How does literature shape national conceptions of nature? How are different nature types valued as regard to nation building – be it as an economic, or symbolic, asset? My PhD project arises from this question, and will combine literature geography, cultural memory studies, and digital humanities to examine how nature is constructed in the literature of Norway from 1814 to 1871.
A significant proportion of the authors we associate with the Modern Breakthrough in Norway (Bjørnson, Ibsen, Kielland, Lie, Skram, Garborg), seem to make use of the coast town, and other communities along the Norwegian coast, as literary settings. Few literary scholars have commented on why this particular spatial object gains influence. This leads me to ask: Who took part and helped shape the literary-geographical imaginary of the coast-town? Was it shaped also by non-canonized, ‘forgotten’ authors? Is there a special connection between ideology and form on the one hand, and the figure of the coast-town on the other?
"August 23rd", commemorating the historic date of the so-called Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, an agreement between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, is both known as the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes as well as the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and National Socialism. My project determines the debates surrounding “August 23rd” as an example for memory conflicts and for competitions over the (historical) authority of interpreting Europe’s violent history of the 20th century.
For the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian exile communities that emerged in the aftermath of World War II and the occupation of their respective homelands, the arts became a way to both perpetuate their identity in the free world and to explore the predicaments wrought by the condition of exile. Within the diasporas’ literary scenes, the works that touched upon the exilic experience varied from attempts to recapture and preserve lost homelands to contemplations on trauma and displacement.
Since the late 2000s, the EU has faced an abundance of external and internal crises, from the Sovereign Debt Crisis to Russia’s current war on Ukraine and the subsequent energy crisis. To understand how these crises affect the EU, it is essential to understand how the Union deals with and, crucially, learns from crises.
Extreme storm surges occurring on the southwestern coasts of the Baltic Sea were perceived as disasters. How can this be concluded from the narrative texts concerning these events and which factors played a key role in their depiction?
Informal caregivers often experience expectancy violations when caring for loved ones. The experience of becoming an informal caregiver may for example challenge their expectations of themselves as caregivers and expectations regarding their own future. This thesis aims to investigate these schema violations as prominent themes in contemporary Scandinavian caregiving fiction.
The PhD project investigates the reception of Viking Age gold treasure finds in the Baltic Sea Region during the 19th and 20th centuries. Their discovery, their way into museums and collections, their presentation there, as well as their research and popularisation allow conclusions to be drawn about processes of identification with and demarcation from early medieval Scandinavian culture that took place around the Baltic Sea during this period.
In my thesis I am concentrating on relations between the Baltic States and Russia, analyzing how international crises with Russian involvement influence the security architecture in the Baltic Sea Region. In particular, I am exploring the question of how Russia is securitized in the narratives of the Baltic States and how historical memory influences such narratives.
