Anna Mariana Bohlin
Position
Professor, Nordic literature
Affiliation
Research
My research focusses on the intersection of literature and politics, particularly in Nordic 19th-century literature. Several cross-disciplinary fields of research are included in my research interests: nationalism studies, research on pilgrimage, the history of emotions, and above all gender theory 鈥 19th- and early 20th-century gender theories as an object of study and modern gender theories an analytical tool. Nordic literature in a comparative perspective is the core of my research, and the gender perspective an important driving force.
Lately, I have been working on my own research project, Enchanting Nations: Commodity Market, Folklore, and Nationalism in Scandinavian Literature 1830鈥1850 (funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond 2016鈥2018), I have been the head editor of the cross-disciplinary anthology Nineteenth-Century Nationalisms and Emotions in the Baltic Sea Region: The Production of Loss (Brill, 2021), and participated in the cross-disciplinary research project Tracing the Jerusalem Code: Christian Cultures in Scandinavia (funded by NFR 2015鈥2018, head project leader Kristin M. Bliksrud Aavitsland).
My PhD thesis, The Anatomy of Voice: Readings of Politics in Silverforsen by Elin W盲gner, the L枚wensk枚ld trilogy by Selma Lagerl枚f, and Klara Johanson鈥檚 Causeries in Tidevarvet (2008), investigates the notion of voice, elaborated in literary texts of the 1920s by prominent Swedish feminist writers, in relation to women鈥檚 suffrage, finally granted to Swedish women in 1921. Contemporary gender theories by Ellen Key, Mathilde V忙rting, Rosa Mayreder, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Alexandra Kollontay, and Olive Schreiner form a context for the relations between voice, corporeality and emancipation developed in the novels and causeries. The study proposes a new metatheoretical model for emancipation theories instead of the heavily criticised distinction between essentialism and constructivism, by focussing the relation between corporeality and meaning, and using tropes of rhetoric to analyse these relations.
Publications
Academic book chapter
Academic article
Academic monograph
Editorial/Leader article
Book anthology
Popular science book chapter
Popular science article
Journal review
Academic literature review
Introduction
Academic commentary
Selected publications:
Publications in the research project Enchanting Nations
鈥滵en svenska 1840-talsromanen som nationell kartografi鈥, Samlaren 2016, 氓rg. 137, pp. 58鈥86.
鈥滷emale Citizenship in Scandinavian Literature in the 1840s鈥, Rethinking Scandinavia 鈥 CSS Publications Web Quarterly vol 2 2018:1.
鈥滿agi och nation. H盲xor i finl盲ndsk och svensk 1800-talslitteratur鈥, Historiska och litteraturhistoriska studier 93, Svenska litteraturs盲llskapet i Finland, Helsingfors 2018, pp. 47鈥78.
https://doi.org/10.30667/hls.66680
鈥漀ationalistiska uts枚ndringar: kroppsv盲tskor hos Wergeland och Almqvist鈥, Edda 2021:2, 氓rg. 108, pp. 114鈥127 https://doi.org/10.18261/issn.1500-1989-2021-02-04
鈥淭he Novel Reconsidered: Emotions and anti-realism in mid-19th-century Scandinavian literature鈥, Nations and Nationalism vol. 27, 2021:3 (July), pp. 831鈥845.
鈥滻nledning: Nation som kvalitet鈥, Nation som kvalitet: Smak, folk och offentligheter i 1800-talets Norden, Alvheim & Eide Akademisk forlag, eds. Anna Bohlin & Elin Stengrundet, Alvheim & Eide Akademisk forlag, 2021, pp. 8鈥22.
鈥滷attigdom som svensk estetik 鈥 fr氓n Almqvist till IKEA鈥, Nation som kvalitet: Smak, offentligheter och folk i 1800-talets Norden, eds. Anna Bohlin, & Elin Stengrundet, Alvheim & Eide Akademisk forlag, 2021, pp. 43鈥64.
Other publications
鈥漀eglect, grief, revenge: Finland in Swedish nineteenth-century literature鈥, Nineteenth-Century Nationalisms and Emotions in the Baltic Sea Region: The Production of Loss, eds. Anna Bohlin, Heidi Gr枚nstrand & Tiina Kinnunen, Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2021, pp. 80鈥107.
Bohlin, Anna, Gr枚nstrand, Heidi & Kinnunen, Tiina, 鈥滻ntroduction: The Production of Loss鈥, Nineteenth-Century Nationalisms and Emotions in the Baltic Sea Region: The Production of Loss, Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2021, pp. 1鈥22.
鈥滸eography of the Soul 鈥 History of Humankind: the Jerusalem Code in Bremer and Almqvist鈥, Tracing the Jerusalem Code. Volume 3. The Promised Land: Christian Cultures in Modern Scandinavia (ca. 1750鈥揷a. 1920), eds. Ragnhild J. Zorgati & Anna Bohlin, DeGruyter: Berlin, 2021, pp. 360鈥389.
