Invisibility and Visibilty of Women Writers: Practices, Approaches, Methods

Conference and research workshop.

Throughout history women were active as writers, literary critics, philosophers, and translators. In numerous fields and periods women shaped thinking, politics, literature – yet their names have not been recorded in intellectual history or cultural memory. They are largely forgotten, their names and works and contributions still remain unknown. Especially in today's world, which offers more opportunities to engage with invisible women thanks to digitization and access to archives, new literary discoveries can be made, networks revealed, and contexts created.

In our workshop we want to focus on the mechanisms of invisibility and visibility: how did women writers and thinkers fall into oblivion, and what are the reasons for their invisibility? Which institutions, practices and individuals are involved in this process? Which practices led to invisibility in the past, in recent centuries, and today? And last but not least: how can we counteract this and make women visible? The presenters will showcase examples from ongoing research projects in Copenhagen, Frankfurt und Munich centering on questions of research practices, methods, and approaches.

Organized by: Associate Professor Anna Sandberg (German Studies, Dep. of English, Germanic, and Romance Studies), Professor Sabrina Ebbersmeyer (Philosophy, Dep. of Communication), and Associate Professor Juliane Engelhart (History, Dep. of SAXO) in collaboration with Anna Axtner-Boursuzky (Deutsche Philologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München).

Contact: Anna Sandberg, annas@hum.ku.dk.

Programme

09:15-09:30

Welcome and introduction
9:30 – 11:00

Copenhagen Project 1: Sabrina Ebbersmeyer: Women in the Nordic Enlightenment (WHENCE)

Sabrina Ebbersmeyer: “Bringing to Light Women’s Intellectual Contributions to the Nordic Enlightenment”.

Martin Arndal: The Politics of Paratexts: Equality in Early Modern Scandinavian Commendatory Verses

Bodil Hvass Kjems: Bringing female thinkers to life: The case of Otto Sperling the Younger’s De foeminis doctis

Irina Hron: How to Do Things with Laughter: The Visibility of the Written Word

Maria Mårsell: The politics of inclusion and exclusion: the canonisation of Anna Maria Lenngren
Coffee break
11:30 – 13:00

Copenhagen Project 2: Juliane Engelhardt: Radical Pietism in Northern Europe: Social Protest on the Verge of Modernity, 1690-1750

Juliane Engelhardt: Early Modern Women in Radical Protestant communities: Leaders, prophets and participants.

Ariane Fichtl: In the language of God and the Angels: Radical Religious Women’s oral culture.

Copenhagen Project 3: Anna Sandberg: Danish-German Cultures 1773-1864: Conflict and Cohesion

Anna Sandberg & Sine Krogh: Women of the Danish-German nobility shaping culture between conflict and cohesion
Lunch
14.15- 16.00

München-Frankfurt Project: Anna Axtner-Boursutzky: BMFTR-Projekt Lost in Archives. Auf der Suche nach unsichtbaren Frauen im 18. Jahrhundert.

Anna Axtner-Borsutzky und Sunna Kroy: Uncovering literary networks and identifying author strategies: The practice of letter-writing using the example of the playwright Susanne
von Bandemer (1751–1828).

Isabelle Deflers und Alissa L'Abbée: Also women are writing military history – new perspectives on war, the military and gender beyond the battlefield

Grace Evans und Marília Jöhnk: Rewriting the History of Literary Criticism: The Case of Madame de Beaumer and Charlotte Henriette Hezel

Coffee Break
16:30-17:30

20th & 21st Century: Contemporary Cases and Challenges

Ida Svingen Mo: Tracing feminist thought in the GDR: Archival Work, Private Libraries and Conversations

Round Table Discussion: Visibilities and Invisibilities of Women – challenges and perspectives in research

Participating Research Projects

 

  • Dr. Anna Axtner-Borsutzky (LMU München)
  • Prof. Dr. Isabelle Deflers (Bundeswehruniversität München)
  • Dr. Alissa L’Abbé (Bundeswehruniversität München)
  • PD Dr. Marília Jöhnk (Frankfurt a.M.)
  • Sunna Kroy, M.A. (LMU München)
  • Grace Evans, M.A. (Frankfurt a.M.)
  • University of Copenhagen:
  • Professor Sabrina Ebbersmeyer
  • Dr. Martin Arndal, postdoc
  • Dr. Phil, Irina Hron, postdoc
  • Bodil Hvass Kjems, M.A., PhD Fellow
  • Dr. Maria Mårsell, postdoc
  • Associate Professor Juliane Engelhardt
  • Dr. Ariane Fichtl, postdoc
  • Associate Professor Anna Sandberg
  • Dr. Sine Krogh, postdoc
  • Ida Svingen Mo, M.A., PhD Fellow