From fictional actress to real actor: The political female in Swedish literature from the 19th century.
This study compares three classical authors in Swedish literature from the 19th century: August Strindberg, Carl Jonas Love Almqvist and Anne-Charlotte Leffler. By using the image of the actress, they have contributed in different ways to women’s emancipation, and their works stem from one question: Who is the woman of modern times?
1.With Miss Julie, 1888 Strindberg shows his ideas of the intimate theater. In order to make the woman face herself he dissects the female psychology. By using the attributes of the actress he describes the woman as by nature a pretender, without contours and only an imperfect version of Man.
2.Almqvist introduces in his novel The Queen’s Tiara, 1834, Tintomara, an androgynous actress who becomes the desire of everyone. He critiques caustically but subtly a gendered society that frustrates both sexes and he demonstrates, long before the gender studies, the virtuality of masculinity and femininity in human beings.
3.Leffler explores in the play The Actress, 1873, the oppressiveness of conventions upon women, for example the incompatibility between art and the female. Her feministic approach reveals the tensions between the patriarchy and the claims from a new generation of women.
The three authors turn the actress into a symbol, which can describe three perspectives on gender: 1. The man as the only gender of which the woman depends. 2. Gender as a social construction. 3. A society divided in two genders.
This fictionalization of the female actress – sometimes admired, sometimes despised – has led to a debate in Sweden about women’s social status. The study is showing that this scenic literature, accessible to a larger number of readers and spectators than before, give way for women who want to become real actors, not only on the scene, but also in the society.