Kvinnor, yoghurtglass, och Frankenkukar. En undersökning om kvinnors begär i "Milk Fed" av Melissa Broder

Abstract

This essay aims to examine the depiction of female desire in the novel "Milk Fed", published in 2021 by author Melissa Broder. Female desire as a literary motif has become more frequent in fiction over time, moreover it has been widely discussed and moralised. This essay is aspiring to survey the depiction of desire in a contemporary novel to further discuss the matter. The term desire will in this essay not be limited to sexual desire, but also include hunger and desire for affirmation – this to investigate the relationship between different kinds of desire in the main character in the novel. In this text desire will be examined using theoretical notions of human desire based on works of psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan and a feminist critical perspective of Lacan’s work mostly composed by Elizabeth Grosz. The analysis of the text will be divided into subcategories studying the main character’s sexual desire, hunger, and desire for affirmation, and further on also investigate the submerging of these desires. The essay also aims to look further into the consequences of desire and using the results of the analysis to discuss literary depictions of female desire and its political usage.