Making Enlightenment Happen. Gothenburg Women in 18th-century Swedish Public Life

This project investigates women’s intellectual agency and output in Swedish enlightenment.

By focusing on the city of Gothenburg as a ‘messy’ margin of this intellectual movement and on women as cultural intermediaries in the provincial community, preconceived notions of Swedish enlightenment will be challenged as well as the history of European women’s participation in enlightenment culture more broadly.

Scholars have noticed that surprisingly many women were partaking in Gothenburg intellectual life as poets, journalists, editors, printers in late 18th century. Their contribution has however not yet been studied length.

The women’s presence will be mapped and analysed in relation to the intense international exchange of goods, books and ideas that marked the port city.

In this context women acted as mediators and originators of enlightenment discourse – among others Anna Rosén, Hedvig Sirenia, Anna Maria Lenngren.

In order to fulfil the project purpose, a process-oriented rather than output-oriented methodology will be developed that (1) map women’s intellectual activities and output in learned societies and newspapers, (2) investigate the transcultural exchange of enlightenment ideas and imaginaries, with a specific focus on women’s contribution, (3) analyse how a female voice is established, negotiated and contested in the 18th-century Swedish public sphere.

Results will be published in scientific articles, a jointly written book, and in public events.