Women writing genealogy. Memory, kinship and identity formation in Sweden and Denmark c. 1400–1750.

The aim of this project is to analyze constructions of family, community, and self in genealogical writings by aristocratic women in Sweden and Denmark c. 1400–1750.

There are several extant genealogical manuscripts from this period, written and compiled by women, that point to the importance that these women ascribed to the past. The project explores the varied contents of these manuscripts as expressions of memory culture.

The analysis departs from the notion of genealogy as a gendered cultural phenomenon with fundamental implications for the perception and expression of kinship, memory, and identity. The project asks how women navigated the contradictory norms of patrilinear and bilateral kinship structures.

The family is seen as a fundamental junction for memory and the project provides new knowledge about the role of women in the mastering and transmission of family memory in Sweden and Denmark, and about the intersection and alignment of private and public, family and state.The proposed research time for this project is three years.

The project researcher will devote 75 % of her total working hours to the project.

The work input comprises the collection, analyses, and interpretation of a diverse and mainly handwritten source material.

A qualitative method will be applied, based on a model for empirical analyses of memory culture that comprises material, social, and mental dimensions. The outcomes will be published as three open-access articles and one monograph.