A CHILD'S LIBERATION OF SPACE: HERBJØRG WASSMO'S "HUSET MED DEN BLINDE GLASSVERANDA"

TL;DRAbstract

1981 a little known Norwegian poet by the name of Herbjorg Wassmo published her first novel, Huset medden blinde glassveranda (The House with the Blind Glass Veranda), about red-haired Tora, a sensitive, abused, twelve-year-old girl from a small town on the north Norwegian coast. Her father, a German soldier and member of the occupying forces during WW II, was killed before she was born. She lives with her mother, Ingrid, and her mother's husband, Henrik. Ingrid, who works nights in a fish factory, is the family's sole support. Henrik, an idle drunkard, regularly beats his wife and sexually molests his stepdaughter. Unaware of her innocence, Tora is tortured by a debilitating sense of guilt toward both adults, guilt compounded by an exaggerated sense of responsibility toward her mother. Toward herself she is unforgiving. As if she had found a strategy for enduring her abuse, she accepts it as her due, comparing herself to a tortured cat:

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