to be regarded as violent. tion with their son or daughter, can be tion. When the conflict between the Firstly, it was only in connection with an explanation as to why they did not mother and her son or daughter escalat- the setting of limits that the parents regard themselves as being violent. ed, the father changed from a passive to mentioned that their teenager became According to them, they did not over- an active participant in the conflict. or was violent. Further, the teenager in step the mark that would result in dis- Thus, the conflicts did not start with the family had to have carried out rupting their contact with their son or the fathers, but were resolved by the actions that led (or could have led) to daughter. fathers exercising power and putting an one of the adults getting injured and/or The teenagers, on the other hand, end to the negotiations. NO. 3 - 2005 NIKK magasin 21

This did not mean, however, that teenagers mentioned to the staff at a caring person, but as a clear symbol of the limit was respected, or that the child welfare institution that their authority and limits. authority was accepted. When the con- mothers had rummaged in their things, Mothers and authority not being a flicts with the mother escalated and the mothers were described as dominant theme in studies on motherhood does turned violent, the father had few or controlling in the case documents. not mean that mothers do not exercise opportunities to successfully exercise They had violated a space which is cul- authority. But there are several indica- authority. turally regarded as private. tions that women will not be affirmed as Authority is supposed to produce At institutions, the teenagers’ rooms mothers by being authorities. Women voluntary obedience without the exer- are also searched regularly, sometimes are accepted as mothers by mastering cise of power. According to Lincoln without prior notice. The explanation the cultural codes of love and intimacy. (1994), women often have to manifest for the searches at the institutions was The lack of studies on authority and the power of their authority in order to that it is forbidden to keep and use mothers can be interpreted as an expres- achieve obedience. But when they do so, drugs within institutions. The law has sion of what writers on authority point they disqualify themselves as authori- to be followed, and statutes were found out as being the eternal problem of ties. Thereby he notes that women can in the legislation that enable such authority: it must be legitimated con- possess power and handle the symbols searches. It is, however, common stantly. Without legitimacy there is no of power, but they do not have authori- knowledge that it is not allowed to keep authority. ty. When, for example, mothers decided and use drugs at home, either. There is a Power does not provide authority that their teenager was not to go out in general prohibition against drugs in with the necessary legitimacy when gen- the evening, the authority should have Norway. Nevertheless, the searches der is made relevant. Love and power consisted in the son or daughter volun- acquired a different meaning at the even prove to be contradictory, in some tarily respecting the set limit about not institutions than at home. It became an cases incompatible, when the focus is on going out. At the moment when a expression of positive authority and was motherhood. A combination of love mother deems it necessary to lock the regarded as legitimate. At home, on the and power contributed to the devalua- door and thus manifest the power that other hand, the search was seen as an act tion of women as mothers. A relevant so far was implied by her authority, she of power by a mother against her son or question here is how women can is no longer a woman with authority, daughter – something that is culturally become mothers exercising authority but a woman exercising power. The seen as a violation. The mothers did instead of mothers exercising power? In reaction to an exercise of power can, as something that mothers are not sup- other words, how can mothers become mentioned above, be violent actions on posed to do: they mixed love and power. legitimate authorities, not just legiti- the part of the teenager. A mother exer- mate providers of love? cising power breaks the cultural expecta- Combining love and power tions pertaining to how a mother should In scientific literature, the relations behave in relation to her child. These between mother and child are mostly mothers were described in negatively described in terms of caring, where loaded terms in some contexts, for practices of love occupy a central posi- REFERENCES example by child welfare authorities. tion. Authority is implicitly regarded as Burman, E. (1994). Deconstructing Developmental a part of caring, and is seldom explored Psychology. London: Routledge. Hennum Nicole (2002). Kjærlighetens og autoritetens kul- Privat vs. public sphere as a theme separate from that. The turelle koder. Om å være mor og far for norsk ungdom. Lincoln (1994) notes that the location absence of studies on mother-child rela- NOVA-rapport 19/02. where the acts of authority are carried tions as an authority relation reveals a Jamieson, L. (1998). Intimacy. Personal Relationships in Modern Society. Cambridge: Polity Press. out is important in order to understand cultural understanding of what women Lincoln, B. (1994).Authority. Construction and corrosion. the ways in which authority gains legit- symbolise or should symbolise in our Chicago:The University of Chicago Press. Marsiglio,W. (1993). Contemporary scholarship on father- imacy. This point is relevant for explor- culture, that is, love in the sense of car- hood: Culture, identity and conduct. Journal of Family ing the exercise of authority within the ing and intimacy (Jamieson 1998, Issues, 14(4): 484-509. Marsiglio,W. (1995). Fatherhood: Contemporary Theory, home. In some narratives the mothers Seymour & Bergueley 1999). Research and Social Policy.Thousand Oaks: Sage mentioned that they had searched the In research on fatherhood, on the Publications. Seymour, J. & Bergueley, P.(eds) (1999). Relating Intimacies: room of their son or daughter looking other hand, the notion of authority is Power and Resistance. London: MacMillan Press. for proof to confirm suspected use of strongly present. This is particularly Shapiro, M. et al (1995). Introduction. In Shapiro, M. drugs. They wished to confront the clear in studies problematising connec- Diamond, M. & Greenberg, M. (eds.) Becoming a Father: Contemporary, Social, Developmental and Clinical teenager with what they had found so tions between problematic behaviour in Perspectives. New York: Springer. that he or she would understand why he children and the absence of their father or she could not go out, or why the (Marsiglio 1993, Burman 1994, mother could not give him or her the Shapiro et al. 1995). These studies see This article was first published in freedom requested. When some of the the father as wanted not primarily as a Norwegian in NIKK magasin 2-2005. 22 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2005 Speeding Boys and the Romantics of Destruction Photo: Scanpix/BAM

