Oscar von Seth
Doctoral Student
My main academic interest area is at the intersection of literature and queer theory. I am a teacher within the police- and teacher programmes.
Culture and Education
PA218
My PhD-project concerns the authorship of German-language author Hermann Hesse (1877-1962). The majority of Hesse’s novels revolve around friendships between men, relationships that are characterized by identification and homosocial desire. Despite this, Hesse’s writings have not yet been analyzed queer-theoretically.
My hypothesis is that the male homosocial bonds in his novels can be read as homoerotic. The purpose of the study is twofold. First, by doing queer readings of the novels Peter Camenzind (1904), Demian (1919) and Der Steppenwolf (1927), the study aims to highlight indications or expressions of queerness, heterosexual ambivalences and male homosocial desire within Hesse’s authorship. Second, by including the topic of otherness in the dissertation’s queer-theoretical framework, the study intends to investigate how the norm-breaking and queer characteristics of Hesse’s literature are interlinked with concepts of the Other.
Previously I’ve had a career as a contemporary dancer and choreographer. I’ve also worked as a prompter and assistant director in theatre. In 2014 I was awarded second place in Umeå novellpris, Sweden's biggest competition for short stories, and in the spring of 2017, I debuted as a novelist.