Om møte mellom det litterære og kliniske i Sara Stridsbergs Drömfakulteten – tillägg till sexualteorin

Abstract

The article explores the complexity of trauma in Sara Stridsberg’s The Faculty of Dreams: Amendment to the Theory of Sexuality (2006) based on theory of testimony. The novel and psychoanalytic theory both portray how traumatic experiences can lack words and memory and at the same time be present as displacements – for example in new stories. However, where theories focus on understanding the individual and psychological factors in trauma, The Faculty of Dreams shows how trauma cannot be decomposed into either events or effects and how the individual factors merge with the collective, political and structural. The article illuminates how the representation of silenced experiences can be a driving force for knowledge construction, in both the literary and the clinical projects. We argue that a dialogue between psychological and literary perspectives is mutually enriching