Rule and Representation: The ‘Libertine’ Case of Queen Christina
This chapter explores the relationship between women and politics from the vantage point of representation. It examines writings which draw on one figure who, for those who saw or heard of her, put women, politics, and philosophy together in unpredictable ways. In this chapter, the questions that arise when women and liberty are put on the same frame are explored in the languages of diplomacy, satire, and utopia. Queen Christina left her own views on the world in, among other forms, memoirs, maxims, and an assessment of Alexander the Great, whom she described as ‘an object worthy heroick emulation.’ Representation of Christina indicates the way in which circumstances remodel theory, iconography, and stereotype. Writing on her shows some of the tensions experienced by writers in the gendering of politics.
Keywords: women, politics, philosophy, liberty, diplomacy, satire, utopia, Queen Christina, Alexander the Great
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