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Wednesday 12 April 2023
08.30 - 10.30
B-1
WOM07
Clerical and Academic Families in Early Modern Sweden from a Gender Perspective
Volvosalen
Network:
Women and Gender
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Chair:
Johanna Ilmakunnas
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Organizers:
Miia Kuha, Mari Välimäki |
Discussant:
Åsa Karlsson-Sjögren
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Miia Kuha :
”Don’t cry, my darling” – Married and Parental Love in the Funeral Sermons of 17th-century Lutheran Clergymen’s Wives
After the Reformation, with the introduction of clerical marriage in the Protestant areas of Europe, clerical households became models of Christian family life. In funeral sermons, clergymen’s wives were portrayed to have lived according to Lutheran values and fulfilled their vocation as pious wives and mothers. In Lutheran culture, funeral ... (Show more)After the Reformation, with the introduction of clerical marriage in the Protestant areas of Europe, clerical households became models of Christian family life. In funeral sermons, clergymen’s wives were portrayed to have lived according to Lutheran values and fulfilled their vocation as pious wives and mothers. In Lutheran culture, funeral sermons on both men and women served both to commemorate the dead and inspire their audience through examples of pious Christian lives. The eulogies at the end of funeral sermons describing the life course of the deceased are highly conventional, but they also contain gendered, status-related, and individual features.
This presentation discusses the representation of emotions within the clerical family in funeral sermons. I will analyse the importance of showcasing a loving relationship between the married couple, on one hand, and the mother and her children, on the other. In some of the eulogies, married or parental love was given more space than in others, and the level of intimacy in the descriptions was higher. These eulogies raise questions about the creation of narratives of female lives by male authors.
The paper suggests that the portrayal of marital and parental love was one way of honoring the widower and the descendants of the deceased in the eulogy. The representation of emotions in funeral sermons also indicates that love was considered an intrinsic part of ideal family relationships. The material is mainly from Finland that was at the time a part of the Swedish realm, a state committed to the Lutheran confession. (Show less)
Ina Lindblom :
A Clergyman in Search of a Wife - Marriage, Status and Emotion in the Life Description of Pehr Stenberg, 1790-1800
This paper examines how considerations of social status and emotional attachment affected Swedish clergyman Pehr Stenberg in his search for a suitable spouse. Stenberg (1758-1824) was born the son of a farmer of modest means in the northern Swedish town of Umeå. After being allowed to beg for his tuition ... (Show more)This paper examines how considerations of social status and emotional attachment affected Swedish clergyman Pehr Stenberg in his search for a suitable spouse. Stenberg (1758-1824) was born the son of a farmer of modest means in the northern Swedish town of Umeå. After being allowed to beg for his tuition from local parish members, Stenberg was given the opportunity to become a priest through studies at Åbo Academy. He would later return to his town of origin and serve as a clergyman for the rest of his life. These experiences are portrayed in a 5,000-page manuscript that Stenberg worked on for 40 years – a manuscript that was written with explicit intention to document his innermost thoughts and feelings. Stenberg lived during a time in which marriage for love was established as an ideal. His account of his life vividly depicts Stenberg’s struggles to find a wife whose social standing would validate his social elevation from farmer’s son to clergyman, who would be accepted by his parish and who would fulfil the role of a tender and loving spouse. (Show less)
Mari Välimäki :
Matrons of the Family – Professors’ Wives as Part of the Academic Community in the 17th Century Sweden
I am proposing a paper which discusses the position of professors’ wives within the academic families in the late 17th century Sweden. In the post-Reformation Sweden, university professors were expected to marry, and their family was to act in accordance with the morals of the period. They were to set ... (Show more)I am proposing a paper which discusses the position of professors’ wives within the academic families in the late 17th century Sweden. In the post-Reformation Sweden, university professors were expected to marry, and their family was to act in accordance with the morals of the period. They were to set an example of family life for others. Previous research has proven that in the early modern Nordic countries women and men cooperated in practicing their livelihood. Women worked side by side with their husbands in farming and in commerce. In the presentation I will ask what the position of professors’ wives within the families was, when the women could not cooperate with their husband in their daily work within the university. What did the wives do in everyday live?
I will show that the women of the academic families had a central role as the matron of the family. They were responsible of the household matters as well as taking care of the prebend estates of the professors. In addition, they had an important part to play in the inheritance of the prebend estates of the professor families. On the other hand, in the time of crisis, when e.g. a family member was accused of a crime, the mothers of the academic families acted mainly outside the legal court. They negotiated, threatened, and tried to bribe the person accusing their family member.
The presentation will focus on the wives of professoriate of the Royal Academy of Turku during the 17th century. The Academy was established in 1640 to Turku which is situated in the south-eastern coast of what is now Finland. Turku was one of the biggest and most significant towns in Sweden during the 17th century. It engaged in international trade and was the centre of ecclesiastical, judicial, as well as secular power in the eastern part of the Swedish realm. (Show less)
Charlotta Wolff :
Poetry and Priesthood. Family, Sensibility and Gender in the Life and Works of Frans Michael Franzén (1772–1847)
Frans Michael Franzén is known in Swedish and Finnish history as a child prodigy poet from Oulu who became a renowned author, academic and clergyman. At 25, while he was yet the librarian of the royal university at Åbo, he won the Swedish Academy’s prize for his epic poem on ... (Show more)Frans Michael Franzén is known in Swedish and Finnish history as a child prodigy poet from Oulu who became a renowned author, academic and clergyman. At 25, while he was yet the librarian of the royal university at Åbo, he won the Swedish Academy’s prize for his epic poem on the life of Count Gustav Philip Creutz, which projected him into celebrity. Later, while continuing to write poetry and hymns, he pursued an ecclesiastic career, starting as a parish priest at Paimio outside Åbo and ending as bishop of Härnösand in Sweden, where he moved in 1810 after Finland had become a part of Russia.
As a journalist and critic, Franzén admired female authors such as Anna Maria Lenngren. He was also a close friend of the Bremer family and the tutor and protector of young Fredrika Bremer. Family and home were important for Franzén, and he had a particularly strong bond to his mother, but also to other female relatives and friends. He had several children from his three marriages. As an idealist author, he displayed a remarkable sensitivity for affections, emotions and feelings, such as filial love, faith or trust. His poem on Creutz notably shows an almost queer understanding of the dead poet’s loneliness and unanswered longing for love.
In my paper, I will analyse Franzén’s life and writings from the viewpoint of family, sensibility and gender, including queer. I argue that his tolerant attitude to gender issues is particularly interesting for a high-rank representative of the early nineteenth-century clergy, and deserves a deeper analysis. To what extent was it exceptional, and how should it be understood in the context of religious, academic and literary culture of the time? (Show less)
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