Latvian women’s writing in an international research context
On 23–24 September 2026, Eva Eglāja-Kristsone will participate in the international conference “Female Sexual Desire in Women’s Writing (pre 1940): Exploring and Digitally Modelling Texts and Reception” in Nova Gorica, Slovenia.
She will present the paper “Desire, Respectability, and the Poetics of Restraint in Early 20th-Century Latvian Women’s Writing.”
The paper focuses on Ivande Kaija’s novel Iedzimtais grēks (1913) and its contemporary reception. How does female sexual desire become speakable in literature? What happens when it enters the discourse of literary criticism and is interpreted through categories of morality, social relations, embodiment, and the future of the nation? And what can be revealed by combining close reading of literary texts and historical reception with methods of digital analysis and modelling?
The conference is part of the DARIAH (Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities) Working Group “Women Writers in History” activities, bringing together researchers working on the history, circulation, and reception of women’s writing as well as digital humanities approaches to literary history.
Participation in the conference takes place within the project “University of Latvia and Institutes in the European Research Area – Excellence in Research and Cooperation,”Project Agreement No. 1.1.1.5/3/25/I/011.