Birgitta Johansson Lindh
SENIOR LECTURER
Department of Literature, History of Ideas, andAbout Birgitta Johansson Lindh
Presentation
Birgitta Johansson, PhD in Comparative Literature with a specialization in theatre, is a scholar and a teacher at LIR. Johansson has recently finished the research project "Emotion and liberation – sentimental and melodramatic elements in women’s socio-realistic plays of the modern breakthrough", which was financed by the Swedish research fund Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (RJ). She has also been a part of a collaborative research project about the European and American reception of works by five Swedish women authors. The results have recently been published in Swedish Women’s Writing on Export. Tracing the Transnational Reception in the Nineteenth Century (2019).
Research Interests
- Swedish Theatre history (19th and 20th century)
- Aesthetics and Ideology
- Theatre and Gender
- Drama and Performance analysis
- Reception and Criticism
Current Research
I am involved in a research collaboration linked to the EU- network “Women Writers in History”. Together with colleagues from universities in Bucharest and Turku, I am organizing the workshop “Rethinking Intimacy in Women's Reading and Writing at the Peripheries of Europe” at the University of Gothenburg in March 26-27, 2020. The work shop aims at forming a point of departure for joint European research on intimacy in women's writing and reading 1700 –1900, based on new theory formation. At the center is the question of how intimacy, as a topic and a strategy of writing and reading, travelled across national and cultural boundaries. How did it transform due to different cultures and religions.
Currently I am also working on a theater historical project in which I follow Anne Charlotte Leffler's play Sanna Kvinnor (True Women) (1883) in the traces across the European theater landscape 1883-1925. Performances at very different venues are included, such as the staging of the play in a gym in a small Swedish town and rehearsals at an avant-garde theater in London: How was the play perceived of in different contexts and what changes were made? How did a play by a female playwright from a minor language area travel? The project aims at writing theatre history from the perspective of the margins. By so doing the picture of European theater activities during the decades around the turn of the 1900s will be broadened.
Earlier Research
1. Emotion and liberation – sentimental and melodramatic elements in women’s socio-realistic plays of the modern breakthrough
The aim of the project was to reintroduce Swedish drama of the modern breakthrough, by illuminating how elements of a sentimental and melodramatic theatrical tradition are constructed and evaluated in socially realistic plays written about marriage by women in the 1880’s. How does the emphasis on emotion contribute to ideas of liberation? What discourses on gender and modernity do the sentimental and melodramatic features help generate?
The gender critical dramatic works by Alfhild Agrell, Victoria Benedictsson and Anne Charlotte Leffler were popular at Scandinavian Theatres in the 1880's and generated interest in other parts Europe mainly during the 1880’s and 1890’s. Nevertheless,they have been depreciated because of the sentimental and melodramatic features in their plays and although academic analyzes of their structure is scarce.
A sentimental and melodramatic tradition influenced European theatre throughout the 19th century. Hence, a mode of interpretation that focuses on the function of the sentimental and melodramatic features is important in order to show the distinctive dramaturgical and thematic character of these plays, and to illuminate the role of their authors as cultural intermediaries of ideas abour gender and marriage.
2. Swedish Women's writing on Export in the 19th century
Part of my research has been conducted in cooperation with a group of researchers at LIR ( Prof. Åsa Arping, Assoc. Prof. Jenny Bergenmar, Prof. Gunilla Hermansson and Professor Yvonne Leffler). This concerns the reception of Swedish women authors in the 19th century. The aim of our common project was to map and analyze Swedish Women authors’ transnational networks and international breakthroughs, and to develop theory and methods for the purpose. The research results has been published in Swedish Women’s Writing on Export. Tracing the Transnational Reception in the Nineteenth Century (2019) My contribution mapped the European reception of Anne Charlotte Leffler’s plays in translations and theatre productions. The research project received funding from the Swedish Research Councils (VR).
