The Status of Sexuality, Pornography, and Morality in Norway Today: Are the Critics Ready for Bjørneboe's Joyful Inversion of Mykle's Guilt Trip?

Abstract

This article disputes the sexual freedom in Norway while it makes a case for a rereading of Jens Bjørneboe's Uten en tråd. Though Norway has come a long way in liberating sexuality and achieving sexual equality among the genders, remnants of a puritanical tradition continue to haunt sexuality, as one may glean from contemporary literature, applauded by critics. The liberating power of Uten en tråd is that it laughs in the face of the oppressive puritanical sexual ethic while it joyfully embraces its own new sexual ethic, thus attaining an authentic freedom that has completely let go of the past.