Herr författaren och fru Ljungstedt

Aurora Ljungstedts manliga författaridentitet och författarskapets förutsättningar

Abstract

Mr. Author and Mrs. Ljungstedt. Aurora Ljungstedt’s Masculine Identity as a Writer, and the Conditions of Her Authorship

This article discusses the authorship and pseudonym of one Sweden’s first suspense writers, Aurora Ljungstedt (1821–1908). Writing under the pseudonym ”Claude Gerard”, Ljungstedt became famous for grandiose adventures in Swedish settings. Through previously unknown archival material concerning Ljungstedt’s authorship and private life (such as letters, contracts and diaries) as well as the published works by Ljungstedt, I discuss the conditions of her authorship and the implications of the pseudonym Claude Gerard. Throughout the article I show that Ljungstedt’s male pseudonym was part of a strategic staging of an authorship generally considered to be male. Female writers in Sweden often used male pseudonyms during this period, but for Ljungstedt this was also part of a larger strategy to create a masculine identity as an author. As Ljungstedt’s real name became known in the 1870’s, the style of her authorship transformed into something more widely regarded as ”feminine”.