White Guilt and Racial Imagery in Annette K. Olesen's Little Soldier

The article analyzes Annette K. Olesen’s Little Soldier (Lille Soldat, 2008), from the perspective of “white guilt” (or the “white man’s burden”) as it is thematized in the film. It furthermore critiques the film’s portrayal of the two female protagonists, Lotte and Lily, as racialized opposites. This is done from the perspective of postfeminism and critical race and whiteness studies. The readings include an evaluation of the film as a globalized, postfeminist version of Martin Scorcese’s Taxi Driver as well as an interpretation of the film as a national allegory. Overall, I argue that while the film contains many pertinent, well-chosen images and symbols of a destructive form of white guilt, it is ultimately based on two female figures whose opposite character traits come across as founded on, and thus also as perpetuating, stereotypical racial imagery

"Vi som er oppvokst i verdens rikeste, frieste land." Globale skyldfølelser i SKAM

The article investigates how SKAM negotiates between feelings of individual shame and a sense of global guilt. By analyzing the opening and closing sequences, as well as the Syrian refugee theme in the second season, I argue that the series operates with an understanding of love and solidarity in which one has to tend to the self before one can turn to others. In terms of politics, the series prioritizes identity politics, yet continually reminds the viewer of issues pertaining to geopolitics as well. It is especially through Noora and William that issues of ideal politics vs. realpolitik are treated. The couple, I maintain, may be understood from the perspective of a national allegory in which the woman embodies the nation’s spirit, while the man represents its institutionalization – as a nation state. The series’ goal is to create healthy individuals who may in turn fight for world justice

The Privileged Human: Global Inequity in Jørgen Leth and Lars von Trier's De fem benspænd ("The Five Obstructions")

The Scandinavian countries top international rankings measuring happiness, wealth, gender equality, class equality, social trust, and social mobility.1 The Nordic welfare model is based on core values of equal opportunity, social solidarity, and security for all. 2 After the Cold War, the Nordic welfare model appeared to many as the only viable alternative to free market capitalism; The Economist, for instance, published a leader in 2013 suggesting that the New Nordic Model is the Next Supermodel that others need to follow.3 The Scandinavians, then, seem to have succeeded in the proverbial pursuit of happiness that has been the goal of so many Western nations and their citizens. Yet, at the same time, globalization leads to an increasing awareness of those figuring on the bottom of the same rankings. Through media and immigration, the privileged Scandinavian is confronted with the suffering of others on a daily basis. These global Others suffer through poverty, war, trafficking, labor exploitation, etc. Witnessing this suffering and acknowledging the interconnectedness between one’s own privilege and the suffering of others – the child laborer sewing the shirts you buy cheaply, for instance – has brought about a social identity crisis pertaining to what Benedict Anderson calls “the goodness of nations”, especially in the Nordic nations.4 We find evidence of this crisis in narratives that raise ethical questions and aim at influencing the reader’s or viewer’s social conscience. In this article I posit the emergence of new, postnational, Scandinavian narratives of privilege and guilt. These are narratives that are marked by what I call ScanGuilt. They are narratives that explore the dark side of privilege and often work rhetorically and aesthetically by engaging and reevaluating cultural heritage – the Nordic classics – in an age of globalization. [...] Dette er et kapittel fra boken Perspectives on the Nordic, Lothe/Larsen (red.). © 2016 Novus forla

"Vi ler ikke av deg, vi ler med deg!" Racehumor og skam i norske flygtningefilm

The article analyzes Jan Vardøen’s House of Norway (2016) and Rune Denstad Langlo’s Welcome to Norway! (2016) as multicultural and multiracial film comedies that set out to ridicule and shame Norwegians at the height of the Syrian refugee crisis. My focus is on their portrayal of various forms of Norwegian racism. I start out by situating the films within a Norwegian social and political landscape. I then outline my theoretical and methodological point of departure (Bergson, Berlant and Ngai) and turn to relevant comedy subgenres. In my analysis of House of Norway, I discuss the shaming of Norwegians who, in their encounter with refugees, tend to be overly nationalistic, insisting on a Norwegian identity rooted in 19th-century national romanticism. In the case of Welcome to Norway!, the shameless Norwegian is simply cold and cynical. Ultimately, my point is that the films expose many relevant forms of Norwegian racism without being entirely racially innocent themselves. As comedies dealing with the topic of racism, they cannot be expected to be entirely innocent either, in part because laughter and shame are not just one thing, serving one function. Audiences may laugh for various reasons, feel shame for various reasons, and use that shame to strengthen a community – in ways that variously include and exclude the other. The comedies are nevertheless significant cultural objects, exposing Norwegian racisms as they come to the fore in the current encounter with refugees

"Noora som verdensredder og feminist i NRK-serien Skam"

Artikkelen handler primært om Skams sesong 2 med fokus på Noora. Først kontekstualiserer jeg seriens framstilling av skam og skyld for å vise hvordan «generasjon skam» tynges ikke bare av en senmoderne form for skam, men også av global skyld (et tema som slås an i tittelsekvensen og plukkes opp av Noora i sesong 2). Deretter viser jeg hvordan Noora og William kan tolkes innenfor en nasjonal-allegorisk optikk. Til slutt argumenterer jeg for seriens feminisme ved å vise hvordan paret avslutningsvis (i sesong 2) møtes i det Ibsen i Et dukkehjem (1879) kaller «det Vidunderlige», noe som må forstås i lys av en historisk utvikling av skambegrepet

Når skyldfølelser driver værket: Om (ikke) at føle sig kaldet i Kirsten Hammanns En dråbe i havet

Tilgjengeliggjort med tillatelse fra Novus Forlag

Gebrokken: Refugees, Trauma, and Poetry in Aasne Linnestå’s Morsmål (2012)

Elisabeth Oxfeldt, Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies, University of Oslo “Gebrokken”: Refugees, Trauma, and Poetry in Aasne Linnestå’s Morsmål (2012) This article offers an analysis of Aasne Linnestå’s long poem Morsmål (Mother Tongue) published in 2012. It is a postfeminist poem about an encounter between a Norwegian woman and a refugee woman arriving from outside Europe. Linnestå’s poetic method in capturing this encounter, I argue, can be understood at the intersection of three verbal strategies: that of trauma, that of postmonolingualism, and that of an écriture féminine, all of which entail a kind of broken language and narrative. A central term in Morsmål is precisely the Norwegian word “gebrokken”, from the German “gebrochen”, meaning broken, and used to describe verbal expressions marked by incorrect grammar and accented speech, especially language as it is spoken by people who have a different mother tongue. In order to further explore this interest in non-fluent linguistic expressions, I draw on E. Ann Kaplan’s theory on how trauma can be represented, on Yasemin Yildiz’ discussion of a postmonolingual paradigm, and above all on Julia Kristeva’s understanding of a poetic, rhythmic language linked to bodily experience