Saga - 2018, Page 80

samband milli skólapilta, þ.e.a.s. skammlíft samband Geirs og Gísla
Guðmundssonar. Hinsegin rými Lærða skólans var þannig ekki
bara notað af Geir og Ólafi heldur fleiri nemendum.
Ég tel þessar niðurstöður gefa til kynna að leit að frekari heim-
ildum um hinsegin ástarsambönd innan Lærða skólans á nítjándu
öld gæti orðið gagnleg. Skólinn missir þannig íhaldssama ímynd
sína og birtist í staðinn sem staðbrigði í anda Foucaults og hinsegin
rými í anda Jack Halberstam og annarra hinsegin fræðimanna; skól-
inn birtist ekki lengur eingöngu sem staður þar sem íslensk elíta var
öguð og mótuð í íhaldssamt form heldur sem annarlegt rými sem
menn eins og Ólafur nýttu sér til að „hafa svo mikið upp úr lífinu
sem auðið er“.96
Abstract
þorsteinn vilhjálmsson
“TO ENJOy LIFE TO THE UTMOST”
Ólafur Davíðsson and Queer Space
in the Nineteenth-Century Reykjavík Latin School
The diary of Ólafur Davíðsson (1862–1903) is a unique source for Icelandic queer
history. In it, Ólafur describes his love relationship with Geir Sæmundsson, a fel-
low student at his boarding school, the Reykjavík Latin School („Lærði skólinn“).
This article examines the diary from the standpoint of queer history, utilising the
concepts of queer space and heterotopia.
Nineteenth-century boarding schools, such as the Latin School attended by
Ólafur and Geir, represented in many ways exceptional spaces in society. French
philosopher Michel Foucault identified them as heterotopias, places where
normal societal rules were overturned and a certain otherness was allowed and
contained. Numerous upper-class boys and young men cohabited there in close
quarters, cut off from traditional societal outlets for love and sexual desire, while
studying texts by Greek and Roman authors, many of whom extolled the virtues
of male same-sex love. Thus, these schools nourished a culture of same-sex love,
sex and even abuse.
In the nineteenth century, this age-old tradition started being regarded with
suspicion, leading to widespread public-school reforms aimed at curbing same-
sex relationships. These reforms seem to have influenced the Reykjavík Latin
School‘s supervision of its dormitory from the middle of the century onwards.
However, some students, Ólafur Davíðsson and Geir Sæmundsson among them,
þorsteinn vilhjálmsson78
96 Lbs. 2686 8vo, bls. 187.
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