The Contemporary Feminist Musician: Nomadic, New Materialist and Utopianist Motifs in Björk’s Oeuvre

Abstract

This thesis investigates the oeuvre of the Icelandic musician and lyricist Björk from the feminist theory perspective. I will focus on four major aspects: the question of nomadism and sexual differing, the feminist new materialist approach and utopianism. Firstly, I would like to present the persona of Björk, to briefly describe her biography, achievements and major works. Secondly, I would like to analyse the connections between her oeuvre (with a special emphasis on her Volta [2007] and Vulnicura [2015] albums) and the feminist theories regarding nomadism and the concept of sexual differing. The conclusions will lead me directly to the second chapter of my thesis which will be devoted to feminist new materialism and its application in artistic practice. I would like to base my analysis on Björk’s Biophilia album from 2011. I will describe the general concept of the album, which is a multidimensional and intersectional musical project, wherein nature, technology and music work together for us to imagine new artistic and conceptual assemblages. Furthermore, I will elaborate on the ontological realm and methodology of feminist new materialism. In particular, I would like to problematise the relationship between subject and object within a situation of scientific and artistic inquiry. The last chapter of my thesis will be devoted to Björk’s recent Utopia (2017) album. In this chapter, I would like to describe the main themes of both so-called male and female utopianism and demonstrate the main differences between them. These elaborations will take me to Björk’s utopia, which, similarly to other feminist anti-representationalist concepts, as I will prove, might be compared to the fluidity of nomadism and the indeterminacy of queer. Finally, I would like to express and explain my confidence that both an artist’s works and feminist theories may benefit from such academic investigations.