Av HELI VAARANEN Dr.soc.sci, Department of Sociology, University of Helsinki, Finland [email protected]

Every year, thousands of young people, fresh driver’s license holders, join a variety of car cultures in Finland. Working class youths of the motorsports-loving nation embrace weekend lifestyles such as cruising, speeding and street racing. On Friday and Saturday Nights, these youths take to the streets to manifest their driving skills, to be with their peers, to meet girls and to encounter their enemies in “close combat” in traffic. Success in this car culture is a priority since the boys do not feel they can truly warrant sex unless they have achieved status in the subculture, which is judged by other men. NO. 3 - 2005 NIKK magasin 23 24 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2005

Frequently occurring, deadly accidents neous, creative and filled with laughter whore”. The completed car becomes “a often involve aged “teen cars” such as a and excitement. Under the surface there Madonna in the kitchen and a hooker Ford Capri 1972 or a Toyota Corolla is fear, destruction and mechanic vio- in bed”. Nothing else but a fast car can 1985. Teen cars are overloaded with pas- lence with threatening ways of driving. be this obedient and give the right kind sengers who drink and enjoy a joyride at The boys get hyped up by the speed, the of satisfaction. The boys caress their cars high speed. Intoxicated males aged 18- crowds and the race. They surround at the garage and speak of them gently. 20 and with lower education dominate themselves with noise and continuous In public they drive their cars violently. the accident statistics for young people, action, wanting to forget that in day- The engines are tended to slowly, care- thus confirming the myth of Finnish light the sources of their pride seem very fully, as if building a sacred cathedral. working-class, car-oriented, fast-driv- bleak indeed. In an education-oriented Yet the rest of the vehicle is decorated ing, drink-loving masculinity. Between nation, these are the lost boys. with stickers, animal-skin-imitation seat 1998 and 2000, 75 percent of young But nevertheless, the car provides a covers and furniture spray paint. Some people killed in road accidents in great getaway. “Sometimes driving is teen cars are held together with package Finland were young men. better than sex”, a young driver Kallu tape. Further, they are made erotically says. “Both women and cars cost you inviting with maximal music equip- Speed and the desire money, but the investment in a car ment, roaring engines and soft interiors. to control “We drive bloody fast, that’s the emo- tion we got! That’s the emotion there is throughout this country!” Tom, 24 years, shouted an answer to my question about emotions and driving while recovering in his home from a severe speeding accident. Immersed in car cul- tures, young men give in to an elemen- tary desire in Finnish masculinity: the desire to control horsepower. The cul- Photo: Scanpix/BAM Photo: Scanpix/BAM tural dream of mastering a machine can won’t slip away from you. When you The interiors regard red velvet linings, be found even in the ancient Finnish have a good looking car, many more cushions, blackened rear windows and myths of Kalevala in which it was a girls get interested in you. And the best curtains. Some lads paint their cars great machine, the “Sampo”, that looking girls…that’s how the guys think “with the colours of female sexual brought wealth and prosperity to peo- anyway”. A car makes a “real” man, but organs”, as they say; in shades of purple, ple. In Finland a father shows his fideli- to maintain that image, a real man red and violet. The cars work both as ty to this cultural value when he teaches needs the respect of other men. tools in sexual seduction and as suites his son to drive, often at the age of 6-8. Engineering skills, creativity, humor for late night lovemaking. The boys’ Controlling horse power on the and the willingness to give a helping popularity among girls does not depend streets is made into art at weekends. hand contribute to respect, while the as much on the make and decoration of There are games and challenges: “Who lack of these will drive you out of a car cars (the younger the lad, the more inex- gets there first?” On Friday and Satur- club. At the club garage, young racers pensive the car) as on their reputation as day nights young men worship the car struggle with their often impossible good drivers and bad, bad boys. and the engine. But this worship is building projects on aged cars. They Sexually speaking a bad reputation pays social and it is embedded in cama- cultivate social and engineering skills off. Therefore, driving can never be raderie. The cruising club boys’ nights while building social networks for life. taken lightly. on the town start with a set of favors But when drivers test their cars, compe- In these circles, being a good drinker that they do to each other. Once they tition is fierce. Friendships and respon- is regarded culturally valuable, and an have picked up their friends, given rides, sibilities are forgotten. Winning a street honest way of being a Finnish man. pulled cars out of ditches and helped race or a spontaneous speeding event in When spending a night on the town, a their pals out at the garage, the fun traffic is imperative to reputation man- boy carries with him a plastic bag filled starts. There are challenges against other agement. The gained reputation belongs with beer bottles. He empties these bot- racers on the streets and against ran- to everybody at the club of the winner. tles in a couple of hours and hopes that domly selected drivers in traffic. There he will not pass out somewhere, drunk is speeding alone on dirt roads at the Car as a tool of sexual and defenseless. Within the Finnish outskirts of the city, and there is speed- seduction drinking tradition, one does not just ing in groups inside the city or on the The boys love their cars that are referred start out to have a few for jollification way to another city. Nights are sponta- to as a “she,” “the babe,” and “the and sometimes slip unintentionally into NO. 3 - 2005 NIKK magasin 25

