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Exploring NORDIC COOL in Literary History
How did Nordic culture become associated with the fuzzy brand “cool”, as by default? In Exploring NORDIC COOL in Literary History twenty-one scholars in collaboration question the seemingly natural fit between “Nordic” and “Cool” by investigating its variegated trajectories through literary history, from medieval legends to digital poetry. At the same time, the elasticity and polysemy of the word “cool” become a means to explore Nordic literary history afresh. It opens up a rich diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches within a regional framework and reveals hitherto unseen links between familiar and less familiar tracks and sites. Following diverse paths of “Nordic cool” in respect to – among other things – nature, survival, love, whiteness, style, economics, heroism and colonialism, this book challenges all-too-recognisable narratives, and underlines the sheer knowledge potential of literary historical research.
[FILLM Studies in Languages and Literatures, 15] 2020. xix, 342 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 6 November 2020
Published online on 6 November 2020
© John Benjamins
Table of Contents
- Series editor’s preface | pp. xi–xii
- Contributors | pp. xiii–xvi
- Illustrations | pp. xvii–17
- Acknowledgements | pp. xix–xx
- IntroductionGunilla Hermansson and Jens Lohfert Jørgensen | pp. 1–18
- Part I. Cool explorers
- Travels in the cold zoneHenning Howlid Wærp | pp. 21–36
- Nordic polar heroes: The critical potential of literary historyLars Handesten | pp. 37–52
- Serious playfulness? Philippe Guicheteau’s Sunday letters from FinlandHeidi Grönstrand | pp. 53–64
- Part II. Cool nature
- The cultural memory of circumpolar survivalSissel Furuseth | pp. 67–80
- At home in the wilderness: Gunnar Gunnarsson’s AdventJón Yngvi Jóhannsson | pp. 81–96
- Weather as human space in Harald Voetmann’s Alt under månenDan Ringgaard | pp. 97–110
- Part III. Decolonising cool
- Deco(o)lonising white femininity? Of goddesses and silkworms in Karin Boye’s AstarteTherese Svensson | pp. 113–126
- Indigenous cool: Performativity and place-making in Sami literature, art and musicAnne Heith | pp. 127–142
- The coolness of Nordic science in fin de siècle Latin-American literary imaginationAndrea Castro | pp. 143–158
- Part IV. Erotic cool
- Erotic reason and female desire in Maria Jotuni and Elin WägnerKatarina Leppänen and Kukku Melkas | pp. 161–174
- Cool love and economics in Herman Bang’s StukSigne Leth Gammelgaard | pp. 175–188
- Part V. Branding cool
- The sublime North: Iceland as an artistic discourse originating in the nineteenth centurySveinn Yngvi Egilsson | pp. 191–204
- The attraction of Nordic freshness: Melancholy, eroticism, and health in “Vårvindar friska”Gunilla Hermansson | pp. 205–222
- Rebranding “the North”: Swedish novelist Fredrika Bremer’s sudden American success in the 1840sÅsa Arping | pp. 223–238
- Part VI. Heroic cool
- Standing cool against sword, spears and sufferingPer Thomas Andersen | pp. 241–254
- Cool apathy: Approaches to the emotional life of Leonora Christina’s Jammers MindeJens Lohfert Jørgensen | pp. 255–268
- Queen Christina’s coolnessCarin Franzén | pp. 269–284
- Part VII. Cool aesthetics
- Who can write sensible books in weather like this? Carl August Thielo as experimental eighteenth-century novelistSimona Zetterberg Gjerlevsen | pp. 287–302
- Passionately cool: Concrete poetry in DenmarkTania Ørum | pp. 303–318
- Digital astro-evolution and ecological thinking in Johannes Heldén’s AstroecologyHans Kristian S. Rustad | pp. 319–336
- Index | pp. 337–342