TY - JOUR

T1 - Reading Clubs, Language Societies and Female Education in Fin-de-Siècle Copenhagen

AU - Østermark-Johansen, Lene

PY - 2017/6/13

Y1 - 2017/6/13

N2 - Copenhagen became increasingly cosmopolitan at the end of the nineteenth century, as foreign artists and academics settled in the city, and Georg Brandes’s lectures on ‘The Modern Breakthrough’ introduced the literatures of France and England to Danish readers. This essay examines the role played by women’s reading clubs, language societies and literary magazines in the dissemination of literature in foreign languages to a Copenhagen audience. The founding of international language societies and private libraries took place alongside the establishment of art schools for women. With their long opening hours, the reading clubs became popular alternatives to the domestic sphere, and their aesthetic interiors became exhibition spaces where the newly educated female artists could display their works to the Copenhagen bourgeoisie. My essay examines these physical and literary cosmopolitan spaces with a view to unveiling the increasing internationalism among middle- and lower middle-class women in the Danish capital at the fin de siècle.

AB - Copenhagen became increasingly cosmopolitan at the end of the nineteenth century, as foreign artists and academics settled in the city, and Georg Brandes’s lectures on ‘The Modern Breakthrough’ introduced the literatures of France and England to Danish readers. This essay examines the role played by women’s reading clubs, language societies and literary magazines in the dissemination of literature in foreign languages to a Copenhagen audience. The founding of international language societies and private libraries took place alongside the establishment of art schools for women. With their long opening hours, the reading clubs became popular alternatives to the domestic sphere, and their aesthetic interiors became exhibition spaces where the newly educated female artists could display their works to the Copenhagen bourgeoisie. My essay examines these physical and literary cosmopolitan spaces with a view to unveiling the increasing internationalism among middle- and lower middle-class women in the Danish capital at the fin de siècle.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - Copenhagen

KW - reading clubs

KW - Modern Breakthrough

KW - café culture

KW - female education

KW - language societies

U2 - 10.1093/fmls/cqx033

DO - 10.1093/fmls/cqx033

M3 - Journal article

VL - 53

SP - 274

EP - 290

JO - Forum for Modern Language Studies

JF - Forum for Modern Language Studies

SN - 0015-8518

IS - 3

ER -