Precarious, Heroes and the Art of Cleaning: Reading “Cleaning Women”

This chapter analyses representations of cleaners in contemporary Western culture. It draws on theories of intersectionality (Krenshaw, McCall) and representation (Hall, Spivak) and reads narratives where the cleaner is the protagonist and cleaning is in focus: the Swedish award-winning biography of the Swedish writer (and cleaner) Maja Ekelöf (Jag har torkat nog många golv, 2022); Ekelöf’s award-winning bestseller Rapport från en skurhink (Report from a Scrub Bucket, 1970); the French Le Quai de Ouistreham (2010) as well as the film, Ouistreham (Between Two Worlds, 2022); the American television series The Cleaning-Lady (2022); and the Canadian bestseller The Maid. A Novel (2022). It argues that there has been a change in the representation of cleaners, and cleaning, and that it is now possible to talk about two dominant discourses: one old and one new. The old discourse is underpinned by the idea that cleaners work hard for their money under precarious conditions but are unable to represent themselves. The new discourse promotes the cleaner as a strong and admirable protagonist who undoubtedly can represent herself as well as others. Cleaning as a practice has also become more interesting to represent—the art of cleaning—and has the narrative function as Proust’s madeleine.