Elisabet Björklund – författare

"Såra tukt och sedlighet tecknar en fascinerande bild av svensk  idéutveckling, sedd genom underlivet. En särskild eloge till språket; de enskilda studierna har integrerats på en gemensam, glasklar sakprosa." Respons

”Boken är sprängfylld av så gott som varje intressant anekdot på temat som går att tänka sig, och dokumenterar politiska förflyttningar, teknisk utveckling, sexbranschen och offentlig debatt om pornografin genom 100 års föränderlig kulturell kontext.”Flamman

”Som läsupplevelse är Såra tukt och sedlighet relativt lätt för en lekman att ta till sig, med populärvetenskapligt tilltal, tydligt upplägg och regelbundna sammanfattningar /…/ en utmärkt introduktionsbok till ämnet, både lärorik och intresseväckande. ”Svenska Dagbladet

"En bok full av lust och av fakta. En bok att avnjuta innan man sedan tycker till."Arbetaren

"Fyra kunniga forskare bjuder i boken ”Såra tukt och sedlighet” på en initierad och läsvärd översikt av 100 år av censur, moraldebatt, sexualupplysning och svensk synd."Uppsala Nya tidning

För 100 år sedan anhölls i Sverige en person för att ha ”sårat tukt och sedlighet”, som lagen uttryckte det, genom att ha visat en oanständig film. För 50 år sedan upphävdes lagen och pornografin legaliserades. Idag kan pornografi konsumeras gratis på internet.

Pornografins svenska historia innehåller många vändningar och starka känslor. Den involverar såväl politikens finrum som den torftigaste sexbutiken. Några har blivit rika på pornografin, andra har tvingats till den för att klara livhanken. Den svenska synden, sexliberalism och feminism är exempel på idéer och strömningar som påverkat utvecklingen, liksom teknologiska fenomen som fotografi, film, tv, video och internet.

I denna första heltäckande skildring av modern svensk pornografihistoria ryms allt detta och mycket mer. Skriven av de fyra forskarna Mariah Larsson, Klara Arnberg, Tommy Gustafsson och Elisabet Björklund vid Linnéuniversitetet och Stockholms universitet.

The Face of AIDS film archive at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, consists of more than 700 hours of unedited and edited footage, shot over a period of more than thirty years and all over the world by filmmaker and journalist Staffan Hildebrand. The material documents the HIV/AIDS pandemic and includes scenes from conferences and rallies, and interviews with activists, physicians, people with the infection, and researchers. It represents a global historical development from the early years of the AIDS crisis to a situation in which it is possible to live a normal life with the HIV virus. This volume brings together a range of academic perspectives – from media and film studies, medical history, gender studies, history, and cultural studies – to bear on the archive, shedding light on memories, discourses, trauma, and activism. Using a medical humanities framework, the editors explore the influence of historical representations of HIV/AIDS and stigma in a world where antiretroviral treatment has fundamentally altered the conditions under which many people diagnosed with HIV live. Organized into four sections, this book begins by introducing the archive and its role, setting it in a global context. The first part looks at methodological, legal and ethical issues around archiving memories of the present which are then used to construct histories of the past; something that can be particularly controversial when dealing with a socially stigmatized epidemic such as HIV/AIDS. The second section is devoted to analyses of particular films from the archive, looking at the portrayal of people living with HIV/AIDS, the narrative of HIV as a chronic illness and the contemporary context of particular films. The third section looks at how stigma and trauma are negotiated in the material in the Face of AIDS film archive, discussing ideas about suffering and culpability. The final section contributes perspectives on and by the filmmaker as activist and auteur. This interdisciplinary collection is placed at the intersection of medical humanities, sexuality studies and film and media studies, continuing a tradition of studies on the cultural and social understandings of HIV/AIDS.

