From the wonderful to the scientific. Evolution of the representation of Iceland in France between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries

The Icelandic case it is about understanding how the image of a country can be shaped from elsewhere and by literary vectors. The image of Iceland in France has been shaped as a distant and mysterious country, a picture that still persists in the minds today, the island has preserved the element of...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Reneteaud, Gaëlle
Other Authors: Paris 4, Briens, Sylvain
Format: Thesis
Language:French
Published: 2015
Subjects:
art
Online Access:http://www.theses.fr/2015PA040198
Description
Summary:The Icelandic case it is about understanding how the image of a country can be shaped from elsewhere and by literary vectors. The image of Iceland in France has been shaped as a distant and mysterious country, a picture that still persists in the minds today, the island has preserved the element of the unknown and this enigmatic appearance, despite numerous contemporary sources. Cliches and stereotypes are still perpetuated today in the French collective imagination. The Iceland history remains relatively unknown, its artistic and cultural influence nevertheless confers a non-negligible presence on the international stage. This work not only intends to contribute to the construction of the history of the representations of Iceland, but it also aims to understand the political and economic conditions that allowed the spreading in Europe of the representations of this country, customs and culture of its inhabitants. This thesis also seeks to show how all collective image of Iceland have been interpreted in the history of representations. To meet the deficit of researches on Iceland and its representations, it will combine contextualized analysis of a literary corpus (travel stories and scientific articles) and an iconographic corpus (universal cosmographies) containing engravings and maps, to understand how it was possible to perceive a population and a territory that had long been designated as outside Europe. Á travers le cas islandais, il est question de comprendre comment l’image d’un pays se façonne vu d’ailleurs et par des vecteurs littéraires. L’image de l’Islande en France s’est modelée comme celle d’un pays lointain et mystérieux, une représentation qui perdure encore dans les mentalités aujourd’hui, l’île ayant conservé cette part d’inconnu et cet aspect énigmatique en dépit des nombreuses sources contemporaines d’information. Les clichés et les stéréotypes se perpétuent encore de nos jours dans l’imaginaire collectif français. L’histoire de l’Islande demeurant relativement méconnue, son rayonnement ...