鈥滸od鈥檚 Kingdom on Earth: Liberal Theology and Christian Liberalism in Sweden鈥, Tracing the Jerusalem Code. Volume 3. The Promised Land: Christian Cultures in Modern Scandinavia (ca. 1750鈥揷a. 1920), eds. Ragnhild J. Zorgati & Anna Bohlin, DeGruyter: Berlin, pp. 540鈥549.
Bohlin, Anna & Ragnhild Johnsrud Zorgati, 鈥滻ntroduction: Jerusalem in Modern Scandinavia鈥, Tracing the Jerusalem Code. Volume 3. The Promised Land: Christian Cultures in Modern Scandinavia (ca. 1750鈥揷a. 1920), red. Ragnhild J. Zorgati & Anna Bohlin, DeGruyter: Berlin, 2021, pp. 12鈥50.
鈥滼erusalem in Every Soul: Temporalities of Faith in Fredrika Bremer鈥檚 and Harriet Martineau鈥檚 Travel Narratives of Palestine鈥, Time and Temporalities in European Travel Writing, eds. Paula Henrikson & Christina Kullberg, Routledge: London & New York 2021, pp. 182鈥209.
鈥漀ils and the Social Mother as a Migrating Goose鈥, Tijdschrift voor Skandinavistiek 36, 2018/2019, pp. 117鈥124.
鈥滷redrika Bremer鈥檚 Concept of the Nation During her American Journey鈥, Ideas in History 2013:1-2, pp. 43鈥70.
鈥滱tt t盲nka med alla sinnen. Aforismen och K. J.鈥, Tidskrift f枚r litteraturvetenskap 2013:2, pp. 49鈥59.
鈥滿氓rbacka: Larders, cow-houses and other spiritual matters鈥, Re-Mapping Lagerl枚f: Performance, intermediality and European transmissions, eds. Helena Fors氓s-Scott, Lisbeth Stenberg & Bjarne Thorup Thomsen, Nordic Academic Press: Lund 2014, pp. 60鈥73.
鈥滵en manliga frimodigheten. Gud och andra m盲n hos Fredrika Bremer鈥, Kvinnorna g枚r mannen. Maskulinitetskonstruktioner i kvinnors text och bild 1500鈥2000, eds. Kristina Fjelkestam, Helena Hill & David Tjeder, Makadam f枚rlag: G枚teborg & Stockholm 2013, pp. 310鈥342.
鈥滻 f枚rfattarens fotsp氓r 鈥 litteraturvetenskaplig metod p氓 f盲ltet鈥, Humanister i f盲lt. Metoder och m枚jligheter, eds. 脜sa Arping, Christer Ekholm & Katarina Lepp盲nen, LIR.skrifter.varia: G枚teborg 2016, pp. 23鈥38.
R枚stens anatomi. L盲sningar av politik i Elin W盲gners Silverforsen, Selma Lagerl枚fs L枚wensk枚ldtrilogi och Klara Johansons Tidevarvsk氓serier, diss. Ume氓, Bokf枚rlaget h:str枚m: Ume氓 2008.
Projects
Enchanting Nations: Commodity Market, Folklore and Nationalism in Scandinavian Literature 1830鈥1850 (funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond 2016鈥2018)
The aim of the project is to break up the nationalism of today from within the history of nationalism itself. Fundamental issues - the distinguishing features of the nation, the Christian conception of the nation as an evolutionary step to unite humankind, Scandinavianism, and indeed the very incentive to formulate a nation - prove nationalism of the early 19th century to be foreign to us. Literature was central to the way in which nationalism spread and evoked emotions; nevertheless, popular authors such as the Swedish Fredrika Bremer (1801鈥1865) have not been investigated in the light of modern, critical theory. Studies of nationalism, on the other hand, have for a long time tended to neglect women. To investigate the development of nationalism through literature makes women鈥檚 contributions visible and opens up for an thorough analysis of how women鈥檚 citizenship was negotiated. Furthermore, in the Nordic countries, the nation was constructed in relation to a common Old Norse literature, to political connections and conflicts over a long period of time, and to Scandinavianism as a political and cultural movement. The study of nationalism is necessarily transnational, and that applies particularly to Scandinavia.
The research project explores the following research questions: What did the nation signify? What separates and what unites the idea of the nation in Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish literary texts? How are Christianity, Old Norse myth and folklore related to the concept of the nation? How is consumerism connected to national consciousness? How is citizenship understood in relation to gender? How does literature partake in engendering an affective economy of nationalism?
(Brill, 2021)
A sense of loss is a driving force in most nationalist movements: territorial loss, the loss of traditions, language, national virtues, or of a Golden Age. But which emotions charged the construction of loss and how did they change over time? To what objects and bodies did emotions stick? How was the production of loss gendered? Which figures of loss predated nationalist ideology and enabled loss within nationalist discourse? 13 scholars from different backgrounds answer these questions by exploring nationalist discourses during the long nineteenth century in the Baltic Sea region through political writings, lectures, novels, letters, paintings, and diaries.
(funded by NFR 2015鈥2018, head project leader Kristin M. Bliksrud Aavitsland).
I am the co-editor of volume 3, , red. Ragnhild J. Zorgati & Anna Bohlin, DeGruyter: Berlin