Exploring NORDIC COOL in Literary History

Editors

Gunilla Hermansson

| University of Gothenburg

Jens Lohfert Jørgensen

| Aalborg University

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027207890 | EUR 105.00 | USD 158.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027260543 | EUR 105.00 | USD 158.00

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

https://doi.org/10.1075/fillm.15

Table of Contents

Series editor’s preface	xi
Contributors	xiii–xvi
Illustrations	xvii–xviii
Acknowledgements	xix
Introduction Gunilla Hermansson and Jens Lohfert Jørgensen	1–18
Part I. Cool explorers
Travels in the cold zone Henning Howlid Wærp	21–36
Nordic polar heroes: The critical potential of literary history Lars Handesten	37–52
Serious playfulness?: Philippe Guicheteau’s Sunday letters from Finland Heidi Grönstrand	53–64
Part II. Cool nature
The cultural memory of circumpolar survival Sissel Furuseth	67–80
At home in the wilderness: Gunnar Gunnarsson’s Advent Jón Yngvi Jóhannsson	81–96
Weather as human space in Harald Voetmann’s Alt under månen Dan Ringgaard	97–110
Part III. Decolonising cool
Deco(o)lonising white femininity?: Of goddesses and silkworms in Karin Boye’s Astarte Therese Svensson	113–126
Indigenous cool: Performativity and place-making in Sami literature, art and music Anne Heith	127–142
The coolness of Nordic science in fin-de-siècle Latin-American literary imagination Andrea Castro	143–158
Part IV. Erotic cool
Erotic reason and female desire in Maria Jotuni and Elin Wägner Katarina Leppänen and Kukku Melkas	161–174
Cool love and economics in Herman Bang’s Stuk Signe Leth Gammelgaard	175–188
Part V. Branding cool
The sublime North: Iceland as an artistic discourse originating in the nineteenth century Sveinn Yngvi Egilsson	191–204
The attraction of Nordic freshness: Melancholy, eroticism, and health in “Vårvindar friska” Gunilla Hermansson	205–222
Rebranding “the North”: Swedish novelist Fredrika Bremer’s sudden American success in the 1840s Åsa Arping	223–238
Part VI. Heroic cool
Standing cool against sword, spears and suffering Per Thomas Andersen	241–254
Cool apathy: Approaches to the emotional life of Leonora Christina’s Jammers Minde Jens Lohfert Jørgensen	255–268
Queen Christina’s coolness Carin Franzén	269–284
Part VII. Cool aesthetics
Who can write sensible books in weather like this?: Carl August Thielo as experimental eighteenth-century novelist Simona Zetterberg Gjerlevsen	287–302
Passionately cool: Concrete poetry in Denmark Tania Ørum	303–318
Digital astro-evolution and ecological thinking in Johannes Heldén’s Astroecology Hans Kristian S. Rustad	319–336
Index	337–342

Subjects

Literature & Literary Studies

Germanic literature & literary studies

Theoretical literature & literary studies

BIC Subject: DSB – Literary studies: general

BISAC Subject: LIT004250 – LITERARY CRITICISM / European / Scandinavian

U.S. Library of Congress Control Number: 2020032622 | Marc record