To the web page "Swedish Women Writers on Export"
Blog: http://swedishwomenwriters.wordpress.com/
3. Turning Points and Continuity: The Changing Roles of Performance in Society 1880-1925
Within the frames of the research project ”Turning Points and Continuity” I investigated how the play Sanna kvinnor (True Women) by Anne Charlotte Leffler was recieved at Scandinavian Theatres and in news paper-reviews in the two laste decades of the 19th century. Methods of dealing with reviews as source material are developed. An analysis of how the affective reactions of the reviewers structure the evalutiaons of the opening night at the Royal Dramatic Theatre is conducted. Another analysis highlights what happened to the feminism of the play when the popular male actor Emil Hillberg made the antagonistic role his bravura performance.
Seven scholars from different disciplines has taken part in the research project ”Turning Points and Continuity”, which was led by prof. Lena Hammergren at The University of Stockholm. The over all aim was to revisit and re-interpret a period celebrated as the breakthrough of modern theatre by approaching archival material from an appreciative look at the many aesthetic layers that worked in tandem with the emergence of the early avant garde. The research project received funding from The Swedish Research Councils (VR).
To the web page ”Turning Points and Continuity”
4. The thesis Befrielsen är nära. Feminism och teaterpraktik i Margareta Garpes och Suzanne Ostens 1970-talsteater (Liberation is At Hand. Feminism and Theatrical Practice in Margareta Garpe’s and Suzanne Osten’s Theatre of the 1970’s)
The thesis apperad in 2006 and deals with three of Garpe’s and Osten’s productions, of which Jösses flickor! Befrielsen är nära (Gosh Girls! Liberation is At Hand) is the most well known. The thesis illuminates the linkage in these productions between avant-garde theatre and the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 1970’s. It highlights the manner in which Garpe and Osten used the medium of the theatre to raise consciousness in audiences, creating new patterns of identification for women. It also explores the ways in which the identity politics of the Women’s Liberation Movement influenced and developed their use of theatrical strategies. Structures of communication in the production, the performances and the reviiews in daily newspapers are explored. The thesis was part of the research project “The Power of Art: the Texts of the Swedish Women’s Liberation Movement 1970 – 2000”, which was funded by the Swedish Research Council and concluded in 2005.
Networks and cooperation
I participate in the European project Women Writers in History . The primary aim of the network has been to develop a database concerning the reception of women’s literature before the 20th century. Within the network European scholars cooperate in projects on women’s literature, the transnational dissemination and reception of it and on women’s roles as intermediaries of ideas.
Teaching
Since autumn 2006, I have been involved in teaching elementary, advanced and teacher training courses in Theatre Studies and Literature. In 2011-2012, I was Director of Studies in Theatre Studies and Literature. During the period 2006–2009 I also taught courses in Literature, Creative Writing and Dramaturgy at the University of Skövde in Sweden. In 2006-2012 I wrote theatrical reviews in the Swedish daily paper Svenska Dagbladet.
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The British, French and German Reception of Anne Charlotte Leffler’s Plays in a Changing Cultural
Context
Birgitta Johansson Lindh
