Iceland and Images of the North

Between Nostalgia and Modernity: Competing Discourses in Travel Writing about the Nordic North

Heidi Hansson, “Between Nostalgia and Modernity: Competing Discourses in Travel Writing about the Nordic 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. Between Nostalgia and Modernity: Competing Discourses in Travel Writing about the Nordic North Heidi Hansson Umeå University (Sweden) Abstract – In travel narratives by 19th-century visitors, the Nordic North generally emerges as pre-modern and uncivilized. Yet the most widespread view of the Nordic countries today is that they are socially progressive, liberal, and politically advanced. The connection between present-day socio-political discourses and cultural discourses of the past thus seems to be very weak or even absent. When a micro-perspective is applied, however, it becomes clear that the idea of a northern modernity has a long history. Current interpretations of the region as a site of progress do not break with previous depictions but constitute the continuation of a counter-discourse that was always present. Nineteenth-century works frequently contain both images of fairy-tale forests and descriptions of modern cities, and sometimes manage to combine the idea of the demanding, masculine-coded North with a view that foregrounds women’s emancipation and opportunities in society. To function as an alternative and an inspiration, however, the region needs to be modern in a different way than London or Paris. It could be said that the modernity the Nordic North was made to represent in the second half of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century built on the same features that led to nostalgic interpretations of the region. Keywords – Nostalgia, modernity, gender equality, religious revival, 19th-century travel writing Introduction In 19th-century Anglophone travel writing, presentations of the Nordic North generally emphasize either the region’s geographical distance from the European centres or its lingering connection to the past. A classic image is the picture of a Norwegian forest in Thomas Forester’s Norway in 1848 and 1849.1 In line with Romantic ideals, the 1 Forester 1850: facing 366. ICELAND AND IMAGES OF THE NORTH [ 256 ] picture shows a man dwarfed by grandiose nature and suggests an understanding of the North as a space that inspires awe and moves people closer to themselves and to God. The insignificance of the man in relation to the high mountains and trees surrounding him invokes the sublime, and the sense of remoteness in the scene suggests the exploration paradigm, where the North is perceived as a blank space, open for inscription. The absence of technological equipment implies a nostalgic pattern that places the region in a rural past that may be figured as Arcadian or uncivilized, depending on the describer’s point of view. The idea that the Nordic North is nature, not culture, persists in promotional material to the present day and the pictures in 21st-century tourist brochures frequently follow patterns similar to Forester’s illustration (see for example Guðrún Þóra Gunnarsdóttir in this volume). Yet the most widespread view of the Nordic countries from the mid-20th century onwards is that they are socially progressive, liberal, and politically advanced. Instead of representing the past, the area is frequently regarded as pointing towards an enlightened future, not least where gender politics is concerned. Figure 1. Spectacular pictures of sublime nature are common in 19th-century travel writing about the Nordic North (Forester 1850: facing 366). BETWEEN NOSTALGIA AND MODERNITY [ 257 ] In recent years, there has been a great deal of interest in the interplay between resilience and adaptation when it comes to regional development, particularly in the social sciences where the focus has been on community development, economic change, and sustainability. The issue raises slightly different questions from a humanities’ point of view, since in culture, old models are surprisingly vital, not least because canonized and popular texts and pictures continue to be circulated. Because of their continued presence, historical cultural paradigms influence present-day understandings, as the photos of deep Northern forests and magical waterfalls in the tourist brochures illustrate. In comparison, the connection between the socio-political discourses of the present and the cultural discourses of the past seems to be very weak or even completely absent. Given the resilience of the older models, the question is whether current interpretations of the...