Images of the North, Sublime Nature, and a Pioneering Icelandic Nation

Lerner, Marion (2011). « Images of the North, Sublime Nature, and a Pioneering Icelandic Nation », dans Iceland and Images of the North, sous la dir. de Isleifsson, Sumarlidi R. et Chartier, Daniel. Québec, Presses de l'Université du Québec, coll. «Droit au pôle », pp. 229-253.

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Résumé

This article sheds light on the issue of national identity as related to the Tourist Association of Iceland, which was founded near the end of the 1920s. Written Association sources illustrate how the leading participants interpreted their work ideologically, with nationalistic connotations. Not only did they see themselves as heirs of Iceland’s celebrated first settler, Ingólfur Arnarson, but they applied this picture of themselves to the nation as a whole. While engaged in opening up the country—in particular its uninhabited highlands—and in building up a modern travel infrastructure, they interpreted these undertakings as parallel to Iceland’s initial settlement. They therefore viewed themselves as pioneers who had taken on the mission of pacifying the still frightening Icelandic environment and providing access to its resources. In this way, they would not merely contribute to modernizing their country, but also to cultivating a positive national self-image. This self-image was based to a large degree on self-assertion over nature, as well as on portraying the nation as the most northerly preserver of culture within European civilization. Curiously, this meant assigning attributes to Iceland’s own interior that depicted it as a “Far North,” a North that ought to be challenged and wherever possible conquered.

Type:	Chapitre de livre
Mots-clés ou Sujets:	Images of the North, Sublime, Nature, Iceland, Nationalism, Imaginaire du Nord, Islande, Nationalisme, Identity, Identité, Tourisme, Tourism, Tourist Association of Iceland, Travel, Voyage, Nordicité culturelle, Cultural Nordicity
Unité d'appartenance:	Faculté des arts > Laboratoire international de recherche sur l'imaginaire du Nord, de l'hiver et de l'Arctique
Déposé par:	Daniel Chartier
Date de dépôt:	29 sept. 2017 07:14
Dernière modification:	29 sept. 2017 07:14
Adresse URL :	http://archipel.uqam.ca/id/eprint/10439

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