
Hilda Augusta ''Amanda'' Kerfstedt,
née
The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...
''Hallström'' (5 June 1835, in
Eskilstuna
Eskilstuna () is a Urban areas in Sweden, city and the seat of Eskilstuna Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden. The city of Eskilstuna had 69,948 inhabitants in 2020, with a total population of 107,806 inhabitants in Eskilstuna municipality ...
– 10 April 1920, in
Stockholm
Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
), was a Swedish
novelist
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...
,
playwright
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just
Readin ...
and
translator
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...
. She was a popular and noted writer in late 19th and early 20th century Sweden, and participated in public debate. She was also engaged in the movement for
women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...
, and active in the
Fredrika Bremer Association and
Married Woman's Property Rights Association
The Married Woman Property Association () was a Swedish women's rights organisation active in Sweden between 1873 and 1896. Its purpose was to work for the introduction of reformed laws in favor of women's equality with men. The association was fo ...
. As a
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
, she focused on the debate around sexual equality, and was critical to the contemporary sexual
double standard
A double standard is the application of different sets of principles for situations that are, in principle, the same. It is often used to describe treatment whereby one group is given more latitude than another. A double standard arises when two ...
s for men and women. As such, she was one of the participants in the
Nordic sexual morality debate, the public debate in Swedish papers, books and plays, which took place during the 1880s. Kerfstedt was a member of the women's association
Nya Idun
('New Idun') is a Swedish cultural association for women founded in 1885, originally as a female counterpart to ('the Idun Society'). Its aim was to "gather educated women in the Stockholm area for informal gatherings".
Activity
was founded ...
and one of its first committee members.
She was the editor of the feminist paper ''
Dagny'', the publication of the Fredrika Bremer Association, in 1888–1891. She was especially noted within the debate on children's literature.
Early and personal life
Kerfstedt was born to Sven August Hallström,
mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...
of Eskilstuna, and Albertina Dybeck, and was the maternal niece to scientist
Richard Dybeck. She married
Hedemora
Hedemora is a Urban areas in Sweden, town in Dalarna County and the seat of Hedemora Municipality, Sweden, with 7,273 inhabitants in 2010.
Despite its small population, Hedemora is for historical reasons normally still referred to as a Stad (Swede ...
parish vicar Bengt Gustaf Lindgren (d. 1858) in 1855, and Petrus Kerfstedt (d. 1906), principal at the
Tomteboda institute for the blind, in 1872. She had two children; her son
Hellen Lindgren became a well known literary critic.
Works
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** Contains the author's , originally published in ''
Finsk Tidskrift'' in 1881.
Children's literature
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References
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Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kerfstedt, Amanda
1835 births
1920 deaths
19th-century Swedish women writers
19th-century Swedish dramatists and playwrights
19th-century translators
Swedish translators
Swedish women's rights activists
Swedish women dramatists and playwrights
Members of Nya Idun
People from Eskilstuna