The unreliability of place construction in contemporary Alaskan regional writing

• Main Author: Feuer-Cotter, Julia
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad de Alcalá 2014
• Subjects: Alaska; Place and space theory; Geographical imagination; Teoría del espacio y lugar; Imaginación geográfica; Literatura; Medio ambiente; Literature; Environmental science; Arctic; Sheila; Larga; Nickerson; Velma
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10017/20863

Alaska’s geographic isolation results in the fact that most people experience the Far North only second-hand, commonly from the narratives of visitors. Those representations, overshadowed by myth, define Alaska as a region and reflect on the literary imagination of the 49th state. This paper analyses the reader’s image of Alaska and its inhabitants by tracing how regional narratives are perceived by scholars and reviewers, paying attention to the historically different transatlantic perceptions of indigenous peoples and Arctic nature. It becomes clear that Alaska as a setting, as described by its inhabitants, relies on imposed qualities that depend on the self-perception of the outside observer and not on the narration. The contested narrations of Velma Wallis and Sheila Nickerson help to position Alaska as a stage for the struggle over the spatial meaning carried out between outsiders. Conscious of this power struggle and its importance, these contemporary regional authors engage in the discourse over Alaska’s representation by narrating its unreliability. These authors produce texts that invite different readings to foster a cultural discourse about the meaning of the Alaskan place within the national identity and policies. El aislamiento geográfico de Alaska se debe al hecho de que la mayoría de las personas experimentan el extremo Norte sólo de segunda mano, normalmente a partir de los relatos de visitantes. Esta representación, eclipsada por una larga tradición de mitos, define a Alaska como región y se refleja en la imaginación literaria del estado 49º. Este artículo analiza el paradigma del lector de Alaska y de sus habitantes a través del estudio de cómo los estudiosos y críticos no-académicos perciben las narrativas acerca de dicha región, prestando atención a las percepciones transatlánticas históricamente diferentes de los pueblos indígenas y la naturaleza ártica. Es evidente que Alaska, como lugar descrito por sus habitantes, se basa en cualidades impuestas que dependen de la auto-percepción del ...