Constructing Women's Love of Women: Sappho and Queen Christina of Sweden in the Letters and Work of the Viennese Poet Marie von Najmájer

Author: Woodford, Charlotte

Source: The Modern Language Review, Volume 103, Number 3, 1 July 2008 , pp. 784-799(16)

Publisher: Modern Humanities Research Association

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Abstract:

This article analyses how the Hungarian-Viennese poet Marie von Najmájer (1844-1904) constructs her sexual identity in letters and poetry of the 1870s. Her correspondence with Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830-1916) is a rare private commentary on sexual identity from a woman in this period. Najmájer's poems explore a homosexual identity through historical models, using Sappho and Queen Christina of Sweden, who is the subject of Najmájer's narrative poem Gräfin Ebba (1877). At this important moment in the construction of homosexuality in medical discourse, Najmájer's and Ebner's writings draw on some of the available scientific paradigms for their understanding of sexual identity.

Keywords: Marie von Najmájer; sexual identity; Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach; Sappho; Queen Christina of Sweden; homosexuality; medical discourse

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: Selwyn College, Cambridge

Publication date: 2008-07-01

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The Modern Language Review, the flagship journal of the Association, is available to all individual members as part of their subscription. MLR is one of the oldest journals in its field, maintaining an unbroken publication record since its foundation in 1905, and publishing more than 3,000 articles and 20,000 book reviews.

Each volume consists of four issues, published in January, April, July and October of each year. Its 1000+ annual pages are divided roughly equally between articles, predominantly on medieval and modern literature in the languages of Europe, and over 500 reviews of books in these areas. All contributions are in English, and each section is edited by a noted scholar in the field, under the overall supervision of the General Editor. Articles are chosen not only for their scholarly worth and originality but also, as far as possible, for their potential interest to a wider readership in other disciplines.

Constructing Women's Love of Women: Sappho and Queen Christina of Sweden in the Letters and Work of the Viennese Poet Marie von Najmájer

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