2007 Sara Stridsberg, Sweden: Drömfakulteten

2007 Sara Stridsberg, Sverige: Drömfakulteten

About the author

Sara Stridsberg made her debut as a writer with her critically acclaimed novel Happy Sally 2004, a story about Sally Bauer, the first Scandinavian to swim the English Channel. Sara Stridsberg has, for instance, translated the SCUM manifesto into Swedish. She has also worked as a journalist and playwright.

About the winning piece

Drömfakulteten was published in 2006 as Sara Stridsberg’s second novel – a fictitious story about Valerie Solanas, the woman who, for posterity, will be known for having written the extremely feminist manifesto SCUM (Society for Cutting Up Men) in the 1960s. The fictitious story in Drömfakulteten is that Sara Stridsberg visits Valerie Solanas at the end of her life in a hotel room in the red-light district in San Francisco. There, Valerie Solanas tells the author her authentic story. We follow Valerie Solanas through her difficult childhood and up through life. In the 1960s, she met Andy Warhol and their cooperation ended up in an attempted murder on the artist. Valerie Solanas was committed to a mental hospital and later went to prison, before dying at the age of 52 in a hotel room where the author meets her in the novel.

Drömfakulteten

Published by: Albert Bonnier's publishing company 

Publication year: 2006

This is what the Adjudicating Committee had to say

"'Drömfakulteten" is a passionate novel of great depth. The narrative revolves around the ultra-feminist icon Valeri Solanas and her in many ways tragic life story. Stridsberg mixes documentary material and free fiction in a feverishly vibrant prose. The novel's subtitle is 'postscript to the sexual theory', and the story constitutes a blistering showdown with the various repressive mechanisms society employs. Despite the seriousness of the subject, ‘Drömfakulteten’ is borne by a tremendous energy and linguistic lust.