inebriety. Rather men, women and women of the teen car scenes express ically ruined by speeding tickets at the young people set out to drink for a timidity in their clothes and make -up. age of 24, and if he lacks the executive night or a few days in a row during When riding in cars, girlfriends are look and education. weekends, holidays or trips. The experi- silent. If a young woman is very outspo- For such a young man, therefore, the ence is called a “putki;” an experience of ken, she is probably not dating anyone weekend is the payback time. On the a timeless flow in a “tunnel” of intoxica- on the club, but a “loose chick,” on her streets, the boys manifest their youth, tion that may last for days or weeks. In own. Often these “loose chicks” attract desirability and subcultural capital. This principle, the cruising club boys try to attention by acting boyish and by driv- performance is a necessity, a must for avoid drinking and driving. This may be ing around with an attitude which often them to save their sanity, since their class as much an economic as a moral choice, results in minor accidents. location, age, occupational role and gen- but even more so it celebrates Finnish Men are in control of the noise, der are constantly run over by dominant masculinity that despises weakness. music, movement, safety and atmos- structures. At night, on the streets, the At night, young car enthusiasts pos- phere of the night. Women watch the boys turn society’s values upside down. sess the symbolic capital of being real cars with a hypnotized gaze, desiring to They make economic security and edu- men, superior to any other social strata be offered a ride. On the streets, young cation shameful and effeminate. They of the streets. But despite group solidar- men display the domination they will invest their bodies in risk. If they come out alive, they have a legend to tell. The youths use their cultural per- formance to survive the feeling of lost opportunities. They want to reproduce their culture and to restore the pride taken from them by the police, by the social worker and by their parents. In their world what they know best is appreciated: risk, craftsmanship, driving skill and disregard of education. These Photo: Scanpix/BAM men’s relation to social expectations ity and among friends, even these real continue to possess in society and in defines their masculine identity as men have to fight for their social order family, even when it means the local- oppositional and therefore, honorable. on the masculine ladder. Who is the ized, domestic power of the working Ironically, this identity is due to class king of the streets? Which one is the cra- class male. Many young women solidarity and it seals all exits out of this ziest, the boldest and the most bad? The embrace an aggressive and possessive, subculture. boys solve these questions through driv- sexy male who will make them satisfied The tragedy of the class solidarity is ing. Risk and skill intertwine in honor- and proud in front of other girls. that it only accelerates the boys’ way to able masculinity. If one loses honor, Sexual affairs are an important moti- self-destruction. It promotes the speed- somebody else gains it and celebrates it vation for the out-of-town cruises of the ing crimes of passion, leaving behind publicly. club. After breaking up with a girl, a death and injury; the human sacrifice of new companion is easy to find for a the modern age. As one informant says: Speeding girls young driver with a car, status, and a “When you break a record, or get your- Having a steady girlfriend, a “babe” cruising club membership. As the self a reputation driving out there, ready for a relationship, or a “loose informant Nipe says, when he cruises you’ve got a story to tell. That it was chick,” i.e., an available young woman to another town to race, like to the town close, but you made it with minor riding in a car is regarded subordinate to of Lahti 100 kilometres north of injuries. Especially getting away from the status of car ownership, yet almost Helsinki (“a street-racer’s dream, no the cops will give you street credibility. equivalent to respect. cops!”), he gets to spend the night with That’s what it’s all about.” Although sex is an important moti- a girl every time. Even the most compe- vation for cruising, most lads favor long tent boys respect a fellow who knows his The article was first published in NIKK term relationships. They are able to way around women. magasin 1-2005 and is based on Heli adjust to monogamy, motivated not Vaaranen’s doctoral thesis in sociology, an only by shared rent and warm meals, Payback time ethnographic account based on field work but also affection. There is tenderness in In Finland the media and the society among young, car-oriented, working class the boy’s voices when they talk about define street racers by their lack of eco- men in Helsinki between 1997-2003 : their girlfriends’ driving. nomic worth and future prospects. “Speeding Boys and the Romantics of Within this car culture, the position Indeed, respect is hard to gain for a man Destruction” (in Finnish): YTK: Espoo of a woman is traditional. Young who is stigmatised, dangerous, econom- 2004. 26 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2005 Photo: Nina Korhonen/Mira/Samfoto NO. 3 - 2005 NIKK magasin 27

