Imagining Iceland

Narratives of nature and history in the North Atlantic

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8393483
AutoresKaren Oslund (Cornell University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2002
Volumen35
Número3
Páginas313-334
Fecha de publicación2002-09-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe British Journal for the History of Science (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0007-0874 • E-ISSN: 1474-001X
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s000708740200465x
OpenAlexW2135088801
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas19

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