Ute är jag fri

Kvinnliga, förklädda sjömän och föreställningar om kvinnligt sjömanskap i svensk fiktion, 1848-1921

Abstract

This article explores how fictional depictions of female sailors in disguise were constructed and received in Swedish maritime fiction between 1848 and 1921. Drawing on lesser-known novels and serialised stories, the study investigates how gendered spaces − particularly the sea and shipboard life − were negotiated, transgressed and symbolically redefined by women who adopted male identities in order to access seafaring professions.

The analysis is situated within the framework of gender history and New Maritime History, and makes use of concepts such as gendered space, cross-dressing, passing women and gender variance. These concepts help illuminate how female characters challenge the strict gender division of labour in maritime settings, and how fiction acted not only as a reflection of contemporary norms but also as an arena where alternative subjectivities and imaginaries could be explored.

The article argues that seafaring offered these characters various forms of freedom − freedom from poverty, stigma and domestic confinement, and freedom to travel, work, and self-define. However, this freedom was often contingent on remaining undiscovered, and the narrative arc typically demanded a final revelation and return to normative femininity. Only in the case of the female-authored Jungfrutornet does the cross-gendered character operate in both male and female spaces without moral retribution.

By examining how the female sailor in disguise is portrayed − as heroic, competent, and emotionally complex − the article sheds light on how literature contributed to the cultural imagination of women's presence at sea. These fictional narratives, widely circulated and sometimes reviewed in the press, participated in shaping public discourse and expanding the conceptual space for female maritime agency. The article thus demonstrates the historical value of fiction as a source and a site for negotiating gender, space, and identity in maritime contexts.