MANLY OR UNMANLY? Fear of falling

By CLAES EKENSTAM Researcher at the Department of History of Science and Ideas Göteborg University [email protected]

The concept of unmanli- espite belonging to a superior ness contributes to a gender in relation to women, deeper understanding of Dmany men feel powerless; this is a paradox often pointed out within the emotional and per- men’s studies (Kaufman 1994, Seidler sonal costs that specific 1994, 1997, Faludi 1999). Even if men by their gender affiliation ”automatical- male ideals can cause ly” have a better starting point than individuals or groups of women in society, many fail to appreci- men. Seeing and explor- ate the feminist thesis that men as a col- lective group are privileged while ing these circumstances women as a group are discriminated does not necessarily against. One explanation provided by feminists to clarify this paradox is that it mean ignoring those is most difficult for the privileged them- dimensions of power selves to see and admit their privileges. characterizing the rela- Hegemonic masculinity and tions between the sexes powerlessness within a certain gender Another way of understanding men’s experience of power/powerlessness is order. implicit in R.W. Connell’s idea of the existence of various masculinities, where 28 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2005

a dominant form of hegemonic mas- culinity is superior to other masculini- ties (Connell 1999). In practice, most men are thus situated in a subordinate position in relation to a relatively small privileged group of powerful men with plentiful resources. At the same time, the gendered superiority is always true for Connell’s men in relation to women, and they are thus never totally power- less. However, other researchers have underlined the dominant experience of subordination and powerlessness that a majority of men actually come up against in their lives because of class, lack of resources and other reasons, such as other people (bosses, politicians, teachers, superiors, parents) and social forces (the market, development, the economy) which seem to decide the fates of individual men (Holter 1998, Seidler 1997). In his history of North American manhood, Michel Kimmel takes as the point of departure for his study the fem- inist notion that masculinity should be regarded as being linked to a struggle for power and control. Gradually, however, Kimmel found that for men themselves, masculinity seemed to be less about the drive to dominate than about their fear of others controlling them. Above all, he realized that men were stricken with a terror of failing. Kimmel associates this with the fact that modern manhood to a very large degree has come to mean an incessant struggle to live up to certain ideals. Masculinity has become some- thing that must continuously be proven, something that must be achieved. Men who fail in this respect are seen as suspi- cious and quite often they are discarded

and marginalized (Kimmel 1996). Photo: Scanpix/BAM women/the feminine. Masculinity is what he calls the masculine stereotype, The relations between vari- thus defined in relation to femininity, needed a contrasting image or a coun- ous groups of men often in terms of contrasting or distanc- tertype for its own definition. Those Even if masculinity is mostly formulat- ing, but also in relation to features positioned outside of the social norm or ed in relation to women and femininity, regarded as unmanly in other men. The the marginalized ones, provided the many men’s studies researchers have group of unmanly men is thus an characteristics that this contrasting found that masculinity is also to a large important category in the definition of stereotype was seen to represent. All extent defined between various groups masculinity. those who through their lifestyle, ethnic of men. The relations between various Historian George Mosse has used origin, religion or language broke the groups of men are sometimes of a more this relation as his starting point when accepted norms (for example Jews, direct relevance than the relation to noting that modern masculinity, or vagabonds, criminals and those who NO. 3 - 2005 NIKK magasin 29

the relevance of the concept of unman- liness for men’s studies (Liliequist 1999, 2003). In the same way as masculinity has been constructed socially and cul- turally, notions of unmanliness have been created through history. Liliequist reveals, for example, interesting differ- ences between an older, traditional South European male image and its Nordic counterparts during the Middle Ages and Early Modern times. In the Mediterranean region, masculinity has, ever since Antiquity, been strongly con- nected with sexual potency, virility and the power of initiative. Corresponding- ly, men who are not active and do not take initiatives in neither social nor sex- ual respects are regarded as unmanly. A real man must also control the sexuality of his wife in order not to fall into the category of the unmanly. Here, we clear- ly see the outlines of the so called macho ideal. Liliequist notes that in a Scandi- navian context, for its part, cowardice and physical or social weakness were the central characteristics of unmanliness. In the Viking Sagas, a man’s honour and masculinity seem to be more dependent on courage and strength than on sexual exploits and potency. Moving on to the 17th century, we find that lewdness and sexual excesses were repeated markers of unmanliness, in a clear contrast with perceptions of normative masculinity in the Mediterranean region. Liliequist’s study into the connota- tions of the concept of unmanliness in various contexts thus points to essential differences in the notions of manliness and construction of gender in various cultural contexts. Other Nordic researchers within the field of men and masculinity have, part- were mentally ill) were connected with category was also often associated with ly based on the work of Mosse and the countertype. Attributes declared as homosexuality (Mosse 1996). Even if Liliequist, also underlined the relevance typical for this category were instability, Mosse’s concept of the countertype has of the concept of unmanliness. For ugliness, cowardice, lack of emotional wider references than just unmanliness, example, in his thesis on middle-class control and honesty. The countertype this aspect seems to constitute an essen- masculinities in 19th century Sweden, was assumed to be controlled by his pas- tial component of the definition and the David Tjeder points out that focusing sions, lecherous, wanting in strength of upholding of masculinity. on countertypes brings the history of character and manliness. Significantly, unmanliness to the foreground of his those men who were regarded as Cultural differences study (Tjeder 2003). Like Mosse, unmanly created great anxiety. From the It is, however, above all the historian Tjeder finds that various kinds of male middle of the 19th century onwards this Jonas Liliequist who has demonstrated ideals are defined as opposites, counter- 30 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2005

