Silent Knowledges: Queer and Gender Non-Conforming Women in Interwar Estonia and Finland

Application summary

SILK traces queer and gender non-confirming women's lives in interwar Estonia and Finland. The project focuses on the circulation of scientific concepts of gender and sexuality, encompassing close reading of cultural interpretations, representations and traces of non-normative sexuality and gender in life narratives. Utilizing silence as its key analytical concept, SILK is a transdisciplinary project in gender studies and works with historical and artistic research methods, studying the lost and silenced queer and gender-non-conforming lives of Finnish and Estonian artists in archives and analysing popular discourses and cultural representations. By shifting the focus from male homosexuality to women and gender non-conforming people, the project advances the theory and methodology of queer history research. SILK studies sexual and gender politics in the context of modern nation-building, and provides present-day audiences with new knowledge on the diversity of queer pasts. In the interwar period of 1920–1940, the social, cultural and political role of women went through several changes and women’s sexuality was in a paradoxical position: women’s representation in the public sphere increased, while, at the same time, emphasis was on pronatalist ideas of women’s reproductive role. During this period modern understandings of lesbian and transgender identities also emerged. SILK brings together Estonian and Finnish researchers, artists and LGBTQIA+ activists to find creative ways to address queer pasts. SILK offers novel interpretations through conceptual reconfigurations and demonstrates the persistence of queer lives in seemingly impossible circumstances. Providing a hopeful perspective amidst the current backlash against LGBTQIA+ rights is essential for queer and trans communities. The project’s main outcomes include an academic journal special issue, music compositions and a concert, scholarly manuscripts and articles, blog posts, and public events.