Information about the event
Queer Situations | Academic Program
We welcome you to an off venue academic program of the international literary festival Queer Situations. There are three lectures on the program. There will be a light lunch refreshment during the program. The guests are encouraged to bring their swimwear and footwear with them, as it is the perfect time to relax in the hot tub in Dalslaug or take a walk through the Úlfarsárdalur valley and continue your conversation there.
Unnur Steina K. Karls
The representation of trans characters in Icelandic literature
In recent years, the number of trans characters in Icelandic literature has greatly increased, in novels as well as books for young adults and children. The manifestations of these characters will be discussed and the rhetoric that accompanies them will be scrutinized.
Alda Björk Valdimarsdóttir
"Audiences turned to stone". Virginia Woolf and the collision of queerness, femininity and the powerful woman.
The play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf by the American playwright Edward Albee was first staged in 1962, the film adaptation was released in 1966. The reception of the works reveals curious speculations about Woolf's image, queerness, childbearing, misogyny, and homophobia that can be read in the light of social conditions in the sixties.
Sólveig Ásta Sigurðardóttir
On autotheory as a method in literature
The American author Maggie Nelson has made a name for herself for her books, where she combines academic writings and autobiographical texts. This method has been called autotheory and will be discussed here.
Queer Situations is a literary festival that focuses on queer literature in more than one sense: books by authors who identify as queer, but also literature that falls outside the mainstream (which perhaps is constantly changing). Queer Situations therefore puts a lot of emphasis on inviting foreign authors to the country, in order to open up the discussion about queer literature in Iceland. And discussions in whole. Queer voices are vulnerable, fragile and have faced a serious backlash in the last years. It is important to take care of the setting around them, sharpen the focus and listen. The festival focuses on inclusion and accessibility. We aim to promote the participation and contribution of a group within the literature, which has limited access to the microphone in other contexts or is sometimes brought to the scene for decoration.
Visit the Queer Situations website
Further information:
Halla Þórlaug Óskarsdóttir og Eva Rún Snorradóttir
queersituations@gmail.com