Selma Lagerlöf & Sophie Elkan
Jan. 3rd, 2015 11:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reviews_and_ramblings
Swedish novelist and Nobel Prize winner in 1909, Selma Lagerlöf became, in 1914, the first woman elected to membership in the Swedish Academy. As early as 1942, biographer Elin Wägner emphasized the importance of friendships with women in Lagerlöf's life. It was not until 1990, however, when the enormous collection of Lagerlöf's private letters became available to the public that more explicit information concerning her relationships with women became known. (P: ©Anna Ollson, Karlstad. Photograph of writer Selma Lagerlöf. Taken in 1881 (©25))
Lagerlöf's letters to Sophie Elkan, You Teach Me to Be Free (Du lär mig att bli fri), published in 1992, tell a passionate love story that began in 1894 and apparently remained the most important relationship of Lagerlöf's life until Elkan's death in 1921. A writer from a Jewish merchant family in Gothenburg, Elkan accompanied Lagerlöf on trips to Italy, Jerusalem, and Egypt. Lagerlöf dedicated her novel Jerusalem I (1901) to "Sophie Elkan, my companion in life and letters." Other women, however, also competed for the novelist's favors. Valborg Olander, who taught at the teacher's college in Falun, was probably Elkan's most important rival. Lagerlöf's relationship with Olander precipitated scenes of jealousy, according to the letters. (Picture: Sophie Elkan)
Did Selma Lagerlöf's love for women affect her writing? The love stories in her novels are heterosexual, but they frequently focus on the conflicts and ambivalences of love and the transgression of boundaries. Her earliest writing portrays Margareta Celsing's forbidden love for Altringer in Gösta Berling's Saga (1891). In this work, any person who kisses Gösta Berling runs a risk of being ostracized.
Selma Lagerlöf was a Swedish author. She was the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1914. Lagerlöf‘s letters to Sophie Elkan, Du lär mig att bli fri (You Teach Me to Be Free), published in 1992, tell a passionate love story that began in 1894 and apparently remained the most important relationship of Lagerlöf’s life until Elkan's death in 1921. Lagerlöf dedicated her novel Jerusalem (1901) to "Sophie Elkan, my companion in life and letters."
In Lagerlöf's canon, the course of true love never runs smoothly; book after book dramatizes the obstacles to love. In The Outcast (Bannlyst [1918]), for example, the hero is a banned man, who at last finds his love. Unlike in other parts of Europe, the 1864 Swedish law against homosexuality included women. Homosexual relations between consenting adults were not legalized until four years after Lagerlöf's death. The legal and social stigma associated with homosexuality surely affected her work and probably accounts for her recurrent concern with ostracism and outcasts.
In the short story "Downie" in Invisible Links, written in 1894 (the year she first met Sophie Elkan), Lagerlöf uses a very telling expression, "That which she dares not call by name," when dealing with the forbidden love between a young woman and her fiancé's uncle. Lagerlöf's story precedes by a few months the poem by Lord Alfred Douglas that contains the familiar line referring to homosexuality as "the love that dare not speak its name."
It may well be that Lagerlöf picked up the phrase during her visits to Copenhagen while she was a teacher in Landskrona in southern Sweden (1885–1895). In her letters to Elkan during the period in which she wrote the story, Lagerlöf observes "many relations between women" on her visits to the Danish capital. It is possible that the expression "the love that dare not speak its name" was widespread within the homosexual subcultures of Europe at this time, and that Lagerlöf, like Douglas, picked it up and used it as a cover in her writings.
Citation Information
Author: Munck, Kerstin
Entry Title: Lagerlöf, Selma
General Editor: Claude J. Summers
Publication Name: glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture
Publication Date: 2002
Date Last Updated July 24, 2006
Web Address www.glbtq.com/literature/lagerlof_s.html
Publisher glbtq, Inc.
1130 West Adams
Chicago, IL 60607
Today's Date March 16, 2013
Encyclopedia Copyright: © 2002-2006, glbtq, Inc.
