Landscape and Vision in Gretel Ehrlich’s This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland
Depicting the narrator’s repeated travels to the northwestern coast of Greenland, Gretel Ehrlich’s This Cold Heaven aims to portray the landscapes of Greenland in a way that frees them from the constraints of the visual ideology associated with Western culture’s idea of landscape. This, however, is...
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Language: | Norwegian |
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Septentrio Academic Publishing
2015
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Online Access: | https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/nordlit/article/view/3436 https://doi.org/10.7557/13.3436 |
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ftunitroemsoe:oai:ojs.henry.ub.uit.no:article/3436 2023-05-15T14:21:40+02:00 Landscape and Vision in Gretel Ehrlich’s This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland Kjeldaas, Sigfrid 2015-04-22 application/pdf https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/nordlit/article/view/3436 https://doi.org/10.7557/13.3436 nor nor Septentrio Academic Publishing https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/nordlit/article/view/3436/3341 https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/nordlit/article/view/3436 doi:10.7557/13.3436 Copyright (c) 2015 Sigfrid Kjeldaas http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC-BY Nordlit; No 35 (2015): Arctic Modernities; 221–238 Nordlit; Nr 35 (2015): Arctic Modernities; 221–238 1503-2086 0809-1668 Greenland Arctic landscape geography vision the subject embodied affinities info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Peer-reviewed article Fagfellevurdert artikkel 2015 ftunitroemsoe https://doi.org/10.7557/13.3436 2021-08-16T15:52:32Z Depicting the narrator’s repeated travels to the northwestern coast of Greenland, Gretel Ehrlich’s This Cold Heaven aims to portray the landscapes of Greenland in a way that frees them from the constraints of the visual ideology associated with Western culture’s idea of landscape. This, however, is no easy task in a natural environment dominated by wide and grand views that seem to invite the detached observer’s ordering vision. This article shows how Ehrlich’s text uses Inuit narratives and ontologies that share perspectives with feminist theories on space and subjectivity in order to challenge our Western modern culture’s conceptions of vision and landscape. The narrator’s experiences of dogsled travel in landscapes determined by weather, ice and light conditions create novel sensations that display and disrupt the boundaries of the physical environment as well as of Western conception of the subject. In this manner Ehrlich’s travel narrative gradually develops away from a rationalist and objectifying form of geography towards a different and more embodied perception of landscape that acknowledges the relational and dynamic nature of Greenland’s icescapes. This rewriting of landscape implies an understanding of vision as an integral part of a bodily whole, in constant interaction – or even co-constitution – with the environment. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Greenland inuit University of Tromsø: Septentrio Academic Publishing Arctic Greenland Nordlit 35 221 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Tromsø: Septentrio Academic Publishing |
op_collection_id |
ftunitroemsoe |
language |
Norwegian |
topic |
Greenland Arctic landscape geography vision the subject embodied affinities |
spellingShingle |
Greenland Arctic landscape geography vision the subject embodied affinities Kjeldaas, Sigfrid Landscape and Vision in Gretel Ehrlich’s This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland |
topic_facet |
Greenland Arctic landscape geography vision the subject embodied affinities |
description |
Depicting the narrator’s repeated travels to the northwestern coast of Greenland, Gretel Ehrlich’s This Cold Heaven aims to portray the landscapes of Greenland in a way that frees them from the constraints of the visual ideology associated with Western culture’s idea of landscape. This, however, is no easy task in a natural environment dominated by wide and grand views that seem to invite the detached observer’s ordering vision. This article shows how Ehrlich’s text uses Inuit narratives and ontologies that share perspectives with feminist theories on space and subjectivity in order to challenge our Western modern culture’s conceptions of vision and landscape. The narrator’s experiences of dogsled travel in landscapes determined by weather, ice and light conditions create novel sensations that display and disrupt the boundaries of the physical environment as well as of Western conception of the subject. In this manner Ehrlich’s travel narrative gradually develops away from a rationalist and objectifying form of geography towards a different and more embodied perception of landscape that acknowledges the relational and dynamic nature of Greenland’s icescapes. This rewriting of landscape implies an understanding of vision as an integral part of a bodily whole, in constant interaction – or even co-constitution – with the environment. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kjeldaas, Sigfrid |
author_facet |
Kjeldaas, Sigfrid |
author_sort |
Kjeldaas, Sigfrid |
title |
Landscape and Vision in Gretel Ehrlich’s This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland |
title_short |
Landscape and Vision in Gretel Ehrlich’s This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland |
title_full |
Landscape and Vision in Gretel Ehrlich’s This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland |
title_fullStr |
Landscape and Vision in Gretel Ehrlich’s This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland |
title_full_unstemmed |
Landscape and Vision in Gretel Ehrlich’s This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland |
title_sort |
landscape and vision in gretel ehrlich’s this cold heaven: seven seasons in greenland |
publisher |
Septentrio Academic Publishing |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/nordlit/article/view/3436 https://doi.org/10.7557/13.3436 |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Greenland inuit |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Greenland inuit |
op_source |
Nordlit; No 35 (2015): Arctic Modernities; 221–238 Nordlit; Nr 35 (2015): Arctic Modernities; 221–238 1503-2086 0809-1668 |
op_relation |
https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/nordlit/article/view/3436/3341 https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/nordlit/article/view/3436 doi:10.7557/13.3436 |
op_rights |
Copyright (c) 2015 Sigfrid Kjeldaas http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.7557/13.3436 |
container_title |
Nordlit |
container_issue |
35 |
container_start_page |
221 |
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