The fictional couple Ignace, a helping hand for a norm critical education : A queer theoretical close reading of Frida Stéenhoffs short story Ett sällsamt öde with a didactical basis

The purpose with this paper is to use an older belletristic litterature, like in this case Ett sällsamt öde by Frida Stéenhoff and do a queer theoretical analysis of the short story and then discuss the didactical implications the short story and my reading of the short story can have in the Swedish school and the work to active counteract discrimination. I have designed three questions who can answer my purpose with this paper. The following questions are: - How do Mikael and Ethel challenge the heterosexual standard? - How can the important breakfronts in the short story be comprehended and explained by the queer theory? - What in my reading of the short story can be actualized as relevant in the didactic field? The method I have used to answer these questions is a queer theoretical close reading of the short story. I have been able to use this method with the help of the queer theoretical perspective as my thesis and concepts such as Butler’s perfomativity and Foucault’s categorizing and exlusion are important concepts in my analysis and result. The conclusion I have been able to reach is that the short story Ett sällsamt öde actually is a story that can be used in the Swedish school and the work to actively counteract discrimination. With the queer theoretical perspective as my basis I have been able to find four different aspects that I consider important for the story itself but also to discuss with the students in school. These four aspects are Mikael Ignace’s identity, his suicide and Ethel’s psychological state and her way back to the nursing home as she herself once upon a time was admitted to. These four aspects challenge the heterosexual state and can from a queer perspective interpreted as Frida Stéenhoff’s figurative metaphors for a more comprehending society. With these aspects to my help I want to use queer pedagogy with my students to show them that norms, categorizing and similar aspects are constructions built by human beings and therefore are able to be critically examined and that they are changeable.