Exceptions and Entanglements: Commemorations of Scandinavian Colonialism

by Lill-Ann Körber, University of Oslo

Abstract

Until recently, historical narratives of Scandinavian involvement in colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade have been guided by a perception of Scandinavian Exceptionalism. These narratives attest to the Scandinavian countries benevolent, or more humane, forms of colonialism, marginality, or mere complicity; claims that recent scholarship has sought to scrutinize, disprove, and compare with other national assertions of singularity. In my lecture I will try to identify and discuss local specificities and inner-Scandinavian frictions, and to integrate the Scandinavian examples into larger patterns of European expansion and postcolonial relations. The attempt will be made to replace the national or bilateral frameworks within which colonial history often has been represented with a focus on entanglements, contestedness, and transnational collaboration. Presented case studies will include the former Swedish colony St. Barthélemy, the conflicted terrain of the shared Danish-Norwegian colonial history, and the 2017 centennial commemoration of the transfer of the former Danish West Indies to the United States.

Lill-Ann Körber, University of Oslo

Lill-Ann Körber is a post-doctoral fellow in Nordic literature at the University of Oslo, in the research project ”Scandinavian Narratives of Guilt and Privilege in an Age of Globalization”. She is M.A. and Dr. Phil. in Scandinavian Studies from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. She was an Assistant Professor at Nordeuropa-Institut in Berlin (2008-15) and Associate Professor II in Nordic literature at the University of Bergen (2015-17). Her recent work focuses on the legacy and remembrance of Scandinavian colonial history, in particular the transatlantic slave trade. Central publications include ”Badende Männer. Der nackte männliche Körper in der skandinavischen Malerei und Fotografie am Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts” (2013), ”The Postcolonial North Atlantic: Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands” (co-edited with Ebbe Volquardsen, 2014) and ”Arctic Environmental Modernities: From the Age of Polar Exploration to the Era of the Anthropocene” (co-edited with Scott MacKenzie and Anna Westerståhl Stenport, 2017).