Fighting for Her Profession: Dorothe Engelbretsdatter’s Discourse of Self-Defence

As Aphra Behn argued for her vocation as the first professional woman writer in England, a sixyear older Norwegian colleague did the same from her corner of Europe. Dorothe Engelbretsdatter (1634– 1716) is considered the first professional poet in DenmarkNorway. Her fight for her art and her livelihood was sometimes fierce. The need to earn money from her writing made her try to defend her copyrights. There were pirate editions attempting to cash in on her success, and she turned on the publishers with entertaining if harsh polemics. Others accused her of plagiarising male predecessors, and she responded in counterattacks in the form of occasional verse. Her fights paid off, and she was awarded royal support in the form of tax release for life. Her publication history and struggles throw light on the possibilities and limitations of women’s entrance into the market of commercial publication around 1700. Her explicit polemics as well as the argument implied in much of her poetry, that women could and should write, reminds us of similar features in the texts of Behn or Anne Bradstreet. Her seemingly humble submission to male superiority while aiming kicks at the trouser folk, demonstrates the urgently felt need to be admitted to the book market.