The Critical Potential of Literary Compositions of Peace
Talk by Maria Mårsell
Abstract
In this talk I will present my thesis – The Critical Potential of the Literary Composition of Peace: Feminism, Militarism, and Colonialism in the Writings of Frida Stéenhoff, Elin Wägner, and Hagar Olsson (2024) – which highlights and problematises the literary composition of peace in selected works by these Swedish-language authors.
Against the background of the early 20th century Western feminist peace movement and European colonisation, the study shows how these authors enter into dialogue with an international tradition of thinking peace. Based on the literary composition of peace in the material, the analysis focuses on the local and international contexts addressed therein as well as its approach to three tendencies and dilemmas in the traditional Western understanding of the relationship between war and peace:
- the understanding of peace as the negation of war
- the gendering and racialisation of the concept of peace
- the idea that war is something natural to man.
About Maria Mårsell
Maria Mårsell holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from Södertörn University, Sweden. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the project Women in the Nordic Enlightenment (WHENCE) at the University of Copenhagen.
The talk is open to all researchers and students at UCPH but you must pre-register by email to Maria Mårsell.
Map of South Campus
View directions.
View on map of the Faculty of Humanities - South Campus.
View map of South Campus (pdf).