‘I am rooted, but I flow’: Écriture Fluide, Becoming, and Healing in Kim de l’Horizon’s Blutbuch

Abstract

For the Swiss writer Kim de l’Horizon, writing is a political act that seeks to heal the wounds caused by the constraints of gender identities and the yoke of masculinity. I argue in this article that de l’Horizon elaborates a critical mode called écriture fluide in Blutbuch (2022). By taking this queer and feminist standpoint, de l’Horizon emphasizes that people are always in the process of becoming. This approach captures how de l’Horizon challenges conventional generic categories and linear narration, and how they seek to dissolve the borders between languages, gender identities, as well as human and natural worlds in this book. In particular, I demonstrate that the narrative structure and depictions of childhood growing pains push against a linear model of queer identity that challenges the notion that queer people must leave behind their past and their blood kin in order to become their “true” selves. (JSV)