Amalie Skram

Amalie Skram (1846–1905) was a Norwegian writer and uncompromising feminist who voiced a woman’s point of view in novels exploring female sexuality and a woman’s subservient status; her work was often considered scandalous. She was hospitalized twice for depression: once in part due to her first husband’s infidelity and the second, after she remarried, due to her obligations as a housewife and mother and the public’s limited acceptance of her writing. The experiences became the basis for two novels of psychiatric abuse, which prompted calls for reform. Other works include the novels Lucie, Betrayed, and Constance Ring, the classic condemnation of marriage that has been compared to Madame Bovary and The Awakening.