Photo:Thorfinn Bekkelund/SAMFOTO types that appear as shifting versions of ed to alcohol or gambling, or through a ular attention to the youth stage. unmanliness. However, the construc- promiscuous lifestyle. The threat of During these formative years, young- tion of countertypes proves to be unmanliness lay, so to say, constantly in sters were regarded as being particularly increasingly complex. wait within the middle-class man; a inclined to being seduced by dangerous threat that was all the larger since many passions, such as abuse of alcohol and Unmanliness within men had quite an ambivalent attitude to uncontrolled emotions. Therefore, the middle-class man the dominant ideals. every effort should be made to compel Firstly, Tjeder distinguishes a larger Even if these men in principle main- the young men to avoid such errors and number of different male ideals in his ly embraced the same ideals, they could instead control themselves in order to be material than the single masculine still also consider a condemned behav- able to develop stable male characters. stereotype that Mosse explores. Thus, iour, such as heavy drinking, as manly. At the same time, there was a kind of the number of countertypes is also larg- In practice, it was to no effect that double account in relation to male er and more varied than those in Mosse’s moralists and others that moulded pub- youth. It was quite usual to tolerate work. Secondly, Tjeder thinks that the lic opinion argued for the culpability young men drinking, gambling, swear- concept of the countertype was not only and innate unmanliness of drinking, as ing, fighting and running riot – behav- used to strengthen a certain male ideal men themselves thought that a real man iour that was not accepted in adult men. by pointing out other distinct groups as both could and should drink alcohol! The middle-class male ideal comprised a subordinate and unmanly. The threat of notion of strong emotional control and unmanliness also lurked within the The significance of age respectability, but many thought that individual middle-class man himself, categories this was something that could be either by him not managing to emerge One further aspect that emphasizes the attained only after the passions had from the unstable identity of the young- complexity of the cultural notions of been given a free run during the years of ster phase and reach male maturity, or masculinity within the bourgeois mid- youth. Men thus needed to run wild, at by later losing this maturity and becom- dle-class is the significance of age cate- least to some degree, in their youth ing unmanly. This could happen, for gories. Those who wrote about mas- before the desired male character could example, by the man becoming addict- culinity in the 19th century paid partic- be formed. NO. 3 - 2005 NIKK magasin 31

