Våld, konsumtion och ekologi i Lotta Lotass Min röst skall ni komma från en annan plats i rummet

Abstract

Violence, Consumerism and Ecology in Lotta Lotass’ Min röst skall nu komma från en annan plats i rummet.

This article explores the relationship between violence, consumerism and ecology in the novel Min röst skall nu komma från en annan plats i rummet [My voice emerging from another place in the room] (2006), by Swedish author Lotta Lotass. The analysis focuses on how Lotass’ experiments with the gothic subgenre of serial-killer fiction utilize its critical potential to comment on the destructive forces of contemporary society, the history of this society and its possible future. Min röst skall nu komma från en annan plats i rummet conflates the serial killer’s graphic violence against the human body, and anthropogenic violence against nature, with the systematic exploitation of the environment through history as a central theme. The analysis also touches upon how the marketing strategies of the publishing company relate to, and differ from, the thematic content of the novel. While the book’s marketing focused primarily on the character of the serial killer, this article argues that place is a more important concept in the novel, and that the serial killer plot is subordinate to the portrayal of consumerism and environmental destruction. The urban setting, Las Vegas, and the surrounding desert landscape of the southwestern United States is described in the language of nightmarish Baudrillardean hyperrealism— the ultimate consequence of capitalism, in which simulacra replaces reality, and in which the fragmented non-identities of the serial killers may be read as reflective of this condition.