Gendered Agency and Subjectivity in Hanna Pylväinen's "We Sinners" (2012) and North American (ex-) Laestadian Women's Life Narratives

Abstract

Despite the poly-vocal and heterogeneous gendered realities that come through in "We Sinners" and (ex-) Laestadian women's life narratives, from the perspectives of secular society and mainstream feminism, the role or place of North American Laestadian women—in the “home,” “social networks,” and “believer communities”—would likely be interpreted as laden with patriarchal oppression. This study aims to complicate oversimplified interpretations of gendered agency and subjectivity in North American Laestadianism and presents several alternative--sometimes intersecting--interpretations exemplified through four female characters in "We Sinners" alongside four contemporary (ex-) Laestadian women’s life narratives.