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Many critics think that you can write literature from the point of view of the rapist. The question is how.
CULTURE
"And someone must have brought me false testimony, because one morning he was called by the police without doing anything wrong."
With this nod to Franz Kafka's "Process", a passage is introduced in Tomas Espedal's latest novel, "Love", which triggered a new cycle in the debate on reality literature and on the responsibility from the author with the help of live models.
In the following pages, the author describes the experience of the main character who was implicated by the police and announced that he was accused of rape. Several critics have already highlighted in their book readings the problematic aspect of the passage – also because it appears literally unmotivated.
Yesterday, Tomas Espedal admitted to Aftenposten that the incident he is talking about is based on a real relationship, and on a rumor that took place after metoo.
"We were more in the flood, and I wrote to defend myself against the rumors that were going," Espedal told the newspaper.
In the evening interview with the woman who is behind the report, it seems that she has reacted strongly to the fact that the police report that she handed to the police was the first thing that happened. author became a Roman newspaper. The woman does not agree with the manner in which he presents the incident and the main character of the novel concludes that the woman must have a mental illness and that her subjects are questioned.
facts
"Love":
• Tomas Espedal's latest novel, "Love", was released earlier in October.
• The book contains a passage on a rape report, as several critics have reported, appearing to be literally unmotivated.
• Aftenposten wrote yesterday that a woman thinks she was distributed in the novel. According to the newspaper, she reportedly denounced Espedal for rape a little over a year ago, but the case was closed.
A defense speech for me
Regardless of whether the novel is based on a real event or not, this part of the novel is problematic, says author Maria Kjos Fonn. This fall, she is aware of the novel "Kinderwhore", which is said from the point of view of a violent girl.
Fonn was also part of the participants in the autumn debate on the novel "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov, where one could notably wonder if a novel written under the angle of the aggressor or of Aggression crimes could be good. Perhaps, concluded Fonn during the debate on Lolita.
Reading a good literary representation of the unfair rape charge had been just as interesting, says Fonn – but literally she was not excited about Espedal's presentation.
"It's really a pretty interesting perspective." Being accused of being wrong for something can ruin a life, but to me, this part of the novel appears most like a one-sided defense language. weak as fiction, and like any literature of reality, it is even more problematic.
– What is the text that makes you think of a language of defense?
"The woman is presented as unreliable and basically unstable, while the protagonist, I'm just good." Espedal writes that "I was a lover. He had no dirty inclinations and had not committed any abuse. "What human being does not have dirty inclinations?" In the rest of the novel, the protagonist is quite hissing and full of errors.When "I" insists so much that he is blameless in this part of novel, it's more like a protagonist trying to convince himself.
– Not credible
In the literal sense, Espedal would have an easier job if he had left the main character guilty or partially guilty, said Fonn.
– There would be a personal amount present in the text. For example, in "Lolita", the main character Humbert Humbert is the driving force of this constant self-determination, which also leads to a gradual increase in his repertoire.
In the presentation of Espedal, the accusation is shocked. It is perceived as "a blow to the whole of my being against all his person, against all his life and his way of life, against his condolences and his morality, against the deepest part of his sensibility and his vulnerability: I was not and could never be an aggressor, "writes author.
– Is not it a likely reaction?
– Maybe yes, but literally, it's not so credible. The investigator has something interesting about how "I" feels suspicious, but what happens to most of us who feel suspicious is that we guilty, whether we are guilty or not.
– Interesting
Leading editor Hanne Skogvang, who wrote the commentary that sparked Lolita's debate in the fall, seems to be looking at an interesting moment in Espedal's novel. Recently, the class struggle indicated that 57% of the population feared that Norwegian men would be wrongly accused of abuse as a result of Metoo. The nervousness of the protagonist of Espedal is exposed, many will recognize her, she believes.
"It is interesting to see that the protagonist does not identify himself so clearly as an attacker.The least men are well, and yet one in ten women report having been the victim of a form of sexual assault. that some assaults are committed by men who do not consider themselves as aggressors, says Skogvang, adding that to consider oneself as a "lover" does not mean that you can not hurt anyone.
– I have no problem with writers writing in such a perspective. But it's hard to see this as a literary discussion when it's a real person who is hungry to make false testimonials.
