Genusperspektiver i forskningslitteraturen om Edvard Munch (1863-1944) : Feminister og genusforskere nyleser Munch: Kvinneligheter, mannligheter og myter

Abstract

Summary In this thesis 17 feminist and gender-based contributions to research into Munch between 1972-1984 and Munch exhibitions in the USA with women-themed titles between 1978-1997 were examined. The contents of the material are summarized and systematized. The thesis is relevant to reception history. Gender-based contributions follow the development in feminist research from the 1970s to the 1990s. The discourse on Munch’s works has become an important part of feminist and gender-based research. Contributions from Berman, Comini, Jayne, Kingsbury, Slatkin and Wichstrøm are examined as relevant to research into Munch. Generally, the femme fatale is the central theme of gender-based contributions until 1997, but visualizations of the life cycle and death, depictions of male bodies, portraits, and one landscape painting are also dealt with. Munch’s artistry, his view of women and life and his canonization are thematized. Aspects of genius and madness are discussed with a delay of approximately fifteen years in relation to the pioneering article. The results are partly analogous with Pollock’s research into van Gogh. In comparisons of Munch’s works with those of contemporary female artists, feminists explained that Munch had friendly relations with Norwegian women artists, that his depictions of women demonstrate a morbid energy and that his pessimistic sexual determinism is subjective and not representative of the time. Archetype criticism and theories about ”images of women” play a role from 1970 to the 1990s. The conclusions from these researchers claimed that Munch shows ambiguous images of femininity, timeless, unchangeable producers of descendants and the sensitive, decadent man. He polarizes women into virgins and whores. He does not thematize the intellectual or professional sphere of women. The authors believe the reasons for this are sexual fantasies or anxiety about losing creative abilities. Munch conjures up introspective women, heroic mothers and portraits of women. The contexts of the contributions are painterly, literary, philosophical, medical, psychological and scientific. The selection of pictures used in the contributions focused on the 1890s, but about 25 % of the works mentioned are either from 1880 or from the 1900s. Graphic works are of great significance quantitatively. The Epstein collection has been an important supplier. Depictions of women in Munch’s works were a main theme in seven exhibitions in the USA between 1978-1984 and once again in 1997.