Knausgård’s Scandalous “Labia”

Abstract

This article examines the short entry titled “Kjønnslepper” (“Labia”) from the first volume of Karl Ove Knausgård’s encyclopedia of the seasons series, Om høsten (Autumn) (2015). It wrestles with the entry’s potential to scandalize and juxtaposes its anatomy with some ideas about shame from queer theory, developments in sex education, and feminist approaches to female genitalia. I argue that the primary anatomy of “Labia” is not labia as they are, but rather Knausgård’s face-saving relationship to the vulva. After addressing my motivations for writing about and teaching Knausgård, I work through what I maintain are the three parts of “Labia” in order, showing how the entry expresses a longing for lost (paternal) innocence, places genitalia on a familiar path of heterosexualization, and replicates conventional ideas about sex. Along the way, I also interrupt Knausgård’s monologue with alternative vulval inventories to demonstrate that the anatomy of “Labia” is a figuration among others, while resisting its trajectory away from the vulva in favor of the face.