Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht

Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht (November 28, 1718 – June 29, 1763) was a Swedish poet, feminist and salon-hostess, often called the first self-supporting female writer in Sweden.

Biography

Born in Stockholm, Nordenflycht grew up in a noble family of officials and was given a good education where she early read philosophy, theology, Latin and German.

In 1734 she was engaged to Johan Tideman, who was sickly, and she was inspired by him, who was a follower of Christopher Polhem. He died in 1737, before the wedding, and she married Jacob Fabricius, military-vicar in Karlskrona, but he died very soon after the wedding. She withdrew to a cottage to mourn and there she wrote her first poems to describe her sorrow.

She began her works in her twenties and wrote a poem dedicated to the throne accession of the king of Prussia in 1740, and received great encouragement from the court (especially from Queen Louisa Ulrika) which gave her a lot of support and protected her work, a support she repaid with numerous poems of appreciation to the royal house. She could even be regarded as somewhat of a court-poet. She became fashionable and supported herself by writing poems on commission. In 1752, she received a pension from the state.

From 1753 she was elected and became a leading member of the "Tankebyggarorden", a literary society in Stockholm based on similar French societies, which published several works which are regarded as the breakthrough of literary classicism in Sweden; she was the hostess of this society and made it the centre of a literary salon. Her name in the Academy was Uranie, and she was close friends with Gustaf Philip Creutz and Gustaf Fredric Gylleborg.

As a feminist, she was a passionate defender of female education, and she was upset over some of the views of Rousseau. In 1761, she wrote "To the Defense of Women" on this topic. In "Friarekonsten" (The art of proposing), in were she warns young women, that men's assurances of friendship often turned to a demand of obedience after marriage.

Hedvig is said to have been a passionate and emotional woman, and the sorrows of her private life often made her sick and depressed, some say suicidal, and was said to have affected her works, which was often of the melancholic kind. Her later years were dominated by the unhappy love for the fifteen years younger Johan Fischerström, and in 1762, she withdrew to a cottage at the estate of her friend Catharina De la Gardie; Johan Fischerström became an inspector and courted Catharina De la Gardie, which made the situation unbearable for Hedvig, and her health was also declining. Deeply depressed, she wrote a poem of her sorrow, and some say she committed suicide, but she was probably sick with cancer.

Works

* 1743 : "Den sörjande Turturduvan", ("The Sorrowing Turtledove").
* 1744 : "A Woman's Play of Thoughts, by a Shepherdess in the North" ( In four volumes between 1744 and 1750).
* 1744 : "Fruentimbers Plikt att upöfwa deras Wett"
* 1752 : "Våra Försök" ("Our Efforts"), together with the other academy-members.
* 1761 : "Fruntimrens försvar" ("To the Defense of Women").
* 1762 : "Öfwer en hyacinth".

See also

* Anna Maria Lenngren
* Sophia Elisabet Brenner
* Catharina Ahlgren
* Hedvig Catharina Lilje

Source

* Carin Österberg, "Svenska Kvinnor".
* Signum Svenska kulturhistoria, "Gustavianska tiden".