Iceland: a postcolonial literary landscape?
How does Iceland appear in postcolonial literary texts by writers from Denmark, the former colonial power? Three texts from modern Danish literature were chosen, with Iceland as their main theme and based on first hand knowledge of the country gathered through sojourns and travels by the authors: Re...
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Rodopi, Amsterdam
2011
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ftunivamstpubl:oai:uvapub:352627 2023-05-15T16:44:49+02:00 Iceland: a postcolonial literary landscape? H. van der Liet 2011 http://hdl.handle.net/11245/1.352627 en eng Rodopi, Amsterdam It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content licence (like Creative Commons). book chapter 2011 ftunivamstpubl 2015-11-19T11:28:22Z How does Iceland appear in postcolonial literary texts by writers from Denmark, the former colonial power? Three texts from modern Danish literature were chosen, with Iceland as their main theme and based on first hand knowledge of the country gathered through sojourns and travels by the authors: Rejse paa Island (Journey on Iceland, 1954) by Martin A. Hansen (1909-1955); Nord for Vatnajøkel (North of Vatnajökull, 1994) by the writer-art historian Poul Vad (1927-2003) and Raevesletten og andre islandske omveje (The Fox Plain and other Icelandic detours, 2009) by the painter-graphic artist Per Kirkeby (1938-) and the writer Keld Zeruneith (1941-). These travelogues, in various ways, are hybrids of text and image emphasizing Iceland's exotic, insular and primarily literary qualities. Critical analysis leads to the hypothesis that these postcolonial depictions are characterized by a high degree of descriptive stylisation and aestheticism and by a prominent role of visual forms of representation. While decolonisation itself is an issue in the oldest work discussed, this is no longer the case in the two more recent books. Iceland has become a post- colonial landscape, a palimpsest-like space where political open wounds from the past are overwritten by the aesthetic gaze, which primarily focuses on the graphic qualities of the Icelandic countryside. Book Part Iceland Vatnajökull Universiteit van Amsterdam: Digital Academic Repository (UvA DARE) Vatnajökull ENVELOPE(-16.823,-16.823,64.420,64.420) Paa ENVELOPE(-53.483,-53.483,66.017,66.017) |
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Open Polar |
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Universiteit van Amsterdam: Digital Academic Repository (UvA DARE) |
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ftunivamstpubl |
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English |
description |
How does Iceland appear in postcolonial literary texts by writers from Denmark, the former colonial power? Three texts from modern Danish literature were chosen, with Iceland as their main theme and based on first hand knowledge of the country gathered through sojourns and travels by the authors: Rejse paa Island (Journey on Iceland, 1954) by Martin A. Hansen (1909-1955); Nord for Vatnajøkel (North of Vatnajökull, 1994) by the writer-art historian Poul Vad (1927-2003) and Raevesletten og andre islandske omveje (The Fox Plain and other Icelandic detours, 2009) by the painter-graphic artist Per Kirkeby (1938-) and the writer Keld Zeruneith (1941-). These travelogues, in various ways, are hybrids of text and image emphasizing Iceland's exotic, insular and primarily literary qualities. Critical analysis leads to the hypothesis that these postcolonial depictions are characterized by a high degree of descriptive stylisation and aestheticism and by a prominent role of visual forms of representation. While decolonisation itself is an issue in the oldest work discussed, this is no longer the case in the two more recent books. Iceland has become a post- colonial landscape, a palimpsest-like space where political open wounds from the past are overwritten by the aesthetic gaze, which primarily focuses on the graphic qualities of the Icelandic countryside. |
format |
Book Part |
author |
H. van der Liet |
spellingShingle |
H. van der Liet Iceland: a postcolonial literary landscape? |
author_facet |
H. van der Liet |
author_sort |
H. van der Liet |
title |
Iceland: a postcolonial literary landscape? |
title_short |
Iceland: a postcolonial literary landscape? |
title_full |
Iceland: a postcolonial literary landscape? |
title_fullStr |
Iceland: a postcolonial literary landscape? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Iceland: a postcolonial literary landscape? |
title_sort |
iceland: a postcolonial literary landscape? |
publisher |
Rodopi, Amsterdam |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/11245/1.352627 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-16.823,-16.823,64.420,64.420) ENVELOPE(-53.483,-53.483,66.017,66.017) |
geographic |
Vatnajökull Paa |
geographic_facet |
Vatnajökull Paa |
genre |
Iceland Vatnajökull |
genre_facet |
Iceland Vatnajökull |
op_rights |
It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content licence (like Creative Commons). |
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