The Face of AIDS film archive at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, consists of more than 700 hours of unedited and edited footage, shot over a period of more than thirty years and all over the world by filmmaker and journalist Staffan Hildebrand. The material documents the HIV/AIDS pandemic and includes scenes from conferences and rallies, and interviews with activists, physicians, people with the infection, and researchers. It represents a global historical development from the early years of the AIDS crisis to a situation in which it is possible to live a normal life with the HIV virus. This volume brings together a range of academic perspectives – from media and film studies, medical history, gender studies, history, and cultural studies – to bear on the archive, shedding light on memories, discourses, trauma, and activism. Using a medical humanities framework, the editors explore the influence of historical representations of HIV/AIDS and stigma in a world where antiretroviral treatment has fundamentally altered the conditions under which many people diagnosed with HIV live. Organized into four sections, this book begins by introducing the archive and its role, setting it in a global context. The first part looks at methodological, legal and ethical issues around archiving memories of the present which are then used to construct histories of the past; something that can be particularly controversial when dealing with a socially stigmatized epidemic such as HIV/AIDS. The second section is devoted to analyses of particular films from the archive, looking at the portrayal of people living with HIV/AIDS, the narrative of HIV as a chronic illness and the contemporary context of particular films. The third section looks at how stigma and trauma are negotiated in the material in the Face of AIDS film archive, discussing ideas about suffering and culpability. The final section contributes perspectives on and by the filmmaker as activist and auteur. This interdisciplinary collection is placed at the intersection of medical humanities, sexuality studies and film and media studies, continuing a tradition of studies on the cultural and social understandings of HIV/AIDS.

Swedish cinema became recognized for daring representations of sexuality with such films as One Summer of Happiness (1951), The Silence (1963), I Am Curious (Yellow) (1967) and a wave of sex films in the late 1960s and 1970s. The association between Swedish film and sexuality shows up frequently in popular culture. From Taxi Driver (1976) to Mad Men (2007-2015), dirty Swedish movie references abound. Yet the connection has attracted little critical attention.In this collection of new essays, Swedish and American scholars go beyond popular misconceptions to explore the origins, influences and reception of sexuality in Swedish cinema during the "sexual revolution" on both sides of the Atlantic. A broad range of topics are covered, from analyses of key films, to a behind-the-scenes study of the Swedish Film Institute, which played a significant role in opposing Swedish film censorship.

Exploring a wide variety of visualizations of pregnancy and fetuses through 300 years of history, this timely volume offers a fresh look at the influential feminist concept of the "public fetus."Images of pregnant and fetal bodies are today visible everywhere. Through ultrasound screenings at maternity clinics, birth videos on social media platforms, or antiabortion propaganda, visualizations of pregnancy are available and accessible as never before. The origins of today's visual culture of pregnancy are often traced back to the 1960s, when Swedish photographer Lennart Nilsson's stunning photographs of human development were published in Life magazine and widely disseminated over the world. But the public display of pregnant and fetal bodies actually has a much longer and more complex history. In this timely book, a group of scholars from a range of disciplines explores this multifaceted history by highlighting visualizations of pregnant and fetal bodies in a variety of geographical and cultural contexts, spanning a period of more than 300 years. By reengaging with the crucial concept of the "public fetus," coined by feminist scholars in the 1980s and 1990s, the volume aims to revitalize the scholarly discussion on the visual culture of pregnancy and demonstrate the constructed nature of fetal images. Including chapters on a wide variety of representations in different media, such as wet specimen collections, papier-mâché models, sculpture, film, and photography, the book provides a much-needed argument against the widespread notion of the "universal" fetus.On publication this title is available as an Open Access ebook under the Creative Commons License: CC-BY-NC-ND.

In 1969, the sex education film Language of Love was a great success at Swedish movie theaters. Containing explicit representations of sexual acts, the film attracted over one million Swedish movie-goers and was soon followed by no less than three sequels and a "best-of" compilation film. Having since become part of the Swedish cult canon, the films are today probably the most widely seen Swedish sex education films of all times. But Language of Love was not the first sex education film in Sweden. In fact, films of the type had existed on the Swedish market ever since the silent era. In The Most Delicate Subject, Elisabet Björklund traces the history of sex education films in Sweden up until the late 1970s. Situating the films in context of the developing Swedish welfare society and the expanding presence of sexuality in the public sphere, Björklund explores how the films were shown, handled by censors, discussed in the media, and what they express in terms of the changing norms and ideas about sexuality. Studying feature-length films shown in cinemas as well as shorter films aimed at the schools, The Most Delicate Subject provides a broad and fascinating history of a genre that has constantly been the object of considerable controversy, from its origin in the early twentieth century to the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. Elisabet Björklund is a film scholar at the division of Film Studies at the Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University. The Most Delicate Subject is her doctoral dissertation. Läs en intervju med Elisabet Björklund