Moderlighetens metaforer hos Ellen Key och Friedrich Nietzsche

Abstract

This study investigates, for the first time, the relation between the Swedish feminist Ellen Key (1849- 1926) and the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). Ellen Key read Nietzsche extensively and this had a determining effect on her feminist thinking. This study argues that by reading her through Nietzsche it will be possible to interpret her writing not as 'essentialism' but rather as a way of transcending dichotomies such as mind/body; culture/nature. The theoretical framework for this study is the feminist readings of Nietzsche that emanated from Derrida's and Irigaray's interpretations of Nietzsche in the late 70:ies. There are many women in Nietzsche's text and some of the things he says about women are misogynistic while others are clearly the opposite. But 'woman' is also an important metaphor in the Nietzschean text. Feminist readings of Nietzsche show that, even if Nietzsche himself was not an outspoken feminist, his philosophy provides feminism with important tools for deconstructing patriarchal thinking and that he in this sense can be read as a'feminist'. This study argues that Key, who was one of the earliest readers of Nietzsche in Sweden, saw in his philosophy possibilities for 'the New Woman' as did many other feminists of her time, especially in Germany. However she took her 'use'of Nietzsche one step further; Key's thinking starts out with her critique of Christianity and its dualistic split of mind and body. In Nietzsche she recognises a fellow thinker in trying to move beyond the mind/body dichotomy. At the very centre of Nietzsche's thinking are metaphors of motherhood, pregnancy and birth, that speak of philosophy as a creative force. Key re-uses these metaphors in her feminist thinking when she constructs her concept of motherliness not as a biological effect or experience but as a creative force within culture.