Swedish Women's Writing on Export. Tracing Transnational Reception in the Nineteenth Century / Yvonne Leffler, Åsa Arping, Jenny Bergenmar, Gunilla Hermansson & Birgitta Johansson Lindh. - 2019-01-01 -
Swedish Women’s Writing on Export: Tracing Transnational Reception in the Nineteenth
Century
Yvonne Leffler, Åsa Arping, Jenny Bergenmar, Gunilla Hermansson, Birgitta Johansson Lindh
- 2019-01-01 -
Introduction: Swedish Women’s Writing on Export: Tracing Transnational Reception in the Nineteenth
Century
Yvonne Leffler, Åsa Arping, Jenny Bergenmar, Gunilla Hermansson, Birgitta Johansson Lindh
Swedish Women’s Writing on Export: Tracing Transnational Reception in the Nineteenth Century / Yvonne Leffler, Åsa Arping, Jenny Bergenmar, Gunilla Hermansson & Birgitta Johansson Lindh. - 2019-01-01 -
Sanna kvinnor, Emil Hillbergs Pontus Bark och recensenterna. Receptionen av Anne Charlotte Lefflers pjäs Sanna kvinnor (1883) i några nordiska uppsättningar via dagstidningarnas
recensioner
Birgitta Johansson Lindh
I avantgardets skugga. Brytpunkter och kontinuitet i svensk teater kring 1900 / Rikard Hoogland (red.). - 2019-01-01 -
Som en vildfågel i en bur. Identitet,kärlek, frihet och melodramatiska inslag i Alfhild Agrells, Victoria Benedictssons och Anne Charlotte Lefflers
1880-talsdramatik
Birgitta Johansson Lindh
- 2019-01-01 -
Jeanette Stjernström (född
Granberg)
Birgitta Johansson Lindh
Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon - 2018-01-01 -
Louise Stjernström (född
Granberg)
Birgitta Johansson Lindh
Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon - 2018-01-01 -
Recension av Charlott Neuhausers avhandling Fruktansvärd, ospelad och nyskriven. Kriser och konflikter kring ny svensk dramatik, Stockholm: Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för kultur och estetik
2016
Birgitta Johansson Lindh
Samlaren : tidskrift för svensk litteraturvetenskaplig forskning - 2017-01-01 -
Affective Economies in the Tug of War between Idealism and Anti-idealisms Reviewers' reactions to Anne Charlotte Leffler's Sanna kvinnor (True
Women)
Birgitta Johansson Lindh
Nordic Theatre Studies - 2017-01-01 -
Women’s experience as feminist resistance in
late-19th-century-plays
Birgitta Johansson Lindh
Feminist Research Group vid International Theatre researchers’ (IFTR) konferens vid Stockholms Universitet 13-17 juni 2016 - 2016-01-01 -
Interpretative Contexts and Evaluation. The reception of the Swedish playwright Anne Charlotte Leffler in the Moral and Social Conflicts of the Late Nineteenth
Century
Birgitta Johansson Lindh
Cultural Encounters Through Reading and Writing: New Approaches to the History of Literary Culture , HERA-projektet Travelling Texts, Glasgow Women’s Library, Glasgow 9-11 juni 2016 - 2016-01-01 -
Political Theatre
1945-2000
Birgitta Johansson Lindh
Encyclopaedia of Contemporary Nordic Culture - 2016-01-01 -
Att frigöra kvinnors dramatik från traditionell historiografi och
kanoniserade läsningar. Protagonistens position, sedlighet och teaterns konventioner i Alfhild
Agrells, Anne Charlotte Lefflers och Victoria Benedictssons moderna
genombrottsdramatik
Birgitta Johansson Lindh
Det moderna genombrottets kvinnliga offentlighet vid Senter for Ibsenstudier, Oslo universitet, 12 mars 2015. - 2015-01-01 -
"Som en vildfogel i en bur": Gestaltningen av kvinnlig erfarenhet i Anne Charlotte Lefflers
Elfvan
Birgitta Johansson Lindh
LIR.journal - 2015-01-01 -
Women Playwrights in the Transition and Change of the Modern
Breakthrough. The Case of the Swedish Playwright Alfhild
Agrell
Birgitta Johansson Lindh
International Federation of Theatre Researcher’s conference ”Theatre and Stratification”, University of Warwick, Warwick, United Kingdom, 28. July -1. August 2014 - 2014-01-01 -
