Ela Sefcikova

Medieval Texts, Modern Approaches

A Queer Reading of Loki in Old Norse Literature

Fimmtudaginn 7. nóvember 2024 kl. 16.30 / Thursday, November 7, 2024, at 16.30
Edda 218

Loki plays a central role in disrupting the social order of the æsir in medieval texts like the Prose and Poetic Edda. His transgressions of social norms include gender fluidity, sexual misconduct, cowardice and the breaking of oaths. Even his identity is unstable as it shifts between texts and he takes on multiple names, such as Loptr, Lóðurr and Þǫkk, and shapes, such as salmon, horse and flea. This lecture will explore the ways in which queer theory (especially the works of Judith Butler and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick) can provide new perspectives on Loki’s role in the surviving medieval narratives, focusing on the rifts that Loki creates among the characters around him, as well as the inconsistencies and incoherence within Loki himself. Previous scholarly literature has largely focused on making sense of Loki, or ‘solving’ the problem of Loki. Queer theory, on the other hand, provides a framework for centring the discontinuities and ruptures that can be found on the margins of dominant social structures, which makes it a useful tool in analysing Loki’s character in the surviving medieval texts. Loki’s transgressions play an important role in the texts he inhabits, but his actions also help the æsir and reinforce their dominance over other social groups within the cosmology of the eddas, making him a complex figure that cannot easily fit into any one category or function.

Ela Sefcikova is a Ph.D. candidate in Scandinavian Studies at the Nordeuropa-Institut, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. She holds a BA and M.Phil. in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic from the University of Cambridge. Her research interests include gender and queer studies, new philology and medieval Icelandic literature.

Fyrirlesturinn verður haldinn á ensku og er öllum opinn. / The talk will be delivered in English and is open to all.

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