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Banking on Borealism: Eating, Smelling, and Performing the North
- Presses de l'Université du Québec
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Kristinn Schram, “Banking on Borealism: Eating, Smelling, and Performing the North,” in Iceland and Images of the North, ed. Sumarliði R. Ísleifsson with the collaboration of Daniel Chartier, Québec: Presses de l’Université du Québec, “Droit au Pôle” series, and Reykjavík: ReykjavíkurAkademían, 2011. Banking on Borealism: Eating, Smelling, and Performing the North Kristinn Schram ICEF & EDDA – Centre of Excellence (Iceland) Abstract – This article examines the exotic performances and representations of Icelanders and “the North” (or Borealism) in media and daily life, focusing on food traditions and their practice within intricate foreign–native power relations and transnational folkloric encounters. It suggests a theory for understanding the dynamics, agency, and ironies involved in images of “the North” and the performance of identity amongst “foreigners.” The study looks at Icelandic expatriates and draws examples from media, bankers’ marketing events during the peak of Icelandic business ventures, and the everyday practice of food culture. It explores the roles of identity and folk culture in transcultural performances. In approaching the questions of differentiation and the folklore of dislocation (i.e., among expatriates), the everyday practices of food traditions are studied as an arena of negotiation and performance of identity. Interlinking theory and ethnography, the article examines how expressive culture and performance may corrode the strategies of boundary making and marginalization reenforced by stereotypes and exoticized representations. Finally, this article looks at the concept of ironic, as opposed to “authentic,” identities. Keywords – Performance, representation, identity, oral narrative, food tradition, folklore, irony, cultural re-appropriation, image Introduction As I stood in the midst of the revelling Viking-helmeted bankers at the 2007 midwinter feast of Glitnir Bank in London, various perplexing thoughts ran through my mind: “Can one draw a line between marketing and tradition?” I thought as a waiter offered me hors d’oeuvres. Detecting a whiff of cured shark in the air, I was reminded of the words of an expatriate Icelander describing the relative abnormality of traditional food in Iceland: “And from an island like this,” she said, gesturing upwards as to the North on a wall map, “way out in the ocean where the natives eat shark and sheep heads.” “Can one base identity on irony?” I thought. Standing there, ICELAND AND IMAGES OF THE NORTH [ 306 ] perplexed as I often am during fieldwork, I began to comprehend how both identities and images were being performed ironically and in a transnational context. But who was performing to whom? And why? The material effects of globalization, tourism, and international capitalism on national and local culture are often all too evident. Conversely, the uses and practices of identity and images in creating such transnational processes are more ambiguous. Yet, as this article argues, tradition-based images and performances of identities are instrumental in establishing the everyday contexts necessary for their practice. Equally elusive, verbal and visual irony play a significant role in the differentiation of groups of people through tradition, performance, and folklore—often on a grand scale. Food traditions have long been a major component in this folklore of differentiation—defining and separating groups from one another. Presented here is a study on the narratives, food traditions, and ironic performances of identity that involve the interaction and merging of groups. Whether on the film and television screen, in the privacy of an expatriate’s home, or through organized marketing events—such as the Glitnir midwinter feast—these performances take place in the midst of cultural and socioeconomic developments such as the outstretching of Iceland’s financial sector abroad and the following economic crises. Such transnational developments can charge the liminal space of “foreignness” with various shifting dynamics. One of these dynamics involves images of an exotic North (in a word: Borealism) enveloping, among others, Icelanders and their practices abroad. While remaining relatively obscure to most of the world, Icelanders abroad have been met with a considerable media backdrop of their cultural and economic adventures and misadventures. These include a prolific contribution to film, art, and music but also coverage of aggressive Icelandic business ventures and the disastrous collapse of an overgrown Icelandic banking sector. Research among people in the midst of these processes, such as bankers (the “Viking raiders” or “Venture Vikings,” as they have become known), artists, and students abroad, offers insights into the experience and folklore involved in these developments and the images attached to them. Ironic performances of folk culture and seemingly archaic food traditions are an integral part of this. This article explores these...