Representing Pariah Femininity : Sexuality, gender, and class at the fin-de-siècle

• This article discusses the representation of an actress’s sexuality, femininity, and class at the fin-de-siècle with an emphasis on pariah femininity. The central empirical sources for this study are the correspondence between King Oscar II (1829-1907) and Baroness Henriette Coyet (1859-1941) about the famous actress Ellen Hartman (1860-1945). Tracy C. Davis’s feminist historiographical methodology is put to use in the analysis in combination with Mimi Shipper’s notion pariah femininity. The analysis of the correspondence shows how the actress Ellen Hartman’s femininity was discursively constructed as pariah femininity embodying asexuality, excessive sexuality, and of a degenerate moral. It is argued that Hartman’s specific kind of pariah femininity is based on a perceived threat triggered by her public profession, sexual history and social ambition. Her body was sexualized, her sexuality demonized, and her appearance downgraded to defuse the threatening presence of her profession, femininity, and class. The historical sources also show a change of attitudes toward intersections of femininities and class.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Konst -- Teatervetenskap (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Arts -- Performing Art Studies (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Pariah femininity

sexuality

gender

class

Ellen Hartman

Theatre Studies

teatervetenskap

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)