Blogposts

The paper „Heathenry as a Postcolonial Movement“ analyses the relationship between the new religious movement Heathenry and postcolonialism. It was written by Thad N. Horrell, who is himself a Heathen and who problematises discourses within the movement that seek to invalidate postcolonial concerns.

The symbol of roots plays an important role in the new religious movement Heathenry, whose main defining points are the veneration of Germanic deities and a focus on Old Norse literature. In this blog post, I want to show how the narrative of „reconstructing“ pre-Christian religions is combined with the idea of „roots“ and how this ties into nationalism and claims of „indigenousness.“

History Channel’s series „Vikings“ revolves around the legendary Viking Ragnar Loðbrók and his sons. In its six seasons, viewers witness one Viking family’s quest to explore, pillage and seize the world. The raging, colonial expansion of Ragnar & sons…

The Invention of Tradition is a collection of papers edited by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger. It deals with the ways in which many traditions that are commonly considered to be old have been invented in the recent past and introduces the term “invented tradition.”

David Spurr’s book The Rhetoric of Empire: Colonial discourse in journalism, travel writing, and imperial administration presents some of the rhetorical methods used in non-fictional writing in a colonial context. Spurr unfolds twelve rhetorical methods that he developed by identifying basic tropes used to write about non-Western people in the nineteenth- and twentieth-centuries.

The book Postcolonial travel writing: critical explorations is a collection of essays about travel writing. The book offers an overview over postcolonial travel writing by taking up different contemporary problems and discussions. The papers ranges from papers about receptions over dicussions about postcolonial travel writing to interviews with contemporary authors.

Disney’s ‚Frozen II‘ is a milestone and a huge step in the right direction concerning the collaboration with Indigenous people. The Sámi-inspired Northuldra seem great: they are innocent, have reindeer, are one with nature and can even do magic! But these stereotypes are deeply rooted in the history of texts about the Sámi and still have an impact today.

How does one make an Other? And if one has made an Other what does that legitimise? Let’s take a look at medieval European stories, how they give people beaks just to pick on them, and more.