ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how Edith Sodergran’s sister fantasy manifests itself in her poems. A sister can become a substitute for the mother and an object of symbiotic longing. Indeed, identifications with big sisters can be essential in the formation of female identity. A sister fantasy may serve to complement a woman, to solidify her feminine identity, and to reflect a mirror image reinforcing her existence. Edith Sodergran was one of the pioneers of modern, Swedish-language Finnish poetry. Edith Sodergran’s poems and letters to Hagar Olsson depict, in a sensitive and emotional way, a friendship between two women, their deep attachment and erotic charge. In her comments on Edith’s letters, Hagar Olsson describes how she experienced Edith’s affection as something complementary, as rapture and enchantment. The chapter also illustrates further meanings of a sister fantasy with a glimpse of an analysis of a young woman, Ada, twenty-four years old.
