Same-Sex Desire and the Environment in Norwegian Literature, 1908–1979

This book explores how ideas of nature and the nonhuman play an important part in literary depictions of same-sex desire in twentieth-century Norwegian literature. Critically probing dichotomies such as pastoral/urban and human/animal, the chapters show how literary fiction constructs, represents, and interprets experiences of same-sex love and attraction, traditionally conceived as “unnatural.” Providing in-depth studies of a variety of texts, this book demonstrates the merits of bridging the gap between the “de-naturalizing” project of gender and queer theory on the one hand, and, on the other, the ecocritical centering of material, nonhuman environments. Per Esben Svelstad is Associate Professor of Norwegian in the Department of Teacher Education at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.