The crime novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Swedish author Stieg Larsson follows journalist Blomkvist’s investigation into the disappearance of a teenage girl in the Vanger family, and tells the story of his collaboration with a marginal character, hacker Lisbeth Salander, to investigate serial killings. It deeply presents the multiple physical and psychological abuse suffered by women in Swedish society and their efforts to resist. The novel expresses its concern for the fate of women by focusing on the details of the characters’ bodies. The characters’ resistance to the patriarchal society serves as a call for women to fight for their physical rights, and also explores the body as a place to fight against oppression and gain power. At the same time, the novel draws the reader’s attention to the limitations of the characters’ resistance, connecting the victims in the story to the reality of women’s situations in reality.

Li Sitong. Physical battlefield: Body, power, and resistance in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Academic Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences (2024) Vol. 7, Issue 5: 248-251. https://doi.org/10.25236/AJHSS.2024.070540.

[1] Foucault, Michel. The Foucault Reader. Edited by Paul Rabinow, New York, Pantheon Books, 1984.

[2] Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. 1975. Translated by Alan Sheridan, New York, Vintage Books, 1995.

[3] Larsson, Stieg. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Toronto, Ontario, Penguin, 2015.

[4] Eagleton, Terry. Criticism and Ideology a Study in Marxist Literary Theory. London Verso, 2006.

[5] Projansky, Sarah. Watching Rape: Film and Television in Postfeminist Culture. New York, New York University Press, 2001.

[6] Corradi, Consuelo, et al. “Theories of Femicide and Their Significance for Social Research.” Current Sociology, vol. 64, no. 7, 9 July 2016, 975–995.

[7] Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality. Volume I: An Introduction. New York Vintage Books, 1978.

[8] Cahill, Sharon, and Sarah Riley. “Resistances and reconciliations: Women and body art.” Through the Wardrobe: Women’s Relationships with Their Clothes, Oxford: Berg (2003): 151-70.

[9] Atkinson, M. (2004). Tattooing and civilizing processes: Body modification as self-control. Canadian Review of Sociology, 41(2), 125–146.