Stands with the woman
On Facebook, the author Olaug Nilssen writes that she "stands by the woman's side" in this case. Espedal is blind to his own position, says Nilssen.
– It has the opportunity to publish a book and publish a version of what happened. The power relationship is very skeive, she says.
– Espedal says that the passage is based on several real events and that there is nothing in the novel that specifically points to this woman?
"I think the comment that he's doing this in order to stop the spread of rumors is going to kill that statement." If the rumor says that he was reported for rape, and that he confirms it in a novel and an interview, the fact that the episode is composed of many events does not help.It presents a version in public, to which he has access in a way completely different from that of the woman .
Nilssen believes that the passage of the report on rape in the novel is a provocation.
– It deals with a serious event defined on a page and only on the basis that I'm being raped, she says.
"Espedal thinks he has been the victim of a false rape case, should not he, as the author, be able to write about such an experience?
"Well, with regard to the literature of reality, we have to judge each individual case, I will not refuse him the right to write about it, but the sum of this sequence in the book, which I perceive as one-sided and self-correct, and interview in Aftenposten, do not leave me with great literary experience, but with great discomfort.
Nilssen draws parallels with Vigdis Hjorth's 2016 novel "Heritage and the Environment", accused of correcting an assault suit against a real person.
"It's a complete novel that runs and runs from every angle." From what I've read, it's not an accusation, but an investigation into the impossible in trying to reach a settlement with its author "Heritage and Environment" shows that there is no version yet.
Worse than Hjorth
It is difficult to read the Espedal book without stumbling upon the sudden appearance of a rape report, says Aftenposten's literary critic, Preben Jordal. In his account of "Love", he emphasized that the passage appears as an intense and unmotivated deviation.
Like Maria Kjos, Fonn Jordal is aware that the text is problematic, also from the literary point of view.
– Regardless of the fact that the event has its root in reality, this path is as descending as literary. The version of the main character is that he was in love with this woman and that they loved her together. The explanation of why she now accuses him of having raped must, according to him, be due to mental problems. Literally, no attempt is made to understand or acknowledge the woman's point of view. Instead, we receive a strong party talk about how he would like to be perceived.
After Espedal realized that the episode was part of his literary project, Jordal thinks it's even more problematic.
"In my opinion, it's more than anything Knausgård has ever done in the service of literature, or Vigdis Hjorth." How wise is it to use a novel to try to reinvest, As a political party in a court case, why is it that no one would have quarreled if it had been omitted, why did not the editor intervene? he adult person who could have warned him of the way this presents itself?
Among the critics who have written about "Love", one can quote Erlend Liisberg Bergens Tidendes, which is most obvious in asserting that the novel of Espedal is ethically problematic.
– Extremely unwise
"First, because Espedal tells and publishes so private elements of the life and history of the woman, that he does not have the right to share." Secondly, he uses a position of clear power because he is a writer who fully controls the only version that reaches the readers, "wrote Liisberg, pointing out that the woman could not appeal.
"I have hoped that there will be a fundamental debate about what Espedal is doing, there is no simple debate and I have doubted that I should help to pay more attention than necessary to the This was a very useless decision, which certainly does not add anything to the novel, "Liisberg said.
– Should not you be able to defend yourself if you are accused of rape and if you think that you have done nothing wrong?
"This must be possible and I understand the necessity.But the original form is very suitable for a personal entrance of this type.Although the protagonist of Espedal at a place in the novel declares himself a victim of this case, there is probably another person who will feel like a victim.
Cathrine Krøger, literary critic at Dagbladet, did not specifically respond to the rape report's passage when she read "Love." In her exam, she threw five dice.
"It's a brutal novel with a brutal theme, and I've thought of this sequence as a sort of parenthesis, which neither reinforces nor weakens the book," she said.
His reading, however, changes according to Espedal's statement to Aftenposten that he would have written to defend himself against rumors.
He should be quiet, like Vigdis Hjorth. Now you can easily read the book as a defense against a serious charge and think the rest is just a literary package. This makes the book more problematic and the grounds of Espedal are rather wary.
Yesterday, the class struggle tried several times to contact Tomas Espedal without success. The class struggle was also in touch with the woman who supported the notification of Espedal, who did not want to say more about it.
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