Post-colonial identity in Greenland?
In the gradual unravelling of Greenland’s colonial relationship to Denmark, an essentialist conceptualization of Greenlandic identity has played a significant role. However, both our scholarly understanding of post-colonial Greenlandic identity and the process towards independence for Greenland coul...
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John Benjamins Publishing Company
2009
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/jlp.8.1.08gad http://www.jbe-platform.com/deliver/fulltext/jlp.8.1.08gad.pdf |
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crjohnbenjaminsp:10.1075/jlp.8.1.08gad 2024-06-09T07:46:18+00:00 Post-colonial identity in Greenland? When the empire dichotomizes back — bring politics back in Gad, Ulrik Pram 2009 http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/jlp.8.1.08gad http://www.jbe-platform.com/deliver/fulltext/jlp.8.1.08gad.pdf en eng John Benjamins Publishing Company Journal of Language and Politics volume 8, issue 1, page 136-158 ISSN 1569-2159 1569-9862 journal-article 2009 crjohnbenjaminsp https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.8.1.08gad 2024-05-15T13:26:51Z In the gradual unravelling of Greenland’s colonial relationship to Denmark, an essentialist conceptualization of Greenlandic identity has played a significant role. However, both our scholarly understanding of post-colonial Greenlandic identity and the process towards independence for Greenland could be furthered by bringing politics back in. Based on a discourse analysis of the Greenlandic debate on language, this paper makes three claims: First, the identity projects promoted in Greenland are based on an essentialist conception of identity. Secondly, Greenlandic identity discourse combines elements of traditional Inuit culture and elements of colonial modernity. Thirdly, monolingual Greenlanders are those with the most to gain from abandoning the dichotomy of essentialist identities. Strategically, the paper suggests a post-post-colonial Greenlandic identity as a means of avoiding the exclusion of valuable human resources. One step towards relieving the relation to the Danish Other of identificatory weight could be a gradual shift to English as second language. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland greenlander* greenlandic inuit John Benjamins Publishing Company Greenland Journal of Language and Politics 8 1 136 158 |
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John Benjamins Publishing Company |
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crjohnbenjaminsp |
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English |
description |
In the gradual unravelling of Greenland’s colonial relationship to Denmark, an essentialist conceptualization of Greenlandic identity has played a significant role. However, both our scholarly understanding of post-colonial Greenlandic identity and the process towards independence for Greenland could be furthered by bringing politics back in. Based on a discourse analysis of the Greenlandic debate on language, this paper makes three claims: First, the identity projects promoted in Greenland are based on an essentialist conception of identity. Secondly, Greenlandic identity discourse combines elements of traditional Inuit culture and elements of colonial modernity. Thirdly, monolingual Greenlanders are those with the most to gain from abandoning the dichotomy of essentialist identities. Strategically, the paper suggests a post-post-colonial Greenlandic identity as a means of avoiding the exclusion of valuable human resources. One step towards relieving the relation to the Danish Other of identificatory weight could be a gradual shift to English as second language. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gad, Ulrik Pram |
spellingShingle |
Gad, Ulrik Pram Post-colonial identity in Greenland? |
author_facet |
Gad, Ulrik Pram |
author_sort |
Gad, Ulrik Pram |
title |
Post-colonial identity in Greenland? |
title_short |
Post-colonial identity in Greenland? |
title_full |
Post-colonial identity in Greenland? |
title_fullStr |
Post-colonial identity in Greenland? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Post-colonial identity in Greenland? |
title_sort |
post-colonial identity in greenland? |
publisher |
John Benjamins Publishing Company |
publishDate |
2009 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/jlp.8.1.08gad http://www.jbe-platform.com/deliver/fulltext/jlp.8.1.08gad.pdf |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Greenland greenlander* greenlandic inuit |
genre_facet |
Greenland greenlander* greenlandic inuit |
op_source |
Journal of Language and Politics volume 8, issue 1, page 136-158 ISSN 1569-2159 1569-9862 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.8.1.08gad |
container_title |
Journal of Language and Politics |
container_volume |
8 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
136 |
op_container_end_page |
158 |
_version_ |
1801376095829753856 |