Introduction to Nordic Cultures

Annika Lindskog (Editor), Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen (Editor)

Introduction to Nordic Cultures is an innovative, interdisciplinary introduction to Nordic history, cultures and societies from medieval times to today. The textbook spans the whole Nordic region, covering historical periods from the Viking Age to modern society, and engages with a range of subjects: from runic inscriptions on iron rings and stone monuments, via eighteenth-century scientists, Ibsen’s dramas and turn-of-the-century travel, to twentieth-century health films and the welfare state, nature ideology, Greenlandic literature, Nordic Noir, migration, ‘new’ Scandinavians, and stereotypes of the Nordic.

The chapters provide fundamental knowledge and insights into the history and structures of Nordic societies, while constructing critical analyses around specific case studies that help build an informed picture of how societies grow and of the interplay between history, politics, culture, geography and people. Introduction to Nordic Cultures is a tool for understanding issues related to the Nordic region as a whole, offering the reader engaging and stimulating ways of discovering a variety of cultural expressions, historical developments and local preoccupations. The textbook is a valuable resource for undergraduate students of Scandinavian and Nordic studies, as well as students of European history, culture, literature and linguistics.

List of figures
List of contributors
Acknowledgements
Editorial Introduction to Nordic Cultures
Annika Lindskog and Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen

Part I: Identities 1. Viking-Age Scandinavia: Identities, Communities and Kingdoms
Haki Antonsson

The North: Territory and Narrated Nature
Annika Lindskog
Narrating Nations: Iceland and Finland in Texts
Haki Antonsson and Annika Lindskog
Modern Experiences
*Elettra Carbone and Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen
The Nordic Welfare Model
Mary Hilson

Part II: Texts

The Trial of Bróka-Auðr: Invisible Bureaucracy in an Icelandic Saga
Richard Cole
Nora: The Life and Afterlife of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House
Elettra Carbone
Nordic Noir
Anne Grydehøj
North Atlantic Drift: Contemporary Greenlandic and Sami Literatures
*Kristin Lorentsen and Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen
New Scandinavians, New Narratives
Anne Grydehøj

Part III: Images

Nordic Nature: From Romantic Nationalism to the Anthropocene
Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen
Emigration and Scandinavian Identity
Mart Kuldkepp
Film and the Welfare State: Three Informational Films about Healthcare
C. Claire Thomson
Stereotypes in and of Scandinavia
Ellen Kythor

Index

DOI: 10.14324/111.9781787353992

Number of pages: 244

Number of illustrations: 17

Publication date: 17 April 2020

PDF ISBN: 9781787353992

EPUB ISBN: 9781787354029

Hardback ISBN: 9781787354012

Paperback ISBN: 9781787354005

Annika Lindskog (Editor)

Annika Lindskog is Lecturer in Swedish in the UCL Department of Scandinavian Studies (SELCS), where her teaching spans language, cultural studies and cultural history in the Nordic region and beyond. She has published on a variety of topics including landscape ideology, collective identity and representations of north, with a particular focus on how classical music functions as a cultural expression in articles on Brahms, Frederick Delius, Stenhammar and others.

Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen (Editor)

Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen is Associate Professor in Scandinavian Literature in the UCL Department of Scandinavian Studies (SELCS). His main areas of research and teaching are in literary and cultural studies. He is the author of Scandinavian Crime Fiction (Bloomsbury 2017) and has co-edited the books Translating the Literatures of Small European Nations (Liverpool UP 2019) , Nordic Publishing and Book History (Scandinavia 2013) and World Literature, World Culture: History, Theory, Analysis (Aarhus UP 2008).

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Introduction to Nordic Cultures

Publication date: April 17, 2020

Open Access PDF ISBN: 9781787353992

Paperback ISBN: 9781787354005

Hardback ISBN: 9781787354012

Trim size (hardback): 23.4cm x 15.6cm

Trim size (paperback): 23.4cm x 15.6cm

Page count (hardback): 244

Download free PDF online

https://uclpress.co.uk/book/introduction-to-nordic-cultures/

Introduction to Nordic Cultures is an innovative, interdisciplinary introduction to Nordic history, cultures and societies from medieval times to today. The textbook spans the whole Nordic region, covering historical periods from the Viking Age to modern society, and engages with a range of subjects: from runic inscriptions on iron rings and stone monuments, via eighteenth-century scientists, Ibsen’s dramas and turn-of-the-century travel, to twentieth-century health films and the welfare state, nature ideology, Greenlandic literature, Nordic Noir, migration, ‘new’ Scandinavians, and stereotypes of the Nordic.

The chapters provide fundamental knowledge and insights into the history and structures of Nordic societies, while constructing critical analyses around specific case studies that help build an informed picture of how societies grow and of the interplay between history, politics, culture, geography and people. Introduction to Nordic Cultures is a tool for understanding issues related to the Nordic region as a whole, offering the reader engaging and stimulating ways of discovering a variety of cultural expressions, historical developments and local preoccupations. The textbook is a valuable resource for undergraduate students of Scandinavian and Nordic studies, as well as students of European history, culture, literature and linguistics.

Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen (B01)

Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen is Associate Professor in Scandinavian Literature in the UCL Department of Scandinavian Studies (SELCS). His main areas of research and teaching are in literary and cultural studies. He is the author of Scandinavian Crime Fiction (Bloomsbury 2017) and has co-edited the books Translating the Literatures of Small European Nations (Liverpool UP 2019) , Nordic Publishing and Book History (Scandinavia 2013) and World Literature, World Culture: History, Theory, Analysis (Aarhus UP 2008).

Annika Lindskog (B01)

Annika Lindskog is Lecturer in Swedish in the UCL Department of Scandinavian Studies (SELCS), where her teaching spans language, cultural studies and cultural history in the Nordic region and beyond. She has published on a variety of topics including landscape ideology, collective identity and representations of north, with a particular focus on how classical music functions as a cultural expression in articles on Brahms, Frederick Delius, Stenhammar and others.