‘So much compassion, so much caring’: Caritative care in Naja Marie Aidt’s Exercises in Darkness

Linda  Nesby

doi:10.7557/13.8501

Authors

Linda Hamrin Nesby UiT The Arctic University of Norway https://orcid.org/0009-0001-0281-8039

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7557/13.8501

Keywords:

language of care, Naja Marie Aidt, caritative care, curography, intertextuality

Abstract

This article explores how Naja Marie Aidt’s novel Exercises in Darkness (2024) contributes to the interdisciplinary field of caring science. The novel belongs to the emerging genre ‘curography’, which focuses on the caregiver’s perspective, and it expands Katie Eriksson’s caritative care theory by addressing this theory’s underexplored language of care. Aidt’s fragmented, poetic novel not only reflects trauma but enacts care through its narration and aesthetic forms, demonstrating how storytelling and aesthetic use of language can serve as tools for healing. By integrating literary analysis and care theory, the article argues that interdisciplinary research can extend our understanding of contemporary caregiving.

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