Stillastående vatten
Steve Sem-Sandbergs Oceanen som hydrologisk patografi
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54797/tfl.v56i1-2.63665Nyckelord:
blå humaniora, vatten, bodies of water, medicinsk humaniora, Steve-Sem Sandberg, atmosfärAbstract
This article reads Steve Sem-Sandberg’s novel Oceanen (2022) from the perspective of water. By combining perspectives from the blue humanities and the medical humanities, the article studies the representation of the vulnerable relationship between humans and water. It argues that the novel can be read as an illness narrative that revolves around water, and suggests to call this a ”hydrological pathography”.
The novel is a fictional account of Jean-Jacques Rousseaus time on St Peter’s Island in Lake Biel, Switzerland, and it thematizes water on different levels. It presents Rousseau’s experience as fundamentally shaped by his relationship to water. He spends his time on the lake, in the rain, or dreaming of floods. But most importantly he suffers from a severe urinary retention.
The article draws on the theoretical concept ”bodies of water” by Astrida Neimanis, in order to show how Rousseau’s relationship to water can be characterised as a hydrological pathography. First, the fictional Rousseau is read as a sick body of water through analogy with the lake. Then, the porosity of his body is related to the watery atmosphere, and a dream of a flood is read as a longing for a merging with the planetary waters. Lastly, it is argued that this water based illness narrative can be interpreted as a figuration of our vulnerable relation to planetary waters in the Anthropocene.
Nedladdningar
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