West Indian women in Danish popular fiction

Bibliographic Data

ID12915722
AuthorsUrsula Lindqvist (Gustavus Adolphus College, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume7
Issue1
Pages52-69
Publication date2013-12-07
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrican and Black Diaspora An International Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1752-8631 • E-ISSN: 1752-864X
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17528631.2013.858919
OpenAlexW1983698514
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited17

This paper examines nationalist nostalgia for Denmark's colonial period in the Caribbean through the lens of popular women's fiction. Empirical accounts of this period written by Danish historians have, to a limited extent, undergone such contrapuntal examinations. But these accounts assume so little discursive space in Danish history books that it seems unlikely that they are Danes' primary source of knowledge about the Danish West Indies (1672–1917). More compelling sources are the popular culture narratives that have circulated since Denmark's thwarted attempt to sell the islands to the USA in 1902. Because popular women's fiction tends to depict women's subjective experience rather than posit an empirical reality, its role in reproducing knowledge about Denmark's colonial history, and in constructing its national identity, has never been examined. Such a reading reveals Denmark's continuing struggle with symbolic miscegenation nearly a century after she was forced to give up her Caribbean colonies

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Colonialism · Danish · Ethnology · Identity (music · Literature · Narrative · Nationalism · Period (music · Political science · Politics · Popular culture · Reading (process · Sociology · West indies · Anthropology · Caribbean history, culture, and politics · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Gender Studies · History · Law · Philippine History and Culture

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