Editorial preface
Ideas and notions concerning gender have become some of the most important literary themes of the early 21st century. Female and male authors have enthusiastically thrown themselves into a bona fide discovery of the possibilities offered by social gender and biological sex in terms of new ways of life, self-esteem, self-knowledge, and insights in a global world. Gender themes are employed in investigations of ideas and notions concerning the human condition, grieving, loss, attachments to the past, desire, and madness. A range of writers appear to be unconcerned with traditional notions of heterosexuality, homosexuality, and transgender issues, all the while attempting to outline a new sense of responsibility towards fellow human beings, children, and life on earth by questioning what gender – socially and existentially – may be and become.
Author: anhoe
What does it mean to fit into norms of gender and family? And what if one does not? And what does this have to do with literature? In 2025, ‘The History of Nordic Women’s Literature’ online launched a theme on queer literature in the Nordic countries.
In 2025 Denmark introduced a new literary canon for upper secondary education, due to come into effect in the 2026/27 school year. This revision followed two decades of criticism of the previous canon, in particular for its gender bias, but also for its lack of representation of large parts of the Danish Realm.
In many countries in seventeenth-century Europe, women were forbidden to dress like men, and in some it was criminal. Dekker and Van de Pool note that the prohibitions were unusually strict in Europe compared to other cultures.
A conversation between postdoc Lucie Duggan, PI of the Augustinus-funded research project Reading Women. Karen Brahe and Female Book Ownership (1609-1736), SDU, and Professor Anne-Marie Mai, editor of Nordic Women’s Literature, SDU, on Lucie Duggan’s research project.
Nordic Women’s Literature has moved to a new location at the University of Southern Denmark, which will host the work in the future. A group of researchers from the University of Southern Denmark will edit new material for the major site.
Nordic Women’s Literary History was published in five volumes in the period 1993 to 1998. In 2017, it was increased by a sixth volume on recent Nordic literature.