Per Bäckström

Affiliated professor in comparative literature

Research

Biography
Per Bäckström is affiliated professor in comparative literature, Linnaeus University, since 2019. He was a full professor of Comparative Literature, Karlstad University 2010–2019. He chaired the membership commission of the European Network for Avant-Garde and Modernism Studies (EAM) 2007–2011. Major publications: Aska, Tomhet & Eld. Outsiderproblematiken hos Bruno K. Öijer (Ellerström 2003), Le Grotesque dans l’œuvre d’Henri Michaux. Qui cache son fou, meurt sans voix (l’Harmattan 2007); Vårt brokigas ochellericke! Om experimentell poesi (On experimental poetry, Ellerström 2010); Decentring the Avant-Garde (Rodopi 2014); and
Allt kan bli aktiverat och skapande liv. Öyvind Fahlströms processuella estetik (The processual aesthetics of Öyvind Fahlström, Ellerström 2023). At present, Per Bäckström is working on Henri Michaux and The Anti-Aesthetics of Rock.

Research interests

poetry, lyrical performance, performance, performativity, processuality, avant-garde, neo-avant-garde, language grotesque, intermediality, Bruno K. Öijer, Henri Michaux, Öyvind Fahlström

Current research projects

1. Henri Michaux – dictionary entries.
2. The Anti-Aesthetics of Rock (monograph).

Abject Bodies on Stage: The Anti-Aesthetic turn in Rock

The youth revolution began in the 1960s, and since then youth groups have continually expressed their contempt for and their differences with society at large, thereby constructing their identity within subcultures rather than within the framework of a national culture. But what happens if identity and dissent are expressed through abject bodies? I call this phenomenon ‘rock’s anti-aesthetic turn’, referring to a small yet highly influential countercultural trend within popular music, which began in the 1960s and concluded in this form in the 1990s. Within popular culture, the phenomenon is most evident in rock music culture, as rock allows the anti-aesthetic to be established with maximum intensity and affect, and, unlike in the realm of art, with an enormous impact on the youth groups and fans who follow them. The anti-aesthetic is thus a highly conscious (political) choice of affective strategies for the construction of both individual and group identity through the ugly, the unpleasant and the repulsive (i.e. abjection).

The aim of this research project is to investigate the use of abjection in certain rock bands. These groups are rooted in the avant-garde’s anti-aesthetics, which entails a complete break with dominant aesthetic norms based on beauty and authenticity, and a constructed upside-down world where the ugly, the unpleasant and the repulsive become the primary means of expressing dissent. The aim of the project is to discern the political implications that this paradoxical identity-making and performance practices have for such rock groups and their followers, in a study of this performative field. The paradox of identity construction through abject bodies is that abjection ought to prevent any kind of identity-making. According to Kristeva, abjection is characterised by an oscillation between repulsion and fascination, a perspective that offers a clue as to why these groups use abject bodies in their construction of identity and authenticity.

To illustrate various aspects of the abject, six carefully selected, diverse American and British post-garage rock, punk rock and industrial metal bands from the 1960s to the 1990s will be studied: The Stooges, The Damned, The Plasmatics, The Cramps, Joy Division and Marilyn Manson. My decision to study American and British bands stems from the fact that these countries are leaders in rock and popular music, which means they are also driving forces when it comes to identity formation within subcultures. These anti-aesthetic bands introduce a radical break in rock music through their celebration of more or less abject bodies. A strategy which – despite the above – enables the rock bands in question and their subcultures to construct both identity and authenticity. So far, there do not appear to be any attempts to describe this powerful trend within rock music in its entirety, although isolated attempts have been made and abjection has been examined both in culture at large and in society as a whole. This makes it urgent to now focus on the anti-aesthetic in rock music in order to discern its significance for identity construction in youth cultures.

