Transnational and Counter-Memorial Practices: Antisemitism, Nationalism, and the Second World War in Sjón's Works
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In several of Sjón’s works, there is a preoccupation with the Second World War, especially the issues and ideologies at stake in the run-up to the conflict and in its aftermath. This is evident, for instance, in his trilogy CoDex 1962 and in his most recent novel Korngult hár, grá augu (Red Milk). The issues addressed in these texts are, for instance, the fate of the Jewish immigrant in Iceland, and the peculiar circumstances of the rise of neo-Nazism in post-war Iceland. The memory of the war in Iceland is in many ways at odds with the narratives established elsewhere in Europe. The particular circumstances of the country—occupied by allied forces from 1940 onwards, with its concomitant incursion of modernity, urbanisation, and creation of wealth in what had historically been a very poor country—have greatly influenced how the war is memorialised, or more to the point rather, not memorialised in Iceland. This chapter looks at how Sjón’s novels engage with the ruling national narrative and go against that memory by telling an alternative history of the war, focussing on transnational and marginalised histories and cultures that historically have been ignored in Icelandic cultural memory.
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9781003442271
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Link to book (paywalled), Transnational and Counter-Memorial Practices: Antisemitism, Nationalism, and the Second World War in Sjón's Works
Bibliographic Information
Transnational and Counter-Memorial Practices: Antisemitism, Nationalism, and the Second World War in Sjón's Works. . 2024: https://archive.jpr.org.uk/object-4278
