Shades of otherness

Representations of Africa in 19th-century Iceland

Datos Bibliográficos

ID19002095
AutoresKristín Loftsdóttir (0000-0003-3491-724X, University of Iceland, autor de correspondencia)
Año2008
Volumen16
Número2
Páginas172-186
Fecha de publicación2008-07-25
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSocial Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0964-0282 • E-ISSN: 1469-8676
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1469-8676.2008.00030.x
OpenAlexW1949360781
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas22
Referencias citadas21

Scholars have emphasised the importance of Africa as a counter-identification in shaping European identity, and stressed the multiplicity of categories of ‘us’ and ‘other’. My discussion focuses on images of Africa in Iceland during the 19th century, when Iceland was seeking independence from Denmark. I suggest that by repeating cliches of European representations of Africa, Icelanders situated themselves within the space civilisation, culture and progress in contrast with earlier representations of Icelanders as lazy, childlike and ignorant. The paper shows shifting categorisations of ‘us’ while also emphasising the changes that followed growing nationalism and racialisation of diversity in the 19th century

Aesthetics · Art · Ethnology · Geography · Late 19th century · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · European Socioeconomic and Political Studies · History · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs