About the project
The main objective of my doctoral research project is to study how masculine subjects are constructed in the aftermath of the 22. July terrorist attack in Oslo and Utøya island.
The project can be seen as a queer intervention in the study of gender in the far right whereby masculinity is not taken for granted as a given, natural and already meaningful category, but viewed instead as a process of becoming. This is particularly significant when studying the far right, where gender precisely is seen as a fixed, natural and sometimes God-given reality. In this regard, analyzing masculinity as a becoming rather that a set of traits or characteristics becomes a way of challenging and exposing harmful societal structures that unfortunately stretches beyond the realm of extreme right manifestos.
Using the work of Judith Butler, Michel Foucault, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe among others, I aim to understand the concept of interpellation in the textual universe of Breivik’s manifesto. My project aims to analyze the masculine subject as a construction in Breivik's manifesto and investigate the significance of territory and geography in this process. Lastly, I am interested in what type of masculinities emerge in the aftermath of the terrorist attack, also outside of extreme right milieus.
