Tulkinnallinen horjuvuus ja affektit

Kuolema Monika Fagerholmin Amerikkalaisessa tytössä ja Säihkenäyttämössä

• Anna Helle Jyväskylän yliopisto

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30665/av.74895

Abstract

Ambiguous Meanings and Affects – Death in Monika Fagerholm’s The American Girl and The Glitter Scene

The article focuses on the deaths that take place in Monika Fagerholm’s novels The American Girl (2005) and The Glitter Scene (2009). The viewpoint to the novels is that of affects. The theore¬tical framework derives from the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995) who is one of the best-known 20th century philosophers of affect. Firstly, the article discusses the ways in which the deaths affect the characters of the novels. Attention is paid especially to the central character called Doris Flinkenberg. She is strongly affected by the deaths that have taken place in the District where she lives. She herself also meets a violent end. Secondly, the article aims at explaining how the novels affect the reader. The idea of death is constantly present in the novels. Because of the original style of the novels the reader has to encounter the inexplicability of the deaths. This is due to the constant repetition in which the repeated passages and phrases keep on changing. The encounters with the death – conceived as the outside of life – give birth to the so called “death-affects”. It is argued that the recurrent death-affects and their incomprehensibility determine the whole atmosphere or the affective bearing of the novels.