Gender and Monarchy: The Case of "King" Christina
Location
CSU 204
Start Date
5-4-2011 11:00 AM
End Date
5-4-2011 12:30 PM
Student's Major
World Languages and Cultures
Student's College
Arts and Humanities
Mentor's Name
Suzanne Martin
Mentor's Department
Theatre and Dance
Mentor's College
Arts and Humanities
Description
Queen Christina is to this day among the most intriguing and prominent figures within Swedish history and culture. Easily compared to Queen Elizabeth I of England, Christina was an independent woman who ruled as a king in her own right, and has been subjected to intense speculation about her personal life for having done such. For the phallocentric world in which she lived dictated that no woman should have had passions for the sciences, humanities and politics, as Christina did in fact have. Through feminist views, such as those of Simone de Beauvoir, as well as more traditional views, I have found representations of Christina that focus on masculine and feminine traits, as well as some that fall somewhere between. These traits have been sorted out and interpreted via gender theories. I have examined documentation and paintings beginning in her own time, up through modern portrayals of her in cinema and children‘s literature, and have concluded that we no longer need to consider Christina in terms of a binary gender construct, but rather as a powerful ruler and a woman who lived according to her own ideals rather than social customs and expectations. My resources will include mediums with exemplary representations of Queen Christina as a masculine, feminine, and non-gendered figure.
Gender and Monarchy: The Case of "King" Christina
CSU 204
Queen Christina is to this day among the most intriguing and prominent figures within Swedish history and culture. Easily compared to Queen Elizabeth I of England, Christina was an independent woman who ruled as a king in her own right, and has been subjected to intense speculation about her personal life for having done such. For the phallocentric world in which she lived dictated that no woman should have had passions for the sciences, humanities and politics, as Christina did in fact have. Through feminist views, such as those of Simone de Beauvoir, as well as more traditional views, I have found representations of Christina that focus on masculine and feminine traits, as well as some that fall somewhere between. These traits have been sorted out and interpreted via gender theories. I have examined documentation and paintings beginning in her own time, up through modern portrayals of her in cinema and children‘s literature, and have concluded that we no longer need to consider Christina in terms of a binary gender construct, but rather as a powerful ruler and a woman who lived according to her own ideals rather than social customs and expectations. My resources will include mediums with exemplary representations of Queen Christina as a masculine, feminine, and non-gendered figure.
Recommended Citation
Tatro, Jenna. "Gender and Monarchy: The Case of "King" Christina." Undergraduate Research Symposium, Mankato, MN, April 5, 2011.
https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/urs/2011/oral-session-14/4
