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.

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Apr 5th, 11:00 AM Apr 5th, 12:30 PM

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