Iceland and Images of the North

Summer 2011. Post-graduate level. 10 ECTS credits. Language: English.

Location

Bjarnarfjörður in Strandir and Hólar in Hjaltadalur, Iceland.

Registration

Enrolment deadline: TBA.

Associated Disciplines

Multidisciplinary, including Literary Theory, Cultural Studies, Folkloristics, Ethnology, Gender Studies, Performance Studies, Tourism Studies, History. 

Keywords

Identity; North; Image;  Centre and Margin; Gender.

Description

This course examines the cultural role of ‘the North’ in the circumpolar world through the analysis of various representations of Iceland as part of the North. It focuses on the practice and performance of such images in the present, as well as their origins in the past. 

Participants will study images in general, their dynamics and relation to power and hegemony, gender and space, tourism and locality.  Also examined is the idea of the North in general, its construction and how it is appropriated to various cultural contexts.

Students will, for example, address questions such as: How is the dialectic between self-images and images of “the other” configured? To what extent do structural constraints influence the emergence and form of images? How do media and tourism represent images of the North and how do people practise and perform them in everyday life?

The course involves lectures, seminars and excursions beginning in Strandir, in the West Fjords (northwest Iceland), and proceeding northeast to Hólar University College. Strandir (the northwestern shores of Iceland) is home to the Icelandic Centre for Ethnology and Folklore and known for its history, folklore, driftwood, stark natural contrasts and rich marine life. Hólar in Hjaltadalur is one of the Icelandic nation’s principal historical, cultural, and ecclesiastical sites.

The supervisors and teachers are participants in an extensive international research project currently in its fourth year, which is a cooperative, interdisciplinary and international undertaking on the part of researchers in the humanities and social sciences.  For further details, visit www.inor.is .

Highlights

Exploring the concept of the North, the course incorporates images of Iceland and its closest neighbours into the current theoretical discourse on identity, gender, and the dynamics of centres and margins of culture in a globalised world.

Learning Outcomes

On completing the course, participants will have acquired a wealth of knowledge on the various representations of culture in the North, as well as the theoretical underpinnings of contemporary scholarship. As a result, they will have both the tools and familiarity with the subject necessary to delve deeper into issues involving of image and representation.  

Supervisors

Kristinn Schram and Guðrún Þóra Gunnarsdóttir.

Reading

Main books:
Images of the North: Histories – Identities - Ideas (Studia Imagologica 14), ed. Sverrir Jakobsson et. al, Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Iceland and Images of the North (2010) eds. Chartier, D. & Sumarliði Ísleifsson

Reading from: Iceland and Images of the North:
Sverrir Jakobsson: The Emergence of Norðurlönd in Old Norse Medieval Texts, ca. 1100-1400
Sumarliði R. Ísleifsson: Islands on the Edge. – Medieval and early modern national images of Iceland and Greenland.
Astrid E.J. Ogilvie: An Ancient Enemy Observed: Images of Sea Ice in Selected Narratives of Iceland from the settlement to the late-nineteenth Century.
Julia Zernack: Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and German Culture
Heidi Hansson: Between Nostalgia and Modernity: Competing Discourses in Travel
Marion Lerner: Images of the North and the Early 20th-Century Search for an Icelandic National Identity
Edward H. Huijbens: Nation branding – a critical evaluation assessing the image-building of Iceland
Heiða Jóhannsdóttir: Staging the Nation: Performing Icelandic nationality during the 1986 Reykjavik summit.
Daisy Neijmann: Foreign Fictions of Iceland
Katla Kjartansdóttir: The New Viking Wave
Þorgerður Þorvaldsdóttir: The Gender Equal North and Icelandic images of femininity and masculinity
Hildigunnur Ólafsdóttir: Powerful Images: Drinking in Iceland and Ideas of the North
Kristinn Schram: Banking on Borealism: Eating, Smelling and Narrating the North
Guðrún Þóra Gunnarsdóttir: Reflecting Images: The Front Page of Icelandic Tourism Brochures
Guðrún Helgadóttir: Nation in a sheep‘s coat: The Icelandic sweater
Ólöf Gerður Sigfúsdóttir: The Longing for Narrative: Design Objects and Homogeneity of Images in Iceland
Daniel Chartier: The idea of “place”: an example of contemporary crosscultural construction of images of Iceland

Reading from: Images of the North: Histories – Identities – Ideas:
Joeb Leerssen: Foreword
Ármann Jakobsson: Food and the North-Icelandic Identity in the 13th Century Iceland and Norway.   
Katla Kjartansdóttir: Remote, Rough and Romantic: Contemporary Images of Iceland in Visual, Oral and Textual Narrations
Kirsten Hastrup: Images of Thule: Maps and Metaphors in Polar Exploration
Sherrill Grace: Canada and its Images of the North
Kristinn Schram: The Wild Wild North: The Narrative Cultures of Image Construction in Media and Everyday Life

Other (suggested) Reading Material:
Kristinn Schram. (2009). "Performing the North" in ARV: Nordic Yearbook of Folklore, ed. A. B. Amundsen, pp. 59-71. 
Gramsci, A. (1992). Prison Notebooks, New York: Columbia University Press.
Gísli Sigurðsson (1996). "Icelandic National Identity: From Romanticism to Tourism", in Making Europe in Nordic Contexts., Ed. P. Antonen. Turku: NIF Publications 35, pp. 41-75.
Certeau, M. de (1988) The Practice of Everyday Life, London: Sage.
Said. E. (1979): Orientalism, New York: Vintage.
Bendix, R. & Klein, B. (1993). "Foreigners and Foreignness in Europe: Expressive Culture in Transcultural Encounters". Journal of Folklore Research 30. 
Billig, M. (1995). Banal Nationalism, London: Sage Publications.
Davidson, P. (2005). The Idea of the North, London: Reaktion Books.

Preliminary Schedule (subject to change)

Strandir:
Day one: Concepts and fields of study
Day two: Iceland  - the historical North
Day three: Imagining the North through transnational media and   film
Day four: Performing the North in everyday life
Day five: Excursion through north Iceland

Hólar:
Day six: Images and Tourism
Day seven: Designing Iceland
Day eight: The Gendered North
Day nine: Summary and Evaluation 

Structure and Evaluation

See: Framework

Guest Lecturers

To be announced

Enquiries

For specific information on this course and the Svartárkot program please send email to: info@svartarkot.is .