Entry Copyright © 2002, New England Publishing Associates
Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
Paperback: 760 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1500563323
ISBN-13: 978-1500563325
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/4910282
Amazon (Paperback): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1500563323/?tag=e
Amazon (Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MZG0VHY/?tag=e
Days of Love chronicles more than 700 LGBT couples throughout history, spanning 2000 years from Alexander the Great to the most recent winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Many of the contemporary couples share their stories on how they met and fell in love, as well as photos from when they married or of their families. Included are professional portraits by Robert Giard and Stathis Orphanos, paintings by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini, and photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnson, Arnold Genthe, and Carl Van Vechten among others. “It's wonderful. Laying it out chronologically is inspired, offering a solid GLBT history. I kept learning things. I love the decision to include couples broken by death. It makes clear how important love is, as well as showing what people have been through. The layout and photos look terrific.” Christopher Bram “I couldn’t resist clicking through every page. I never realized the scope of the book would cover centuries! I know that it will be hugely validating to young, newly-emerging LGBT kids and be reassured that they really can have a secure, respected place in the world as their futures unfold.” Howard Cruse “This international history-and-photo book, featuring 100s of detailed bios of some of the most forward-moving gay persons in history, is sure to be one of those bestsellers that gay folk will enjoy for years to come as reference and research that is filled with facts and fun.” Jack Fritscher
Did Selma Lagerlöf's love for women affect her writing? The love stories in her novels are heterosexual, but they frequently focus on the conflicts and ambivalences of love and the transgression of boundaries. Her earliest writing portrays Margareta Celsing's forbidden love for Altringer in Gösta Berling's Saga (1891). In this work, any person who kisses Gösta Berling runs a risk of being ostracized.
Selma Lagerlöf was a Swedish author. She was the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1914. Lagerlöf‘s letters to Sophie Elkan, Du lär mig att bli fri (You Teach Me to Be Free), published in 1992, tell a passionate love story that began in 1894 and apparently remained the most important relationship of Lagerlöf’s life until Elkan's death in 1921. Lagerlöf dedicated her novel Jerusalem (1901) to "Sophie Elkan, my companion in life and letters."
In Lagerlöf's canon, the course of true love never runs smoothly; book after book dramatizes the obstacles to love. In The Outcast (Bannlyst [1918]), for example, the hero is a banned man, who at last finds his love. Unlike in other parts of Europe, the 1864 Swedish law against homosexuality included women. Homosexual relations between consenting adults were not legalized until four years after Lagerlöf's death. The legal and social stigma associated with homosexuality surely affected her work and probably accounts for her recurrent concern with ostracism and outcasts.
In the short story "Downie" in Invisible Links, written in 1894 (the year she first met Sophie Elkan), Lagerlöf uses a very telling expression, "That which she dares not call by name," when dealing with the forbidden love between a young woman and her fiancé's uncle. Lagerlöf's story precedes by a few months the poem by Lord Alfred Douglas that contains the familiar line referring to homosexuality as "the love that dare not speak its name."
It may well be that Lagerlöf picked up the phrase during her visits to Copenhagen while she was a teacher in Landskrona in southern Sweden (1885–1895). In her letters to Elkan during the period in which she wrote the story, Lagerlöf observes "many relations between women" on her visits to the Danish capital. It is possible that the expression "the love that dare not speak its name" was widespread within the homosexual subcultures of Europe at this time, and that Lagerlöf, like Douglas, picked it up and used it as a cover in her writings.
Citation Information
Author: Munck, Kerstin
Entry Title: Lagerlöf, Selma
General Editor: Claude J. Summers
Publication Name: glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture
Publication Date: 2002
Date Last Updated July 24, 2006
Web Address www.glbtq.com/literature/lagerlof_s.html
Publisher glbtq, Inc.
1130 West Adams
Chicago, IL 60607
Today's Date March 16, 2013
Encyclopedia Copyright: © 2002-2006, glbtq, Inc.
Entry Copyright © 2002, New England Publishing Associates
Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa RollePaperback: 760 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1500563323
ISBN-13: 978-1500563325
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/4910282
Amazon (Paperback): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1500563323/?tag=e
Amazon (Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MZG0VHY/?tag=e
Days of Love chronicles more than 700 LGBT couples throughout history, spanning 2000 years from Alexander the Great to the most recent winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Many of the contemporary couples share their stories on how they met and fell in love, as well as photos from when they married or of their families. Included are professional portraits by Robert Giard and Stathis Orphanos, paintings by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini, and photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnson, Arnold Genthe, and Carl Van Vechten among others. “It's wonderful. Laying it out chronologically is inspired, offering a solid GLBT history. I kept learning things. I love the decision to include couples broken by death. It makes clear how important love is, as well as showing what people have been through. The layout and photos look terrific.” Christopher Bram “I couldn’t resist clicking through every page. I never realized the scope of the book would cover centuries! I know that it will be hugely validating to young, newly-emerging LGBT kids and be reassured that they really can have a secure, respected place in the world as their futures unfold.” Howard Cruse “This international history-and-photo book, featuring 100s of detailed bios of some of the most forward-moving gay persons in history, is sure to be one of those bestsellers that gay folk will enjoy for years to come as reference and research that is filled with facts and fun.” Jack Fritscher
