Flora’s Space: Archiving Queer Love Through Letters and Affections

This article delves into the affective lives, desires, and acts of resistance among queer women in late nin eteenth-century Denmark through the love letters of Flora Mathilde Freigaard Larsen to her girlfriend, Agnes Nathalie Olsen. Both women were registered as “public women,” signifying their involvement in sex work under Denmark’s regime of “statutory prostitution,” which tightly regulated women’s sexual activities. By exploring Flora’s letters, preserved in police archives, this article illuminates the fragmented traces of working-class (queer) women’s histories. Grounded in affect and queer theories, the article challenges the traditional narrative of queer history as a linear progression from repression to liberation. It highlights the complexities of queer women’s lives at a time when same-sex relations between women fell outside legal scrutiny, revealing a nuanced interplay of desire, joy, and community within contexts of institutional control. It argues that a focus on rebellious affect within the archive reveals counter-disciplines fostered through community, belonging, and love. By foregrounding the voices and experiences of women who resisted sexual and gender norms, the article advances queer historiography, advocating for an archival approach embracing ambivalence and optimism to enrich queer historical narratives.