Literature and the Construction of Scandinavian Peoples in Relation to Scandinavianism

Literature was essential to the spread of pan-national ideas – in Scandinavia as well as in pan-national movements elsewhere in Europe. Contrary to some pan-national movements that represented a stage following nation-state nationalism, Scandinavianism was promoted as an alternative scale of national identity. In fact, since all Scandinavian nationalist movements at the beginning of the nineteenth century acknowledged Old Norse literature as a source of a national identity and as a common “national” heritage, the Scandinavian peoples were construed in a tense and shifting relation to pan-national ideas to begin with. This chapter identifies three different relations to a Scandinavian cultural community in constructing nationally defined peoples: explicit, dismissed or unacknowledged. The examples are drawn from mid-nineteenth-century literature by the Finnish J.L. Runeberg, the Danish Mathilde Fibiger, the Norwegians Camilla Collett, Henrik Wergeland and J.S. Welhaven, and the Swedes Fredrika Bremer and C.J.L. Almqvist. Three themes are focused: women's emancipation, the re-use of Old Norse myth and poverty as a national characteristic.publishedVersio

Mapping bilateral information interests using the activity of Wikipedia editors

We live in a global village where electronic communication has eliminated the geographical barriers of information exchange. The road is now open to worldwide convergence of information interests, shared values, and understanding. Nevertheless, interests still vary between countries around the world. This raises important questions about what today's world map of in- formation interests actually looks like and what factors cause the barriers of information exchange between countries. To quantitatively construct a world map of information interests, we devise a scalable statistical model that identifies countries with similar information interests and measures the countries' bilateral similarities. From the similarities we connect countries in a global network and find that countries can be mapped into 18 clusters with similar information interests. Through regression we find that language and religion best explain the strength of the bilateral ties and formation of clusters. Our findings provide a quantitative basis for further studies to better understand the complex interplay between shared interests and conflict on a global scale. The methodology can also be extended to track changes over time and capture important trends in global information exchange.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures in Palgrave Communications 1 (2015

Minne, Glömska och lokalitet i det nya Sydafrika

Anna Bohlin: Memory, Forgetting and the Production of Locality in the New South Africa This article explores remembering and forgetting as a social and cultural process by focussing on the memory of forced removals, carried out during apartheid, in Kalk Bay, a small fishing town in Cape Town, South Africa. Among those who live in the town today, the memory of these removals has largely disappeared. The article argues that the “forgetting” of these events is related to the construction of Kalk Bay as a particular kind of locality, shaped by the fishing tradition, which is characterized by a certain form of tolerance and multiculturalism, as well as by the absence of apartheid. This image of Kalk Bay, along with its denial that forced removals took place, has allowed for a shifting set of responses to contemporary issues in the new democratic South Africa. Meanwhile, those who were forced to leave the town, and who have resettled in townships in the outskirt of Cape Town, construe a memory of Kalk Bay which serves as a critique of their current area of living. In both places the memory of Kalk Bay and its history are thus represented in social portraits that emphasize certain aspects while downplaying or omitting others. The article argues that such social portraits are created and maintained as part of a larger project of locality production.

Nationalistic secretions: body fluids in Wergeland and Almqvist

I denna artikel studeras kroppsvätskornas funktion i Henrik Wergelands Skabelsen, Mennesket og Messias (1830) i jämförelse med C.J.L. Almqvists Murnis (1819). Undersökningen motiveras av ett mer övergripande spörsmål om hur landskapet blir heligt i 1800-talets litteratur. Från det sena 1700-talets hänförelse av det sublima i naturen – överväldigande och okontrollerbar – förskjuts naturupplevelsen till kärleken till nationella landskap – ett nationellt territorium att vörda, värna och kontrollera. Jag argumenterar för att Wergeland förlitar sig på rinnande materialitet för att gestalta förbindelsen mellan himmel och jord, medan kroppsutsöndringar i Almqvist verk istället fungerar som tecken på sammansmältning mellan ändlighet och oändlighet. Såväl Wergelands kosmogoni som Almqvists sagor är inskrivna i nationalistiska projekt och synliggör två sätt på vilka nationellt territorium blir heligt såsom kropp genom inkarnation som tankefigur.publishedVersio

Inledning: Nation som kvalitet

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Camilla Collett – den felande länken i svensk litteraturhistoria

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Fattigdom som svensk estetik – från Almqvist till Ikea

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<i>Lawsonia intracellularis</i> associated equine proliferative enteropathy in Danish weanling foals

Abstract Background Lawsonia intracellularis, an obligate intracellular bacterium, causes equine proliferative enteropathy, mainly in horses around weaning. This disease is rarely reported in the Scandinavian countries. Results Five cases of equine proliferative enteropathy were diagnosed between 2008–2016 at the University of Copenhagen Large Animal Teaching Hospital. Cases were Danish Warmbloods and a Friesian horse, aged 6–7 months, presenting with typical clinical signs of lethargy, poor body condition, pyrexia and diarrhea. Clinical pathology was consistent with previous reports of severe hypoalbuminemia and leukocytosis. Diagnosis was confirmed by fecal polymerase chain reaction, serum immunomonolayer peroxidase assay and/or immunofluorescence and fluorescence in situ hybridization performed on formalin-fixed ileum samples. Concurrent intestinal parasitism was present in all five cases. Treatment consisted of antimicrobial therapy, anti-inflammatories, intravenous crystalloids and plasma. Three foals were euthanised due to deterioration and poor response to treatment, one with complications of septic arthritis and Strongylus vulgaris associated intestinal infarct. The other two foals survived and were reported by the owners to be healthy on long-term follow-up. Conclusions Equine proliferative enteropathy is a disease to consider in young horses presenting with diarrhea and hypoproteinemia in Denmark

Evaluation of the foal survival score in a Danish-Swedish population of neonatal foals upon hospital admission

Abstract Background It is highly desirable to assess the probability of survival in sick neonatal foals upon admission. The foal survival score (FSS) is a published scoring system used to estimate the probability of survival in hospitalized neonatal foals <4 days old. Hypothesis/Objectives To evaluate the ability of the FSS to predict survival in older foals from a geographically different area compared to the original study. Animals Five‐hundred ninety hospitalized neonatal foals ≤14 days of age. Methods Retrospective Danish‐Swedish multicenter study that included details of signalment, history, clinical examination, laboratory results, necropsy findings, and outcome. Scores and score variables were compared between survivors and nonsurvivors using logistic regression. The optimal cutoff and its test parameters were calculated using a receiver operator characteristic curve. Results Prematurity, cold extremities, ≥2 infectious or inflammatory sites, blood glucose concentration, and total white blood cell counts were significantly associated with nonsurvival (P ≤ .02). The optimal cutoff to predict survival was ≥6, resulting in sensitivity 78%, specificity 58%, 92% positive predictive value, and 31% negative predictive value. The test performed equally well in foals <4 days old compared to those 4‐14 days old. Conclusions and Clinical Importance Using the suggested optimal cutoff of ≥6, the FSS performed moderately well and may aid in early determination of prognosis for survival. However, the FSS did perform differently in another population and therefore should be assessed under local conditions so that its diagnostic potential is not overestimated