Research
Reading Culture and Politics among Women at L枚fstad Castle 1750-1850
L枚fstad Castle outside Norrk枚ping has traditionally been in female ownership and the book collection expanded considerably during the early 19th century with Sophie Piper (n茅e von Fersen) and Emilie de Geer. In my latest project 鈥淩eading Culture and Politics among Women at L枚fstad Castle 1750-1850鈥� I study these noblewomen鈥檚 book collecting and reading interests, not least in relation to the burning issues of the time about education and equality.
The construction and representation of gender, love and sexuality
I am also interested in the construction and representation of gender, love and sexuality, mainly in pre- and early modern literature but also in the modern period. In my dissertation, I studied Marguerite de Navarre's (1492鈥�1549) works Heptam茅ron (1559) and the poetry of Gaspara Stampa (1523鈥�1554), where these very configurations are under negotiation. I examine how different discourses of power, such as the church and Neoplatonic philosophy, operate in the construction of gender and sexuality and in what ways the literary texts relate to these. Who is allowed to desire whom and how is desire expressed? In short, I am interested in the possibilities for transcending prevailing norms that literary forms open up.
16th-Century Women Poets and Artist
With the Italian poets Tullia d鈥橝ragona and Gaspara Stampa as the main examples, one of my subsequent projects aimes to map and analyze the real and virtual networks and cultural contacts of female 16th-century poets, and thereby deepen the understanding of the conditions and production of early modern women writers. This applies not least to questions about constructions and representations of emotions in the literary works and in the context that surrounds them.
In parallel with this, I also started a project with a transmedia focus on early modern literature and art. Through gender and affect theory perspectives, the meaning and representations of the senses are examined, also here in the works of d鈥橝ragona and Stampa, but also Michelangelo and artists such as Lavinia Fontana and Elisabetta Sirani.
Conferences, Open Lectures and other Presentations in selection
- 鈥漈ullia d鈥橝ragona. Den romerska kurtisanen som blev filosof鈥�, speaker at the 100 year jubil茅e of the Swedish Institute in Rome, Nationalmuseum Stockholm, May 9, 2025- Systrar, v盲ninnor, krigare och hj盲ltinnor, Helsinki Boo Fair, October 27, 2024
- En upplyst kvinna: Emilie de Geers l盲s- och kunskapspraktiker, 鈥滾itteratur och kunskap鈥�, National Conference for Comparative Literature, October 2鈥�3, 2024
- Systrar, v盲ninnor, krigare och hj盲ltinnor, presentation, Forskartorget, Gothenburg Book Fair September 26, 2024
- 鈥淩eading Cultures and Politics Among the Women of L枚fstad Castle 1750-1850鈥�, conferensen Early Modern Women on Politics and Ethics, University of Gothenburg, October 5-7, 2023
- Bildningsbyr氓n 鈥� t盲nka mot str枚mmen: Virginia Woolf, modernistisk f枚rfattare, Podcast, September 21, 2023. https://sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/bildningsbyran-tanka-mot-strommen-virginia-woolf-modernistisk-forfattare
- En bok, en forskare. Gaspara Stampa: en kvinnlig r枚st i ren盲ssansens k盲rlekslyrik, URPlay, Sveriges Radio, August 7, 2023. https://sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/gaspara-stampa-en-kvinnlig-rost-i-renassansens-karlekslyrik
- 鈥淚 want you to bow to experience鈥� The Importance of Experience and Free Will in Tullia d鈥橝ragona鈥檚 Dialogo della infinita虁 di amore, International Society for Cultural History, Verona, August 3-5, 2022
- En kvinnas r枚st i ren盲ssansens k盲rlekslyrik, Forskartorget, Gothenburg Book Fair September 23, 2022
- 鈥淧oet-Philosopher: Gaspara Stampa and the Early Modern Debate on Love鈥�, lecture in series 鈥淭uesday Ten Talks鈥�, The Medici Archive Project, Friends of the Medici, Florence, June 21, 2022