I am a PhD candidate in comparative literature since September 2023.

In my research project, I suggest the term the 'dark girlhood' (Det mörka flickskapet) as a way of encircling how notions of girlhood and existential dread are closely intertwined in Swedish fiction published around the 1980s. Three writers are at the center of attention: Inger Edelfeldt, Mare Kandre, and Åsa Nelvin. The approach combines philosophical and aesthetic theories of anxiety, femininity, materiality, and the self. My aim is to stay close to the texts by focusing on the complexity and pluralism of the dark girlhood rather than viewing it as a part of a psychological or social whole. At the same time, the textual analyses highlight connections between the works that could help broaden the knowledge, and encourage discussion, about this literary period.

Research interests: girlhood, gurlesque, grotesque, body and materiality, existential(ist) themes of anxiety