Manning the State: European Early-Nineteenth-Century Masculinities in the New Norway of 1814

Abstract

Gender historians have identified the period around 1800 as a crucial time for transforming elite masculinities in Europe: there were shifts away from ideals of polite gentlemen towards more martial forms of manhood; and this was a transition period away from more fluid notions of masculinity and an emphasis on the mixing of male and female towards a period of upholding stricter binaries between male and female. This article contributes to scholarship on the intersection of masculinities and states by centring on the formation of a new, partially independent Norway around 1814, when the Norwegian constitution was crafted. I use the analysis of Norway as an entry to exploring broader European trends at that time. As this article will show, Norwegian ideals of masculinity suitable for state office are a good illustration of more general interpretations of elite manhood in northern Europe. Norwegian constructions did offer a twist, however, as they idealized the Norwegian elite male as rough, unsophisticated, and natural. In contrast with other forms of elite state-bearing European masculinity, which emphasized advancement and cultivation, Norwegian masculinity was celebrated for its lack of refinement.