Queer Narratives in Nordic Sami Literature: Coming-Out Narratives and Final Exposures in Savior of the Lost Children (2008) and Himlabrand (2021)

Abstract

This article explores how two queer narratives in Nordic Sami literature challenge, expand and change norms and stereotypes related to queer indigenous experiences. Characteristic for these narratives is the ambition to highlight taboos and challenge stereotypes in Sami contexts. In the article, I explore the characters’ coming-out processes and relate them to larger narrative traditions. To shed light on the obstacles the characters meet in the process of coming out to themselves and to their communities, and the genres through which the stories are told, I turn to gender scholars Judith Roof, Andrea Gutenberg and Anne Mulhall. I make use of their perspectives to explore whether the coming-out processes take different shapes when the individuals in question are Sami and thus doubly minoritized. Insisting on the importance of coming out not only to oneself, but also to the Sami community at large, they take on an important activist role, transcending the perspective of the individual. The primary texts are the young-adult novel Himlabrand (“Heavenly fire”) (2021) by Moa Backe Åstot and the blog novel The Savior of the Lost Children (2008) by Sigbjørn Skåden.