The icelandic poet Gerður Kristný has in the last two decades repeatedly told tragic stories focusing on the systemic violence that has for so long been directed against women, and her long narrative poem Drápa, or The Slaying (2014), is no exception. Drápa is a feminist critique focusing on the true story of Gréta Birgisdóttir, who was murdered by her husband Bragi Ólafsson in Reykjavík in January 1988. it is a poem about a killing that draws its power from various different sources, such as modern true crime fiction, the Nordic crime novel, and fantastic tales.
Þýðingin að þessu sinni er grein kanadíska rithöfundarins Margaret Atwood, "Am I a Bad Feminist?" sem birtist í dagblaðinu The Globe and Mail í Toronto í ársbyrjun 2018. Tilefni þess að Atwood skrifaði greinina eru atburðir sem áttu sér stað í Háskólanum í Bresku-Kólumbíu fyrir nokkrum árum þegar kennari við skólann var leystur frá störfum. Mikil umræða skapaðist um málið og viðbrögð rithöfunda og annarra sem kenna má við kanadíska menningarstofnun leiddu til klofnings í kanadískum bókmenntaheimi. Forsaga og eftirköst greinarinnar eru rakin í inngangi ritstjórnar og Aðalsteins Eyþórssonar, en óhætt er að segja að hún hafi vakið töluverð viðbrögð.
This article deals with the authorship of Elísabet Kristín Jökulsdóttir, with special emphasis on the autofictional novel Heilræði lásasmiðsins (The locksmith's advice), as well as other works that are based on autobiographical material. Elísabet writes a lot about the female body, its desires and erotic longings, as well as how helpless and weak it can be in particular situations. Her writing on the self, body and sexuality centres on the opposition between love and rejection. The desire for love is the driving force behind her writing and a deep and ruthless self-examination is at work in her fictional world. This desire is closely connected to the female body and sexual drive and Elísabet scrutinizes the nature of 'femininity' and asks what it means to be ,a woman'. Elísabet describes the female body in all its nakedness and vulnerability and shows how the body is the battleground where the main conflicts between self and others take place. Elísabet frequently describes two oppositional worlds in her works. There are conflicts between the magical world and reality, the father and the mother, the child and the grown-up, psychological difficulties and 'sanity'. a divided self is a persistent theme in her writings, as well as the struggle to remain on the right side of the "borders", which are frequently mentioned. Elísabet's writings reveal a struggle for marking a place for oneself in the world, to be heard and seen, to be able to createand recreate the self and through her writing, she copes with existence and difficulties that are rooted in childhood. Through writing, she finds a way out and the writing process serves as self-analysis and therapy. In her works Elísabet also creates her own personal mythology, which she connects with women's struggle for self-realization, freedom and social space. The analysis of Elísabet's works is inspired by the writings of feminist scholars, such as Simone de Beauvoir, Kate millett and Hélène Cixous.