Ethnologist Ella Johansson has earli- cept of unmanliness can thus perhaps than the Connellian paradigm now er revealed similar patterns in tradition- shed new light on various cultural con- dominating research. al Nordic peasant culture (Johansson structions of masculinity. It is a histori- 1996). Youngsters had a masculinity cal fact that views on unmanliness have, REFERENCES: Connell, R.W (1999): Maskuliniteter, orig. 1996 that was based on bodily attributes such at least since Antiquity, been ubiquitous Masculinities (Göteborg). as physical strength and spectacular and of strategic importance in public Ekenstam, Claes et al, (1998): Rädd att falla: Studier i man- lighet (Hedemora). dressing styles. This also includes a great discussions on masculinity (Liliequist Faludi, Susan (1999): Stiffed:The Betrayal of the Modern deal of fighting and drinking bouts, unpublished 1999, Svahn 1999). Man (London). Holter, Øystein G (1998), Han, hon, den, det – om genus ready wit, challenges and breaches of och kön. In Bengt Westerberg (ed.) Mansforskningen 1970- various taboos in peasant society. Totally A driving force for male 97 (Stockholm). Johansson, Ella (1996): Fräcka ynglingar och rejäla karlar: different criteria pertained to the mas- objectives historiska maskuliniteter och moderna mansidentiteter, culinity of married men in peasant soci- Above all, a focus on the concept of Nordnytt no 63. ety. As master of his own household, the unmanliness allows for a deeper under- Kaufman, Michael (1994):“Men, Feminism, and Men´s Contradictionary Experience of Power”. In Harry Brod & focus was on a man’s ability to take standing of the emotional and personal Michael Kaufman (eds.) Theorizing Masculinities (Thousand responsibility, provide for his family and costs that specific male ideals can cause Oaks). Kimmel, Michel (1996): Manhood in America (New York). take care of all everyday practical prob- individuals or groups of men. A man Liliequist, Jonas (1999):“Från niding till sprätt: En studie i lems. Attributes expected of an can never be sure of his masculinity, but det svenska omanlighetsbegreppets historia från vikingatid till sent 1700-tal”. In Ann-Marie Berggren (ed.) Manligt och autonomous house-owner was respect- must constantly prove his gendered omanligt i ett historiskt perspektiv ability, quietness and ability to negotiate. value in order to be affirmed, both as a Forskningsrådsnämnden, Rapport 99:4 (Stockholm). Liliequist, Jonas (2003): Omanlighet som retorisk strategi. human being and a man by the sur- Ett sätt att analysera manlighet och makt med Losing one’s grip and rounding world. The fear of being de- utgångspunkt från 1600- och 1700-talets svenska samhälle. becoming unmanly masculinised and thus regarded as Unpublished conference paper 2003. Liliequist, Jonas:“Omanlighetsstereotyper i 1800-talets Access and relation to power has unworthy of the label “real man” is Sverige (Norden)”, unpublished draft/chapter for the evidently varied considerably between something that is implanted in men anthology Män och modernitet (to be published 2006). Lorentzen, Jørgen (1998): Mannlighetens muligheter (Oslo). 1 different groups of men. The strong from an early age. The stronger the Mosse, George L (1996):The Image of Man:The Creation hierarchy existing between various types emphasis on the importance of men of Modern Masculinity (New York). Ottosson Anders (2004):“Avmaskulinisering. Ett alternativ of masculinity has often left many men being truly “masculine”, the stronger is till omkodning av kön?”, Kvinnovetenskaplig tidskrift, 1-2 more or less powerless in relation to also the fear of being seen as effeminate, 2004. Svahn, Margareta (1999): Den liderliga kvinnan och den numerically smaller groups of more a small boy or soft and feeble. The fear omanliga mannen: Skällsord, stereotyper och könskon- powerful and wealthier men. However, of falling into unmanliness is thus pres- struktioner (Stockhom). it also seems that for many men, mod- ent as a constantly accompanying shad- Seidler,Victor (1994): Unreasonable Men: Masculinity and Social Theory (London). ern constructions of masculinity as such ow and as a hidden driving force under- Seidler,Victor (1997): Man Enough: Embodying have created complex relations to their lying men’s objective of upholding their Masculinities (London). Tjeder, David (2003):The Power of Character: Middle-class own male identity, as well as to power male identity, at least in those dominant Masculinities, 1800-1900 (Stockholm). and authority. For the same reasons, the masculinities which have been created various social relations in which men by modernity. 1 The significance of the fear of being de-masculinised is participate have become more compli- Seeing and exploring these circum- one of the main themes explored in literature researcher Jørgen Lorentzen’s thesis Manlighetens muligheter (Oslo, cated. The strong emphasis on mas- stances does not necessarily mean disre- 1998) and has later also been discussed by historian culinity being something that must be garding or ignoring those dimensions of Anders Ottosson in ”Avmaskulinisering. Ett alternativ till omkodning av kön?”, Kvinnovetenskaplig tidskrift, 1-2 2004. attained, something that must be per- power characterizing the relations The concept is closely related to that of unmanliness, as in formed and continually accounted for, between the sexes within a certain gen- my own discussion of men’s fear of falling, that is, of losing often in direct competition with der order. On the contrary, this creates control, see Ekenstam et al. Rädd att falla: Studier i man- lighet (Hedemora, 1998). rivalling masculinities, seems to have an opportunity to analyse the important burdened modern masculinities with an but complex connection between, on inherent ontological insecurity. The fear the one hand, male aspiration for and This article was first published in Swedish of falling, of losing one’s grip and exercise of power as an individual and in NIKK magasin 1-2005 and is an becoming unmanly is a constantly shad- structural phenomenon and, on the excerpt from the text “Mansforskningens owing threat for men both as individu- other, those patterns of socializing and bakgrund och framtid: några teoretiska als and as a group. An openly pro- disciplining that form the basis of such reflexioner” (The background and future claimed superiority seems to have in no dispositions, as well as the personal con- of men’s studies: some theoretical reflec- way made masculinity less vulnerable in sequences and existential costs that such tions) presented at the Nordic men’s studies this sense; the case is rather to the con- processes cause many men. Thus, the conference Den gode, den onde, den nor- trary. The notions of manly/unmanly concept of unmanliness opens for a male (The good, the bad, the normal) in therefore seem to be intricately linked. more concrete phenomenological and Södertälje, Sweden on 26–28 November Making a conscious use of the con- processual understanding of masculinity 2004. 32 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2005

PARENTHOOD IN MURDER-SUICIDE NEWS Idealised Fathers and Murderous Moms

By MINNA NIKUNEN Dr.soc.sc., Department of Women’s Studies, University of Tampere, Finland [email protected]

When a man kills his children and himself he is often portrayed as a caring parent. A woman is a “killer mom”, her act is “a murder”, and her personality is described in the light of the deed.

