Exploring Relationality: Forms of Queer Feminist Knowledge in Kim de l’Horizon’s Blutbuch

This article examines queer feminist knowledge production as thematized and performed in Kim de l’Horizon’s debut novel Blutbuch (2022). I define “queer feminist knowledge” as an alternative (Halberstam), affective (Ahmed), ephemeral (Muñoz), nomadic (Braidotti), and metaphorical (Preciado) experimentation. This knowledge production revisits relationality as ever-changing and fluid, rendering it as an act of defiance against norms. Blutbuch tells the story of its non-binary character, also named Kim, through a fragmented narrative and delves into family history, witch figures, language construction, and different modes of writing. Offering a close reading of the novel, this paper analyzes representations of relationality, the body, and knowledge, and considers how these can be challenged and reimagined. After first outlining how queer feminist knowledge can transform the notion of lineage toward a more inclusive understanding of kinship, I then reflect on the narrator’s self-expression to (re)create alternative forms of knowledge about family, language, and themself.