Catharina Ahlgren
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Catharina Ahlgren, (born in 1734- dead after 1783), was a Swedish writer, journalist and managing editor, one of the first female journalists identified in Sweden. She was also a translator.
During the age of liberty in Sweden between 1718 and 1771, several papers were published written for and by women. They were publications in the line of the age of enlightenment and they discussed recent events and news, politics, philosophy and the position of women and gender equality, which made them part of the feministic mowement. These papers sometimes pamphletts, and often written in the form of letters between two female correstpondents. They were often temporary, published during one year, and quickly replaced by new ones the next, possibly by the same writers, under a new name and new signatures. These papers became common during the 1730s and were very common in the last years of the age of liberty.
One of these publications was, for example, the paper "De nymodiga fruntimren" ("The modern women"), which was written by the signatures Belisinde and Sophie and published during the year of 1773.
These writers were Sweden's first female journalists, but since they all wrote under psedonyms,(mostly French names) however, they can in most cases not be identifyed. In 1738, the paper Samtal emellan Argus skugga och en obekant fruntimmers skugga nyligen anländ till Dödens rike (A talk between Argus' shadow and the unknown shadow of a woman newly arrived to the kingdom of Death) was published, written as a debate between a male (Argus' shadow) and a female (the shadow of a woman) journalist; this was a very radical paper were the writers critizised religion and it's repression and censorship on people's mind's and development, obedicence to authoritys, the lack of independence, war and piece, right and wrong, and the paper was several times censored by the authoritys. The female writer is believed to be Margareta von Bragner-Momma, and she ironizes the letters from some readers who critizises the thought of a woman discussing philosophy. In 1755-1756, Henrika Juliana von Lieven is believed to have contributed in the cap's party paper En ärlig swensk. However, this is not confirmed.
One of the few clearly identified of these many anonymous female journalists are Catharina Ahlgren; also her life, though, can only be partially traced. she was first active as a translator; she translated the German poem Die Prüfung Abrahams by Christoph Martin Wieland in 1753 after her first divorce.
Catharina Ahlgren was born the child of a governor in Östergötland and participated under the signature Adelaide in the paper "Brefwäxling emellan twänne fruntimmer" ("A Correspondence between two women") which were published in sixty eight numbers from 1772 to 1773. This was a feministic publication in which she argued in favour of a social conscience, democracy and gender equality, and recommended solidarity between women as a protection against male guardianship and superiority. She states that the only way to reach true love within a relationship is to be equals, and adds, that as men so often wants to rule over women, it is much harder to retain friendship with them that with another woman. She also translated and published the novel La Femme Malheureuse.
Privately, she was married and divorced twice, once with stable master Bengt Edvard Eckerman, and once with a man named Bark, had at least one child outside marriage except for her children with her husbands, and was one of the first named women in Sweden to support herself and her children as a journalist, hundred years before Vendela Hebbe. One of her children was Charlotte Eckerman.
In 1782, she was listed as a resident in Åbo in Finland, were she is considered as the publisher and managing editor behind the paper "Om att rätt behaga" ("Of the Art of Pleasing"), and Agnenäma Sjelwswåld ("Pleasant Defyings") in 1783, which belonged to the first publications in Finland.
[edit] See also
[edit] Sources
- Signums Svenska kulturhistoria, "Gustavianska tiden".
- Stig Hadenius, "Vad varje svensk bör veta".
- http://runeberg.org/sqvinnor/0266.html
- Nils Bohman, "Svenska män och kvinnor, nr 2".
