Gerd Brantenberg
{{Short description|Norwegian author, teacher and feminist writer}}
File:Gerd Brantenberg.JPG 2009]]
Gerd Mjøen Brantenberg (born October 27, 1941) is a Norwegian author, teacher, and feminist writer.
Biography
Brantenberg was born in Oslo, but grew up in Fredrikstad.{{cite news|url=https://nbl.snl.no/Gerd_Brantenberg|title=Gerd Brantenberg|newspaper=Norsk biografisk leksikon (Norwegian biographical encyclopedia)|author=Lisbeth Nilsen|date=13 February 2009|accessdate=5 March 2022|language=Norwegian}} She studied English, History, and Sociology in London, Edinburgh, and Oslo. She has an English hovedfag (main subject, comparable to a Master), from the University of Oslo, where she also studied history and political science. She worked as a lector in Norwegian and Danish high schools, and she also held positions at the trade union for lectors (Norsk Lektorlag) and the Norwegian Authors' Union.
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 shelters and has worked in Lesbisk bevegelse (Lesbian movement) in both Oslo and Copenhagen. In 1978, she founded a literary Women's Forum with the purpose of encouraging women to write and publish.{{cite news|url=https://nordique.zonelivre.fr/gerd-brantenberg-biographie-et-bibliographie/|title=Gerd Brantenberg : Biographie et Bibliographie|newspaper=Zonelivre.fr|author=Jérome Peugnez|date=26 November 2021|accessdate=5 March 2022|language=French}}
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.{{cite news|url=https://www.liberation.fr/culture/livres/gerd-brantenberg-la-comedie-fumaine-20220130_LSZI227YNRHXJCMDJI3J6IL7XM/|title=Gerd Brantenberg, la Comédie "fumaine"|newspaper=Libération|author=Thomas Stélandre|date=30 January 2022|accessdate=5 March 2022|language=French}} In the novel, the female is defined as the normal and the male as the abnormal, subjugated sex.{{cite news|url=https://www.rts.ch/audio-podcast/2022/audio/tournez-la-page-gerd-brantenberg-les-filles-d-egalie-ed-zulma-25798918.html|title=Tournez la page - Gerd Brantenberg, "Les filles dʹÉgalie" (Ed. Zulma)|newspaper=RTS|author=Geneviève Bridel|date=5 February 2022|accessdate=5 March 2022|language=French}} All words that are normally in masculine form are given in a feminine form, and vice versa.{{cite news|url=https://www.ledevoir.com/lire/681345/fiction-d-ailleurs-les-filles-d-egalie-le-pouvoir-de-la-langue|title="Les filles d'Égalie": le pouvoir de la langue|newspaper=Le Devoir|author=Caroline Montpetit|date=5 March 2022|accessdate=5 March 2022|language=French}}
In the 1970s, Brantenberg was in a lesbian partnership with the Danish writer Vibeke Vasbo who joined her in Oslo in 1974.{{cite news|url=https://jyllands-posten.dk/premium/navne/omtale/article6858514.ece|title=Frontkæmper og forfatter|newspaper=Jyllands-Posten|author=Stein Larsen, Jesper|date=8 July 2014|accessdate=24 May 2017 |language=Danish}}
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
{{reflist}}
External links
- http://skrift.no/brantenberg/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180625161215/http://skrift.no/brantenberg/ |date=2018-06-25 }} (Biography in Norwegian)
- https://web.archive.org/web/20020224024416/http://www.dagbladet.no/kontekst/15753.html (Biography in Dagbladet, Norwegian Newspaper)
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Category:University of Oslo alumni
Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
Category:Norwegian LGBTQ rights activists
Category:Norwegian LGBTQ novelists
Category:Writers from Fredrikstad
Category:20th-century Norwegian novelists
Category:21st-century Norwegian novelists
Category:Norwegian women novelists
Category:Norwegian lesbian writers