”Jag tänkte att min blick skulle kunna hålla dem kvar i ljuset” (I thought that my gaze would retain them in the light)

Sara Stridsbergs novel Beckomberga (2014) as a next of kin-story

Abstract

This article is an analysis of Sara Stridsberg’s Beckomberga. Ode till min familj from 2014. I base the analysis on the dedication printed at the very end of the book, which dedicates the novel to everyone who passed the park at the mental hospital Beckomberga during the years 1932 to 1995. I use this as a lens to understand the novel as a next of kin-story, and I discuss how the novel explores the next of kin-perspective through the vulnerable teenager Jackie, who voluntarily spends her adolescence at the mental hospital. The article is a written and edited version of the trial lecture held as part of my doctoral defense at UiT – The Arctic University of Norway on the 24^th of June 2022.