Finished research projects

In my doctoral thesis Aska, Tomhet & Eld. Outsiderproblematiken hos Bruno K. Öijer (Ash, Emptiness & Fire: The Outsider in Bruno K. Öijer), Ellerström 2003, I discuss Öijer’s roots in an avantgardistic performance tradition, and introduce the notion “lyrical performance” to describe the distinctive characteristics of his works. In the following book, Enhet i mångfalden. Henri Michaux och det groteska (Unity in Plenitude: Henri Michaux and the Grotesque), Ellerström 2005, I analyse the grotesque in Michaux’s oeuvre, med special attention to his “language grotesque”, a concept I introduce to describe Michaux’s and the Swedish poet Gunnar Ekelöf’s experimental poetry. This book was revised and translated into French: Le Grotesque dans l’œuvre d’Henri Michaux. Qui cache son fou, meurt sans voix, l’Harmattan 2007. Experimental poetry is also the focus of my third Swedish book: Vårt brokigas ochellericke! Om experimentell poesi (On Experimental Poetry), Ellerström 2010, where I try to find a suitable method to analyse this kind of poetry. I have co-edited four anthologies: Sense and Senses in Aesthetics, NSU Press, 2003, together with Troels Degn Johansson; Samspill mellom kunstartene. Modernisme i nordisk lyrikk 4 (Interplay between the Arts. Modernism in Nordic Poetry 4), Helsingfors universitet, 2010, together with Unni Langås; Norsk avantgarde, Novus forlag, 2010, together with Bodil Børset; and Decentring the Avant-Garde, Rodopi, Avantgarde Critical Studies, 2014, together with Benedikt Hjartarson.

Collaboration

• Member of the advisory board for Centre for Avant-Garde Studies, University of Iceland, from 2013.
• Member of the reference group for GEXcel International Collegium for Advanced Transdisciplinary Gender Studies (Centre of Gender Excellence, Linköping, Örebro and Karlstad University), 2013–2019.
• Initiated the founding of Nationella rådet för samverkan av forskarutbildningen i litteraturvetenskap (The National Council for Collaboration on the Ph.D. Education in Comparative Literature, NRFL) 2011, with responsibility for national Ph.D. courses, and Ph.D.-education issues for Comparative literature in Sweden.
• Member of the editorial committee and peer-reviewer for Arena Romanistica, University of Bergen, since 2008.

Participation in international research networks

• European Network for Avant-Garde and Modernism Studies (EAM). Took part in the founding of EAM in 2004, and was ”chair of the membership commission” 2007–2011.
• Nordisk Avantgarde Netværk (Nordic Avant-Garde Network). Participates as coordinator for Norway. Financed by NorFA/NordForsk 2005–2009.
• International Society for Intermedial Studies (ISIS). Participates since 2011.
• Nordisk lyrisk modernism (Nordic Lyrical Modernism) – Nordic research network established 2002.
• Nordisk Bachtin Dialog (Nordic Bakhtin Dialogue) – Nordic research network established 1999.
• The Future of Comparative Literature and the Nordic Perspective – Nordic research network.
• Nordisk Sommar-Universitet (Nordic Summer University, NSU), participates since 1998 – Nordic research network. Financed by The Nordic Council of Ministers.
• Nordiskt Sällskap för Metriska Studier (Nordic Association for Metrical Studies, NordMetrik) – Nordic research network.
• International Association of Scandinavian Studies (IASS) – international research network. Participates since 2000.
• Nordisk Förening för Litteraturforskning (NORLIT) – international research network. Participates since 2007.

Published books

• Aska, Tomhet & Eld. Outsiderproblematiken hos Bruno K. Öijer (Ash, Emptiness & Fire. The Outsider in Bruno K. Öijer), (thesis) Lund: Ellerström, 2003.
• Sense and Senses in Aesthetics, Per Bäckström & Troels Degn Johansson (eds.), Gothenburg: NSU Press, 2003.
• Enhet i mångfalden. Henri Michaux och det groteska (Unity in the Plenitude. Henri Michaux and the Grotesque), Lund: Ellerströms förlag, 2005.
• Centre-Periphery. The Avant-Garde and the Other, Per Bäckström (ed.), Nordlit. Arbeidstidsskrift for litteratur, Faculty of arts, Universitety of Tromsø, no. 21 2007.
• Le Grotesque dans l’œuvre d’Henri Michaux. Qui cache son fou, meurt sans voix, Paris: L’Harmattan, 2007.
• Vårt brokigas ochellericke! Om experimentell poesi (Our Gaudy Andornot!. On Experimental Poetry), Lund: Ellerströms förlag, 2010.
• Samspill mellom kunstartene. Modernisme i nordisk lyrikk 4 (Interplay between the Arts. Modernism in Nordic Poetry), Hadle Oftedal Andersen, Per Bäckström & Unni Langås (eds.), Helsinki: University o fHelsinki, 2010.
• Norsk avantgarde (Norwegian Avant-Garde), Per Bäckström & Bodil Børset (eds.), Oslo: Novus , 2011.
• Decentring the Avant-Garde, Per Bäckström (red.), Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi, Avantgarde Critical Studies, 2014.

Keywords


avant-garde, neo-avant-garde, intermediality, performance, processuality, Öyvind Fahlström, Henri Michaux, Bruno K. Öijer

ORCID: 0000-0002-2400-4124
ResearcherID: B-7121-2012