At the 2013 SASS conference our joint project about the current and past narratives about “Nordatlanten” (Iceland, Faroe Islands and Greenland) was presented at a two-day panel. The papers presented were as follows and outlined elements of the individual contributions:
- Kirsten Thisted (University of Copenhagen): “Denmark and “Nordatlanten”
- Birgit Kleist Pedersen (University of Greenland): “Negotiations on the Concept of ‘Cultural Identity’ in a Time of Fermentation in Greenland”
- Malan Marnersdóttir (University of the Faroe Islands): “The Collective Identity in William Heinesen’s Work”
- Ann-Sofie Nielsen Gremaud (University of Copenhagen): “Icelandic Geographies of Crisis”
- Elisabeth Oxfeldt (University of Oslo): “When Worlds Collide: The North Atlantic in Johan Harstad’s Buzz Aldrin”
- Bergur Rønne Moberg (University of Copenhagen): “North Atlantic Placemaking: Waterscapes in Faroese Literature”
- Ebbe Volquardsen (Justus-Liebig-Universität, Gießen): “North Atlantic Region Building, Whiteness and the Astonishing Anticipation of Fanonian Thought in the Works of Augustinus Lynge”
Generally the Arctic region got a phenomenal amount of attention at the SASS conference where focus is normally on Scandinavian literature, society and language.
Leading up to the SASS conference all the members of the joint project had been gathered in Copenhagen for a two-day seminar on April 28-29. Here we discussed how current narratives in politics, literature, art and the experience economy are affected by historical relations. Our present joint writings are about interpretations of common history, nationalism, ideals of purity in language and ethnicity, gender stereotypes, islands as mythical geographies, Arctic strategies, issues of non-racial inferiority associated with the European periphery etc.
Ann-Sofie Gremaud 