Description: Both fictional and non-fictional accounts of the Arctic have long been a major source of powerful images of the region, and have thus had a crucial part to play in the history of human activities there. This volume provides a wide-reaching investigation into the discourses involved in such accounts, above all into the consolidation of a discourse of Arcticism (modelled on Edward Said's concept of Orientalism), but also into the many intersecting discourses of imperialism, nationalism, masculinity, modernity, geography, science, race, ecology, indigeneity, aesthetics, etc. Perspectives originating from inside and outside the Arctic, along with hybrid positions, are examined, with special attention being given to the textual genres, narratives and figures which they mobilize, together with to the close relationship between the Arctic as an unknown place and the literary imagination. The different chapters address a wide geographical range of texts, providing a necessary supplement to most previous work in the field, and also address the wide variety of genres which flourish under the aegis of Arctic discourse, ranging from exploration accounts, travel-writing, political texts and journalism through diaries and historical documents to novels and novelizations, and including also other media, such as music and opera.
Brief description: The editors share the project leadership of the ongoing research programme Arktiske diskurser (Arctic Discourses) based at the University of Tromso and funded by the Research Council of Norway. ANKA RYALL has taught English at the University of Tromso, and published on gender and travel writing. Among her recent publications are a book on women's appropriation of travel literature, a co-edited volume on Mary Wollstonecraft's journey to Scandinavia and an article on the travel narratives of Ethel Tweedie. JOHAN SCHIMANSKI is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature in the Department of Culture and Literature, University of Tromso. He has published on Welsh literature, national identity and literature, postcolonialism, science fiction and Arctic discourses. HENNING HOWLID WAeRP is Professor of Scandinavian literature at the University of Tromso. He has published and edited books and articles on Norwegian literature and poetry, and also on the novelists Knut Hamsun and Cora Sandel.