Imagining Iceland

Narratives of nature and history in the North Atlantic

Dados Bibliográficos

ID8393483
AutoresKaren Oslund (Cornell University, autor correspondente)
Ano2002
Volume35
Fascículo3
Páginas313-334
Data de publicação2002-09-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe British Journal for the History of Science (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0007-0874 • E-ISSN: 1474-001X
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s000708740200465x
OpenAlexW2135088801
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas19

This article presents the case of remarkable transformation of the Icelandic landscape in 1783 and 1784 – when a series of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and natural disasters radically altered the country – as a way of elucidating how the cultural meaning of place and different versions of ‘nature’ develop. It explores some of the contested interpretations of Icelandic nature that followed this crisis, focusing on the narratives of British geologists, Danish officials and Icelandic nationalists. The different, although sometimes overlapping and complementary, meanings of Icelandic nature developed by these different groups show how science, art and politics are closely intertwined, and how artists’ interpretations and the activities of scientists can perform the same work on landscape, transforming it in different, yet functionally equivalent, ways

Archaeology · Art · Danish · Epistemology · Ethnology · Genealogy · Geography · Icelandic · Linguistics · Literature · Meaning (existential · Narrative · Natural (archaeology · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Volcano · Anthropology · Geology · History · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · Landscape and Cultural Studies · Migration, Aging, and Tourism Studies · Paleontology · Philosophy