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Part of
Travel Writing and Cultural Transfer
Edited by Petra Broomans and Jeanette den Toonder
[FILLM Studies in Languages and Literatures 20] 2024
► pp. 81–103

Chapter 4
Postcolonial images, ambivalence and weak border zones

“Us” and “the others” in the account of an early twentieth-century Swedish traveller

 | Universidad de La Frontera
This chapter deals with the largely unknown and slightly studied travel account of Otto Nordenskjöld in the Argentinian-Chilean Patagonia as part of the preparation to his well-known and documented travel to Antarctica. By using several key terms of postcolonial theory, such as ambivalence, border, identity, binaries and in-between, an analysis of the way in which Nordenskjöld’s portrays the image of the Indigenous people and how civilisation treats them (from Nordenskjöld’s perspective) is proposed. Thus, it is argued that, in the complex relation between travel account and images, an ambiguous representation of European values and the Indigenous people arises, which destabilises the typical binaries of the colonial discourse. The contribution demonstrates that, as travellers transition between two realms, they may find it challenging to shed their European viewpoint, even in situations where colonial brutality is openly denounced.
Keywords: postcolonial discourse, borders, West-East dichotomy, Indigenous peoples, iconic representations
Article outline
  • Le Tour du Monde magazine: Travel accounts in postcolonial contexts
  • Us, the others and the in-between: From the hierarchy to the ambivalence
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 1 November 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/fillm.20.04gal
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