Gunnel Annakarin Svedberg (born 1934) is a Swedish writer. Common themes in her works include women's issues, lesbianism and feminist politics.

Career

Svedberg was born in 1934 in

Halmstad Halmstad () is a port, university, industrial and recreational urban areas of Sweden, city at the mouth of the Nissan (river), Nissan river, in the provinces of Sweden, province of Halland on the Sweden, Swedish west coast. Halmstad is the seat ...

, and moved to

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

with her family in 1941. Svedberg's first novel, ''Vårvinterdagbok'' (translated as ''Late Winter Diary'' or ''Journal of Early Spring''), was published in 1957. The book was well received, and one critic wrote: "The promise in Annakarin Svedberg's book above all lies in the linguistic purity of her wit, which sparkles like the late winter sun through her window, in the grace of her phrases, in the exquisite taste she demonstrates in every passage." She published her second novel, ''Ack, denna själ!'' (''Yea, this soul!'') in 1958. In 1962, Svedberg published ''Vingklippta'' (''Wing-clipped''), her third novel and her first piece of writing about

lesbianism A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homo ...

. The book, which presents a positive depiction of a lesbian relationship, was considered a

Beat Beat, beats, or beating may refer to: Common uses * Assault, inflicting physical harm or unwanted physical contact * Battery (crime), a criminal offense involving unlawful physical contact * Battery (tort), a civil wrong in common law of inte ...

novel and drew comparisons to

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian ...

Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter. A major figure in the abstract expressionist movement, Pollock was widely noticed for his "Drip painting, drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household ...

Henry Miller Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, so ...

and

Selma Lagerlöf Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf (, , ; 20 November 1858 – 16 March 1940) was a Swedish writer. She published her first novel, ''Gösta Berling's Saga'', at the age of 33. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, which she was ...

. She followed ''Vingklippta'' with three more novels about lesbians: ''Det goda livet'' (1963; ''The Good Life''), ''Se uppför trollen! eller: Äntligen en bok om livet sådant det verkligen är'' (1963; ''Watch out for the Trolls! or: Finally a Book on Life as It Is''), and ''Din egen'' (1966; ''Your Own''). Svedberg depicted homosexuality as no different from heterosexuality, although her lesbian characters often faced prejudice and injustice. Literary critic Jenny Björklund wrote in ''Lesbianism in Swedish Literature: An Ambiguous Affair'' that Svedberg's writings "contribute to opening up discursive space for a more tolerant attitude to lesbianism". In the 1960s Svedberg also authored a famous short story, a pornographic parody of

Little Red Riding Hood "Little Red Riding Hood" () is a fairy tale by Charles Perrault about a young girl and a Big Bad Wolf. Its origins can be traced back to several pre-17th-century European Fable, folk tales. It was later retold in the 19th-century by the Broth ...

. She published ''Kärlek är det innersta av hjärtat'' (''Love is the Core of the Heart''), a book in the form of a diary, in 1976. Two years later, she wrote ''En enda jord'', an academic book about religious values held by different cultures. Her work gradually became more political and focused on feminist ideas, and she was a contributor to the radical feminist magazine '' Kvinnobulletinen''. In 1985 she helped to found Kvinnopartiet (The Women's Party), a short-lived radical feminist political party in Sweden. She self-published the book ''Sex Kristalliska Berättelser'' in 1994, and since the late 1990s has written numerous books about travel and spirituality.

Personal life

Svedberg has two children with Frank Scott, a singer from the United States with whom she lived in the late 1950s.

Selected works

* ''Vårvinterdagbok'' 1957 * ''Ack, denna själ!'' 1958 * ''Vingklippta'' 1962 * ''Det goda livet'' 1963 * ''Se upp för trollen!'' 1963 * ''Din egen'' 1966 * ''Sagor vid kanten av ingenting'' 1975 * ''Kärlek är det innersta av hjärtat'' 1976 * ''En enda jord'' 1978 * ''Indira Gandhi-en bok om kärlek'' 1980 * ''Sex kristalliska berättelser'' 1994 * ''Högplatåns guld'' 2001 * ''Drakflygarna'' 2002 * ''Mot källan'' 2002 * ''Fem drömska sagor'' 2003 * ''Veo ad Gax från yttre rymden'' 2004

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Svedberg, Annakarin Living people 1934 births 20th-century Swedish women writers Swedish women novelists Swedish feminists Swedish spiritual writers People from Halmstad Writers from Malmö Swedish feminist writers