Description
Book SynopsisThis book analyses the ideas of the Swedish journalist, feminist, and literary author Elin Wägner (1882-1949), as conveyed in her book Väckarklocka (1941), in a European feminist context. This context is presented in terms of three elements. Firstly, the German sociologist/educationalist Mathilde Vaerting and her sociology of power played an important role in Wägner''s development of a theory of matriarchy. Secondly, the influence of the Austrian feminist Rosa Mayreder and her theory of masculine civilization and feminine culture are analyzed in relation to Wägner''s development of what might be called an early ecological feminism. Thirdly, the mainly unknown Women''s Organization for World Order (WOWO) is presented. 0s and 1930s, which wanted to strengthen women''s position and confidence as political citizens by providing them with a historical past where women ruled (matriarchy). Thereby they not only reinvented a past, but also revitalized the emergence or eternity of patriarchy. T
Trade ReviewBy reading Elin Wägner´s Väckarklocka in an European context, rather than a purely Swedish context, which is often done, many of the ideas of the book appear clearly as part of a larger political project which entailed a re-evaluation of the prevailing social order. What Leppänen shows in Elin Wägner's Alarm Clock is that the debate on matriarchy in the 1920s and 1930s was much stronger and vital than has been known before. And that this position, often characterised negatively as essentialism in modern feminist terms, was, in fact, functional and strongly emancipatory in its time and context. Elin Wägner's Alarm Clock is a good contribution to the complex history of European feminism... -- Lena Eskilsson, Umeå University
By reading Elin Wägner´s Väckarklocka in an European context, rather than a purely Swedish context, which is often done, many of the ideas of the book appear clearly as part of a larger political project which entailed a re-evaluation of the prevailing social order. What Leppänen shows in Elin Wägner's Alarm Clock is that the debate on matriarchy in the 1920s and 1930s was much stronger and vital than has been known before. And that this position, often characterised negatively as "essentialism" in modern feminist terms, was, in fact, functional and strongly emancipatory in its time and context. Elin Wägner's Alarm Clock is a good contribution to the complex history of European feminism. -- Lena Eskilsson, Umeå University
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction Part 2 Movements Chapter 3 Alarm Clock for the Age and the Movement Part 4 History Chapter 5 Matriarchy and J.J. Bachofen Chapter 6 Towards Feminist Politics Part 7 Civilization and Nature Chapter 8 Is Civilization Unnatural? Chapter 9 Earth and the Environment Chapter 10 Woman as Alternative Chapter 11 re:Fwd: feminisms Chapter 12 Appendix: Program from the Women's Organization for World Order
