This book questions why so many mothers leave their families in twenty-first-century Swedish literature, analyzing literary representations of maternal abandonment in relation to sociopolitical discourses. The volume draws on a queer-theoretical framework in order to highlight norm-critical dimensions, failure, and resistance in literature about motherhood. Jenny Bjoerklund argues that novels about mothers who leave can be understood as ways to problematize and challenge Swedish-branded values like gender equality and a progressive family politics that promotes ideals of involved parenthood, the nuclear family, and pronatalism. The book also raises questions beyond the Swedish context about maternal ambivalence, family politics, and privilege and discusses how literature can work as resistance and provide alternatives to the current social order.

This international edited collection contributes to knowledge about the geographies of sexualities experienced and imagined in rural spaces. The book draws attention to the heterogeneity of rural contexts and the diversity of meanings about sexualities within and across these spaces. The collection examines four key themes. First, 'Intimacies and Institutions' focuses on how intimate relationships are governed by societal, discursive and institutional structures, and regulated by social, political and legal frames of citizenship and belonging. The chapters present historical and contemporary case studies of the constitution and management of intimate sexual lives and relationships in rural and non-metropolitan spaces. Second, 'Communities' explores how sexual identities are socially-constructed and relationally-performed in rural communities, scrutinizing the complex interplay of belonging and alienation, inclusion and exclusion, for sexual subjects and communities within rural spaces. Analyzing films, literature and interviews, the chapters examine sexuality and community, and "queer" notions of rural family and community. Third, 'Mobilities' examines movement/migration at different scales. Cross-national data provides insights into similarities and differences in rural migration and homemaking for lesbians, gay men and same-sex families. The chapters consider how movement, coming out and memories of time and place inflect home, identity and belonging for rural lesbians and gay men. Fourth, 'Production and Consumption' investigates the commodification of rural sexualities. The chapters interrogate the management of animal bodies and sexualities in industrial agriculture for consumer pleasure and commercial ends; how heterosexuality and sexual relations are transacted in mining communities; and the global commodification of rural masculine sexualities. This book is timely. It provides important new insights about ruralities and sexualities, filling a gap in theoretical and empirical understandings about how sexualities in diverse rural spaces are given meaning. This collection begins the processes of furthering discussion and knowledge about the inherently dynamic and constantly changing nature of the rural and the multiple, varied and complex sexual subjectivities lived through corporeal experiences and virtual and imagined lives.

This international edited collection contributes to knowledge about the geographies of sexualities experienced and imagined in rural spaces. The book draws attention to the heterogeneity of rural contexts and the diversity of meanings about sexualities within and across these spaces. The collection examines four key themes. First, 'Intimacies and Institutions' focuses on how intimate relationships are governed by societal, discursive and institutional structures, and regulated by social, political and legal frames of citizenship and belonging. The chapters present historical and contemporary case studies of the constitution and management of intimate sexual lives and relationships in rural and non-metropolitan spaces. Second, 'Communities' explores how sexual identities are socially-constructed and relationally-performed in rural communities, scrutinizing the complex interplay of belonging and alienation, inclusion and exclusion, for sexual subjects and communities within rural spaces. Analyzing films, literature and interviews, the chapters examine sexuality and community, and "queer" notions of rural family and community. Third, 'Mobilities' examines movement/migration at different scales. Cross-national data provides insights into similarities and differences in rural migration and homemaking for lesbians, gay men and same-sex families. The chapters consider how movement, coming out and memories of time and place inflect home, identity and belonging for rural lesbians and gay men. Fourth, 'Production and Consumption' investigates the commodification of rural sexualities. The chapters interrogate the management of animal bodies and sexualities in industrial agriculture for consumer pleasure and commercial ends; how heterosexuality and sexual relations are transacted in mining communities; and the global commodification of rural masculine sexualities. This book is timely. It provides important new insights about ruralities and sexualities, filling a gap in theoretical and empirical understandings about how sexualities in diverse rural spaces are given meaning. This collection begins the processes of furthering discussion and knowledge about the inherently dynamic and constantly changing nature of the rural and the multiple, varied and complex sexual subjectivities lived through corporeal experiences and virtual and imagined lives.

This book questions why so many mothers leave their families in twenty-first-century Swedish literature, analyzing literary representations of maternal abandonment in relation to sociopolitical discourses. The volume draws on a queer-theoretical framework in order to highlight norm-critical dimensions, failure, and resistance in literature about motherhood. Jenny Bjoerklund argues that novels about mothers who leave can be understood as ways to problematize and challenge Swedish-branded values like gender equality and a progressive family politics that promotes ideals of involved parenthood, the nuclear family, and pronatalism. The book also raises questions beyond the Swedish context about maternal ambivalence, family politics, and privilege and discusses how literature can work as resistance and provide alternatives to the current social order.