Distributed for Karolinum Press, Charles University
Migration and Identity in Nordic Literature
An examination of representations of human migration in three centuries of Northern European literature.
Migration is a frequent topic of many debates nowadays, whether it concerns refugees from war-torn areas or the economic pros and cons of the mobility of multinational corporations and their employees. Yet such migration has always been a part of the human experience, and its dimensions—with its shifting nature, manifestations, and consequences—were often greater than we can imagine today.
In this book, ten scholars from Czechia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Sweden focus on how migration has manifested itself in literature and culture through the nineteenth, twentieth, and early twenty-first centuries in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. Examining the theme of migration as it relates to questions of identity, both national and individual, the authors argue that migration almost always leads to a disturbance of identity and creates a potential for conflicts between individuals and larger groups. The book digs deep into such cases of disturbance, disruption, and hybridization of identity as they are represented in three centuries of literary works from the European North.
Migration is a frequent topic of many debates nowadays, whether it concerns refugees from war-torn areas or the economic pros and cons of the mobility of multinational corporations and their employees. Yet such migration has always been a part of the human experience, and its dimensions—with its shifting nature, manifestations, and consequences—were often greater than we can imagine today.
In this book, ten scholars from Czechia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Sweden focus on how migration has manifested itself in literature and culture through the nineteenth, twentieth, and early twenty-first centuries in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. Examining the theme of migration as it relates to questions of identity, both national and individual, the authors argue that migration almost always leads to a disturbance of identity and creates a potential for conflicts between individuals and larger groups. The book digs deep into such cases of disturbance, disruption, and hybridization of identity as they are represented in three centuries of literary works from the European North.
264 pages | 6 1/4 x 9 | © 2022
Literature and Literary Criticism: General Criticism and Critical Theory, Germanic Languages
Table of Contents
Preface
Martin Humpál and Helena Brezinová
PART I - Tracing Approaches and Rethinking Concepts
1. Autobiographical Narratives in an Era of Migration: To What Extent Is the Idea of
Individual and National Identity Viable?
Annika Bøstein Myhr
2. Creating (Im)migrant Literature in Sweden since the 1970s
Satu Gröndahl
PART II - Migration, Identity and Literature
3. Andersen, Ibsen and Strindberg as Migrant Writers
Helena Brezinová
4. Emigration and the Image of the U.S.A. in Henrik Ibsen’s Samfundets støtter
Martin f
5. Christer Kihlman’s Autobiography Alla mina söner (1980; All My Sons) in the Perspective of Orientalism (1978) by Edward W. Said
Jan Dlask
6. Playing with Identities: Variants of Biography and the Sylleptic “I” in Bronislaw Swiderski’s Migration Novels
Sylwia Izabela Schab
7. “Det här är en märklig plats.” Space as a Reflection of Identity in Golnaz Hashemzadeh Bonde’s Novel Hon är inte jag
Radka Stahr
8. Dulce de Leche: Translingualism, Laughter and Sweet Stickiness in Veronica Salinas’ Og. En argentinsk au pairs ordbok
Elisabeth Oxfeldt
9. Migration and Loss of Identity in Linnea Axelsson’s Ædnan. Epos (2018)
Petra Broomans
10. “The ugly grey-white blocks of concrete.” Class, Gender and Ethnicity in Danish ‘Ghetto Literature’
Jon Helt Haarder
Martin Humpál and Helena Brezinová
PART I - Tracing Approaches and Rethinking Concepts
1. Autobiographical Narratives in an Era of Migration: To What Extent Is the Idea of
Individual and National Identity Viable?
Annika Bøstein Myhr
2. Creating (Im)migrant Literature in Sweden since the 1970s
Satu Gröndahl
PART II - Migration, Identity and Literature
3. Andersen, Ibsen and Strindberg as Migrant Writers
Helena Brezinová
4. Emigration and the Image of the U.S.A. in Henrik Ibsen’s Samfundets støtter
Martin f
5. Christer Kihlman’s Autobiography Alla mina söner (1980; All My Sons) in the Perspective of Orientalism (1978) by Edward W. Said
Jan Dlask
6. Playing with Identities: Variants of Biography and the Sylleptic “I” in Bronislaw Swiderski’s Migration Novels
Sylwia Izabela Schab
7. “Det här är en märklig plats.” Space as a Reflection of Identity in Golnaz Hashemzadeh Bonde’s Novel Hon är inte jag
Radka Stahr
8. Dulce de Leche: Translingualism, Laughter and Sweet Stickiness in Veronica Salinas’ Og. En argentinsk au pairs ordbok
Elisabeth Oxfeldt
9. Migration and Loss of Identity in Linnea Axelsson’s Ædnan. Epos (2018)
Petra Broomans
10. “The ugly grey-white blocks of concrete.” Class, Gender and Ethnicity in Danish ‘Ghetto Literature’
Jon Helt Haarder