Queer Norwegian Cinema Doesn’t Exist. An explanatory critique of Norsk filmhistorie: spillefilmen 1911-2011.

Abstract

Are there any queer Norwegian films? How would one find out about it? The main objective of this thesis is to make visible how queer gender and sexuality are represented in the most prominent work in the Norwegian film history discourse. With writing history, there is a danger of social exclusion and this thesis found that the queer community has been marginalized in the film history book "Norsk filmhistorie: spillefilmen 1911-2011" by Gunnar Iversen. Through an explanatory critique, the heteronormative narrative was investigated in connection to central examples of queer Norwegian cinema.

This study applied Astrid Erll’s theories about media of cultural memory to analyze the strategies which has turned the book into a medium of cultural memory. How these strategies have played a role in constructing the representations of queer films in the book were explored to highlight any misrepresentations. This study argues that knowledge of queer Norwegian cinema exists but is misrepresented in the book "Norsk filmhistorie: spillefilmen 1911-2011" by Gunnar Iversen. It also argues that an acknowledgement of queer representations or lack thereof is missing in the book which has strengthened the hegemonic discourse.