Reading ScanGuilt in contemporary poetry: The relationship between whiteness, privilege and guilt in Kristian Lundberg’s Vi är de döda, nu snart and Julie Sten Knudsen Atlanterhavet vokser
Apr. 22, 2016
12:30PM
Raitt Hall 314
In Lundberg's and Sten-Knudsen’s works of poetry the relationship between the nation, privilege and guilt is set at the center stage. These works have in common that they narrate tales of lost dear ones, a refuge friend who commits suicide after being deported from Sweden or a non-white half-sister who emigrates to the U.S. to escape Danish racism. As a part of a larger group of ScanGuilt-poetry, these works invite questions on the relationship between the individual, the nation and the world. Who are allowed to belong in the privileged Scandinavian nations? How does a colonial past or a dehumanizing migration policy and discourse affect and frame our identity and our relationships? And what kind of feelings of guilt or responsibility is left for the white Scandinavian lyrical?
Kristina Iversen is visiting Fulbright Fellow in the Department of Scandinavian Studies during spring 2016.