"Uti din brudgums blod". Kön och retorik inom svensk herrnhutism

Abstract

During mid-eighteenth century a religious revival had reached Sweden from Germany: The Moravian movement. One significant characteristic of this movement was that it gave the individual the right to express a personal confession of faith in his or her own words. As a consequence, women in Moravian circles had unique opportunities to act and speak in public. They did so in writing and even by preaching, something that was denied them in most other religious contexts. This was the case in orthodox Lutheranism, which was the dominating doctrine at the time, imposed by the authorities in Sweden. In this artide, which is based on my ongoing research project in comparative literature ("Gender, power and religious rhetoric in the Swedish eighteenth-century Moravian movement"), I discuss how gender was constructed in religious songs written by some Moravian writers and how women writer's gained religious and rhetorical authority. For comparison male authors also are brought into the discussion. Primarily my discussions are based on rhetorical analysis, i.e. of rhetorical devices, such as metaphorical language and ways of argumentation. The gender bound elements that are used in the songs cannot in any uncomplicated way be related to the sex of the author. Nevertheless, one can distinguish means of empowerment for women. Certain images could for example destabilize the thought of women as passive and subordinated objects. Furthermore qualities associated with the feminine, such as nurturing and caretaking, is positively described in some of these songs and taken in as a part ofdeity. It becomes clearthat although religion limited women's participation in public religious language and ideas, it could at the same time be used to exceed gender bound limits.