Gerd Mjøen Brantenberg (born October 27, 1941) is a Norwegian author, teacher, and

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 ...

writer.

Biography

Brantenberg was born in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

, but grew up in

Fredrikstad Fredrikstad (; previously ''Frederiksstad''; literally "Fredrik's Town") is a List of cities in Norway, city and Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Østfold Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipal ...

. She studied English, History, and Sociology in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, and Oslo. She has an English hovedfag (main subject, comparable to a Master), from the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

, where she also studied history and

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

. She worked as a

lector Lector is Latin for one who reads, whether aloud or not. In modern languages it takes various forms, as either a development or a loan, such as , , and . It has various specialized uses. Academic The title ''lector'' may be applied to lecturers ...

in Norwegian and Danish

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

s, and she also held positions at the trade union for lectors (Norsk Lektorlag) and the

Norwegian Authors' Union The Norwegian Authors' Union (, DnF) is an association of Norwegian authors. It was established in 1893 to promote Norwegian literature and protect Norwegian authors' professional and economic interests. DnF also works in solidarity with persecu ...

. She worked from 1972 to 1983 in the Women's House in Oslo. She was a board member of the Norway's first association for homosexual people Forbundet av 1948, the precursor to the Norwegian National Association for Lesbian and Gay Liberation. She has established

women's shelter A women's shelter, also known as a women's refuge and battered women's shelter, is a place of temporary protection and support for women escaping domestic violence and intimate partner violence of all forms. The term is also frequently used to ...

s and has worked in ''Lesbisk bevegelse'' (Lesbian movement) in both Oslo and

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

. In 1978, she founded a literary Women's Forum with the purpose of encouraging women to write and publish. Since 1982, she has been a writer full-time. She has published 10 novels, 2 plays, 2 translations, and many political songs, and has contributed to numerous anthologies. Her most famous novel is '' Egalias døtre'' ("The Daughters of Egalia"), which was published in 1977 in Norway. In the novel, the female is defined as the normal and the male as the abnormal, subjugated sex. All words that are normally in masculine form are given in a feminine form, and vice versa. In the 1970s, Brantenberg was in a lesbian partnership with the Danish writer Vibeke Vasbo who joined her in Oslo in 1974. She is the cousin of radio and TV entertainer Lars Mjøen.

Awards and honours

She was awarded the Mads Wiel Nygaards Endowment in 1983. In 1986 she was awarded the Danish literary prize "Thitprisen", named after the Danish author Thit Jensen.

Publications

Novels that have been published in English: * ''What Comes Naturally'' (London, 1986) * ''Egalia's Daughters'', (Seattle 1986) or ''The Daughters of Egalia'' (London 1985) * ''The Four Winds'' (Seattle, 1996).

References

External links

* http://skrift.no/brantenberg/ (Biography in Norwegian) * https://web.archive.org/web/20020224024416/http://www.dagbladet.no/kontekst/15753.html (Biography in ''Dagbladet'', Norwegian Newspaper) {{DEFAULTSORT:Brantenberg, Gerd 1941 births Living people Norwegian feminists Feminist writers Norwegian educators University of Oslo alumni Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Norwegian LGBTQ rights activists Norwegian LGBTQ novelists Lesbian feminists Lesbian novelists Writers from Oslo Writers from Fredrikstad 20th-century Norwegian novelists 21st-century Norwegian novelists Norwegian women novelists Norwegian lesbian writers 21st-century Norwegian women writers 20th-century Norwegian women writers