Transatlantic: The Role of Gender Expectations in Birgitte Evensen’s Story of Emigration and Assimilation
By Nikki Link University of Wisconsin–Madison INTRODUCTION Loving another human being is never an easy task. Yet, imagine if that love had to not only venture from one heart to another, but also remain fossilized on yellowing paper, sent careening across a vast ocean, and over thousands upon thousands of miles of amber waves of grain. Imagine if the promise of eternal union meant leaving everything and everyone you know behind. For Birgitte Evensen, a privileged young Norwegian woman, those…