Skådespelerskans konstnärskap och iscensättningen av genusidentiteter i Victoria Benedictssons Romeos
Julia
Birgitta Johansson
Liv, lust & litteratur: Festskrift till Lisbeth Larsson / red.: Kristina Hermansson, Christian Lenemark & Cecilia Pettersson - 2014-01-01 -
Recensionen av Att skapa en framtid – Kulturradikalen Anne Charlotte
Leffler. Red. David Gedin & Claudia Lindén. Rosenlarvs förlag. Årsta
2013
Birgitta Johansson Lindh
Samlaren : tidskrift för svensk litteraturvetenskaplig forskning - 2013-01-01 -
Barn och barndom i 1880-talets
äktenskapsdramatik
Birgitta Johansson
Arche - 2013-01-01 -
Känslor, erfarenhet och politiskt ställningstagande i Anne Charlotte Lefflers drama Hur man gör
godt
Birgitta Johansson Lindh
Nätverket för 1800-talsstudier fjärde årskonferens i Helsingfors 26–27 januari - 2012-01-01 -
”Känslor och frigörelse; Melodramatiska inslag i Alfhild Agrells, Anne Charlotte Lefflers och Victoria Benedictssons
dramatik”
Birgitta Johansson
Dette skrev kvinner. Lene T. Teigen red. - 2012-01-01 -
"Feminist Performance Practices in Two Cultural Climates: The Politics of Jösses flickor - Befrielsen är nära (Jeez Girls - Liberation is at Hand, 1974) and Jösses flickor- Återkomsten (Jeez Girls -The Return,
2006)
Birgitta Johansson
The politics of Being on Stage, red. Anja Klöck - 2012-01-01 -
Balancing on the Edge of Indecency – Melodramatic strategies in Alfhild Agrell’s Räddad (Saved) and Anne Charlotte Leffler’s Sanna kvinnor (True
Women)
Birgitta Johansson
Nordic Theatre Studies - 2010-01-01 -
Melodramatiska inslag och äktenskapskritik i Alfhild Agrells
Räddad
Birgitta Johansson
Nordisk drama. Fornyelser og transgressioner (Nordic Drama. Renewal and Transgression - 2010-01-01 -
Absurdistiskt språkspel och psykologiskt bråddjup i Kristina Lugns
Idlaflickorna
Birgitta Johansson
Dikten som mötesplats. Festskrift till Eva Lilja, red. Sissel Furuseth & Lisbeth Stenberg - 2008-01-01 -
"Frihet och fångenskap – den olösliga motsättningen i Henrik Ibsens Hedda
Gabler"
Birgitta Johansson
Kritikens dimensioner. Festskrift till Tomas Forser - 2008-01-01 -
Att ’omsluta sin publik’. En retorisk analys av inledningsscenen i Margareta Garpes och Suzanne Ostens
Tjejsnack”
Birgitta Johansson
Den litterära textens förändringar. Studier tillägnade Stina Hansson, red. Stefan Ekman, Mats Malm & Lisbeth Stenberg - 2007-01-01 -
Recension av Toril Moi, Henrik Ibsen and the Birth Of
Modernism
Birgitta Johansson
Tidskrift för Litteraturvetenskap - 2007-01-01 -
Befrielsen är nära. Feminism och teaterpraktik i Margareta Garpes och Suzanne Ostens
1970-talsteater
Birgitta Johansson
- 2006-01-01 -
Om filmens teknik och kvinnopolitisk kritik i Kärleksföreställningen. Möjligheter och
motsättningar
Birgitta Johansson
Litteratur och visuell kultur red. Dagny Kristjansdottir - 2005-01-01 -
Visionen om en fri kvinna. Kvinnoidentitet i Margareta Garpes och Suzanne Ostens Jösses flickor! Befrielsen är
nära
Birgitta Johansson
Vision och verklighet: Humanistdagboken, Göteborgs Universitet - 2004-01-01 -
Recension av Mona Lagerströms avhandling Dramatisk teknik och könsideologi. Anne Charlotte Lefflers tidiga kärleks- och
äktenskapsdramatik
Birgitta Johansson
Kvinnovetenskaplig tidskrift - 2001-01-01 -
Recension av Cristine Sarrimos avhandling När det personliga blev politiskt. 1970-talets kvinnliga bekännelse och
självbiografi
Birgitta Johansson
Feministiskt perspektiv - 2000-01-01 -
Kritikens sagoberätterska. En receptionsstudie av Selma Lagerlöfs
90-talsverk
Birgitta Johansson
Anthin, Bergenmar och Johansson om Lagerlöf, Meddelandeserien, Litteraturvetenskapliga institutionen vid Göteborgs universitet - 1998-01-01