Review: „Heathenry as a Postcolonial Movement“
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.
Review: The Invention of Tradition
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.”
Review: David Spurr: The rhetoric of empire: Colonial discourse in journalism, travel writing, and imperial administration
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.
Review: Edwards, Justin, and Rune Graulund: Postcolonial travel writing: critical explorations
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.
Review: Palmberg, Mai. The Nordic Colonial Mind.
Palmber’s essay is a good overview over the Nordic colonial past and it shows that the term “Nordic exceptionalism” is not justified for many different reasons. Palmberg demonstrates that the Nordic countries participated in the colonial movements and gives some illuminating examples.
Review: Vuorela, Ulla. Colonial Complicity: The ‚Postcolonial‘ in a Nordic Context
Vuorela discusses Finland’s position in the colonial power structures and explains the concept of ‚colonial complicity‘. She demonstrates the Finnish complicity with some examples and talks about the downsides of power.
Review: Thisted, Kirsten. Imperiets genfærd: Profeterne i Evighedsfjorden og den dansk-grønlandske historieskrivning
Kirsten Thisted shows in her well-structured article that ambivalence is what distinguishes Leine’s Profeterne i Evighedsfjorden from the popular narratives about Danish-Greenlandic history.
Review: Gjedssø Bertelsen, Rasmus: Historisk læring som struktur for dialog om det fremtidige forhold mellem Danmark og Nordatlanten
With his article Rasmus Gjedssø Bertelsen states that «historisk læring» history-based learning based upon experiences by the 1918-forbundsloven between Denmark and Iceland should be used to help the Faroe Islands and Greenland becoming independent states. In his opinion history-based learning is useful for future relations between Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland to structure shared strategic analyses, discussions and decisions.
Review: William Albert Wilson’s Folklore and Nationalism in Modern Finland
The American scholar William Wilson discusses the relationship between the study of folklore and the rise of nationalistic movements in Finland.
Review: The Latin Discursive Tradition Behind the Icelandic Accounts of the First European Journey to America
For centuries it has been taught in schools all around the globe that Christopher Columbus was the first European who had ever travelled to America in 1492. Nowadays we know it was a misconception, as the discovery of a Viking settlement in L’Anse aux Meadows (Canada) in the 1960s proved that the Norse reached the North American coast five centuries before Columbus.
A review on Jerold Frakes’ article „Viking, Vínland and the Discourse of Eurocentrism“.