chose to research news on murder- how acts of lethal violence are under- suicide for three reasons. First, the stood in our culture. Iphenomenon of murder-suicide is a good example of gendered violence Social and moral orders because these homicides often take How are the categories of fatherhood place in families and between men and and motherhood related to violence in women. When these acts are explained, Finnish newspaper articles? Using a gen- gender and gendered meanings are used der perspective, I am interested in the explicitly. Secondly, these acts have ways people make sense of events of sometimes been named “extended sui- social life. I focus on categorisations in cides”; as if those who are killed would order to find out the social orders that be parts of perpetrators identity. are created and moral orders that are Furthermore, theories of extended sui- mobilised. In the analysis I use cide seem to hint that it is the wife and “Membership Categorization Analysis”. children that are parts of men’s identi- In short, the idea is that people are cat- ties, and children are part of mother’s egorised as representatives of certain identities. According to the literature groups (by gender, age, occupation etc.) other kinds of murder-suicides do not and to be a member of the group means fit in to the category of extended sui- that you have certain rights, obligations cides. Thirdly, newspaper texts reveal and competences. The analysis in this NO. 3 - 2005 NIKK magasin 33 Photo: Malin Gezelius/Mira/Samfoto 34 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2005

article is focused on family categoriza- In addition to the portrayal of the 16.6.2004 front page). The next day (IS tions and moral orders of parent–child father as ordinary (or even as exempla- 17.6.2004) the headlines continued: relationships; how fatherhood, mother- ry), family life is presented as an idyll. ”The family idyll was quite unbreak- hood and violence are connected in Though some problems are hinted at – able” and the lead article stated: ”A newspaper narration. the man was said to have some problems workmate of the father has difficulties with alcohol and that “there had been to find a reason for the tragedy”. The Lethal violence and some jealousy” – the things that contra- feature suggested that fathers are usually fatherhood dict the act are emphasised in the news- perpetrators of “family killings” (HS In one typical example, about a case paper texts and things that would 16.6.2004). At this point, no one said when a man had killed his three chil- explain it are presented as rumours. anything about the mother as a person, dren, a neighbour’s interview is present- Generally, when “fathers” have (also) either good or bad. ed to the readers. The extract tells about killed their children, ordinariness and After it was discovered that the the perpetrator and focuses on his unexpectedness are the material for the mother was the killer, the tone changed. fatherhood: headlines. Problems – if mentioned – The idyll was now said to be only a A neighbour to the family of five, Matti are either connected to the heterosexual façade; things were looking good only Fors, pondered upon the same thing [why relationship (the couple has had a quar- outside (IS 19.6.2004). The mother was the man killed not only himself but also his rel) or manhood in general; they are not now characterised as follows: she had children] as he was looking at the house connected to the father-child relation- once been “a happy schoolgirl” but was from twenty metres distance. The police ship, nor to the “family” as a whole. now “an uncommunicative 36 year old had isolated the house with yellow tape. He The rhetoric of idyll is on the one mother”. Neighbours did not have a found it difficult to understand the act hand used to emphasise the news value: good word to say about her. In addition, committed by his male neighbour. In con- everyone is surprised, because the fami- even though the “happy schoolgirl” on trast, the father of the family had seemed to ly was so “good”. On the other hand, one hand emphasizes change – perhaps care about his children a great deal. this rhetoric creates the impression that mental problems – the category was not – Last summer the eldest son wanted a the family is like any other family – and quite innocent: “happiness” meant that bow and real arrows. The father refused to problems between spouses seem normal. she liked boys and was popular among make them, because that would have been them. dangerous. The father had also found Murderous mothers some cartridges for a small-bore rifle, that It is striking how idealised the image of “Killer mom” he gave to me so that the boy could not fathers is – especially as regards their [She] practised shooting the day before blast them against the rocks; Fors recalls fatherhood: as men or as spouses they MOTHER KNEW GUNS using a low tone of voice. may have had some shortcomings. Mother who killed her family mastered – It felt like he was protecting his chil- When mothers commit the same kind the guns. “A pump shotgun is a killing tool dren. (IS 24.1.2001) of murder-suicides, their motherhood is for everyone” Front page headline from Iltalehti not praised, though their deed is some- CO-WORKER: FEELS BAD about the same case: times interpreted against the backdrop – It feels bad, says chimney sweep Juhani Why did a father kill his three chil- of everyday knowledge of the closeness Nykänen who knew the killed father of dren and himself? ”HE WAS ORDI- of mother–child relationships. the family because of his profession. He NARY AND NICE” (IL 24.1.2001.) The next example is interesting commented on the latest news about the Aamulehti had interviewed the because it is a very rare case. A woman family-killing at Porvoo and the lethal neighbours about the same case: killed not only her two children but also gun-shots fired by the mother. The neighbours of the family are in her spouse. Furthermore, the narration (..) shock and quite confused because of the is exceptional because at first it was The fact that the victims were anesthetised events that frightened everyone. From the assumed that it was the father who was does not comfort him. outside they had not detected anything the perpetrator. The case was one of the – Anyway, these were murders. (IS special, so the killings seemed mysterious. biggest crime news cases of the summer 23.6.2004) (..) Only that same evening the whole of 2004. At the point when the media Though the deed was partly por- family was sledging and playing ice hock- did not know who the killer actually trayed as understandable, because the ey at their Tuiskula’s school. Four years was, the family idyll and the decency of woman had brought her family into ago the family had bought and done up a the father was emphasised. An in-law of debt and the financial future was bleak, beautiful detached house that was situat- the man who was killed stated that ”The it was not understood as “extended sui- ed at the edge of the forest, two hundred man was friendly, open and loved” (HS cide” or a “dead end” (i.e. the only solu- metres from the childhood home of the 16.6.2004). ”The neighbours were tion). This was partly because it was not mother. The mother is a waitress. (…) shocked because of the four deaths: her own business that brought them (AL 24.1.2001) THEY WERE A HAPPY FAMILY” (IS down (she was only helping her hus- NO. 3 - 2005 NIKK magasin 35

band). She was not seen as a nice and are categorised as ‘women’. When they is entitled to ownership. Moral order normal woman in a difficult situation – are categorised as ‘mothers’ the newspa- means that human beings ordered in at a dead end – but as an odd and con- pers either ask “How can a mother do a different ways have different rights, fused woman who had kept the finan- thing like that” – anti-motherly – or see responsibilities and competences. They cial difficulties hidden from her spouse. it as maternal pathology. Mothers may are expected to behave in certain ways Moreover, she was the “killer mom” (IS become too attached to their children. If and to have certain characteristics. In 22.6.2004), and Helsingin Sanomat they are mentally unstable they may this article I focus on social and moral (16.6.2004) headlined the interviews perceive their children as parts of them- orders of motherhood and fatherhood with the neighbours: ”How can a moth- selves. Either way, the reason for action in relation to violence to children. In er do this to her children?”. In addition, is portrayed as internal: it is the woman short: a father has the right and compe- the reason she might have had – finan- who kills, not culture, alcohol or social tence to make decisions on behalf of cial problems – was not very motherly pressures. other family members; a mother’s right or feminine. is more restricted and extends only to her children. Men are male before they Pathological mothers and Violent fathers? are fathers, and as males they react to ordinary men Recent studies have shown that it is cul- circumstances. Women are mothers When a woman kills her family the texts turally difficult to connect fatherhood before women, and they can be patho- focus on the killing of children, even with violence. This has become especial- logical or transgressive in their mother- when she has killed her spouse as well. ly clear in studies of family professionals hood. Fatherhood may be left In contrast, a man is said to have killed (Eriksson 2002, Keskinen 2005). The untouched by the violence a ‘man’ has his family, even when he has only killed discourse of “new fatherhood”, and a committed, while motherhood is his children. Men’s violence is connect- powerful discourse of developmental stained by violent acts. Women are seen ed to the family and its cause is hatred psychology emphasizing the importance as more able to control their actions towards the wife, or external circum- of two complementary parents, have than are men – thus they are held more stances, such as culture or societal pres- influenced those who work with women responsible for their actions. sures. Violent men are constructed as and children who have suffered from a representatives of the male species or partner’s/father’s violence, directly or spouses. Women’s violence is seen as indirectly. motherly or feminine violence, or as The newspapers also reveal uneasi- pure transgression. Mothering is por- ness and difficulty in addressing the trayed as vulnerable to mental damage. question of violent fatherhood. Mothers Mothers are pathological – men are who kill may be “killer-moms” – a kind influenced by society. Men’s agency is of monster – or altruistic moms who also presented as weak while women’s express their motherhood, albeit in a REFERENCES: Eriksson, Maria 2002: Men’s Violence, men’s parenting and agency is made clearer, even though very pathological way. Explanations of gender politics in Sweden. NORA 10:1. mental problems may mitigate the acts. maternal violence are thus available. I Keskinen, Suvi 2005: Commitments and Contradictions. Linking Violence, Parenthood and Professionalism. In Maria Men are presented as finding themselves argue that violence by fathers towards Eriksson, Marianne Hester, Suvi Keskinen and Keith Pringle at a dead end, having no other choice, children should not be a blank spot in (eds.):Tackling Men’s Violence in Families.Nordic issues and dilemmas. Bristol: Policy Press. and as acting because they are coerced our society, a silenced topic. We need to by circumstances. Women are portrayed handle these issues for the sake of the as motivated by their own delusional safety of children in risk situations, such The article is based on Minna Nikunen’s thoughts - contrary to common sense. as divorce. doctoral thesis in social psychology and Furthermore, everyday reasoning women’s studies Surman jälkeen itse- seems to go as follows: a normal and Cultural narratives murha. Kulttuuriset luokitukset riko- nice man can kill his children and him- Cultural knowledge directs our inter- suutisissa [Murder-suicide: Cultural self, when the external conditions force pretations and narration. Explanations Categorizations in the Crime News]. The him to do so. It is even more likely in for the exceptional are based on our data consists of 155 news articles from Finland, since culture affects men in this everyday knowledge about the ordinary. the four biggest newspapers in Finland: way – at least if they have used alcohol. We make sense of events by making Aamulehti (AL), Helsingin Sanomat The violence of men is thus normalised social orders: relationships between dif- (HS), Ilta-Sanomat (IS) and Iltalehti and violence towards children is not ferent people are perceived as ordered in (IL). In addition, major papers in the connected with fatherhood but with certain ways. The family consists of a place where murder-suicide happened (Finnish) manhood. man, his wife and their children. were included. The period was When women kill their children, Hidden in that sentence is a moral 1996–2000 with two exceptions, one violence becomes abnormal since they order: a man has a wife and children; he from year 2001 and other from 2004. To:

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