Iceland and Images of the North, edited by Sumarliði R. Ísleifsson with the collaboration of Daniel Chartier.
Presses de l´Université du Québec and The Reykjavík Academy 2011, 612 pages.
With a radically changing world, cultural identity and national images have emerged as one of the most challenging issues in the social and cultural sciences. These changes provide an occasion for a thorough re-examination of cultural, historical, political, and economic aspects of society. The 21 articles in this book allow readers to seize the variety and complexity of the issues related to national images of Iceland.
The book is the product of the The INOR (Iceland and Images of the North) group, an interdisciplinary group of Icelandic and non-Icelandic scholars, whose recent research on contemporary and historical images of Iceland and the North, sought to analyze the forms these images assume, as well as their function and dynamics. The research project was lead by Sumarliði R. Ísleifsson of the Reykjavík Academy, Iceland, where most of the participants were based, and Daniel Chartier of the International Laboratory for the Comparative Multidisciplinary Study of Representations of the North, based at the Université du Québec à Montréal.
Other members of the group with articles in the book are: Clarence Glad, Reykjavík Academy; Júlíana Gottskálksdóttir, Einar Jónsson Museum, Reykjavík; Guðrún Þóra Gunnarsdóttir, Hólar University College, Iceland; Gylfi Gunnlaugsson, Reykjavík Academy; Heidi Hansson, Umeå University, Sweden; Edward H. Huijbens, University of Akureyri, Iceland; Sverrir Jakobsson, University of Iceland; Heiða Jóhannsdóttir, University College London; Katla Kjartansdóttir, Icelandic Centre of Ethnology and Folklore, Hólmavík, Iceland; Marion Lerner, University of Iceland; Kristín Loftsdóttir, University of Iceland; Daisy Neijmann, University College London; Karen Oslund, Towson University, Maryland, USA; Hildigunnur Ólafsdóttir, Reykjavík Academy; Hallfríður Þórarinsdóttir, Reykjavík Academy; Þorgerður H. Þorvaldsdóttir, Reykjavík Academy; Kristinn Schram, Icelandic Centre for Ethnology and Folklore, Hólmavík, Iceland; Ólöf Gerður Sigfúsdóttir, Iceland Academy of the Arts; and Julia Zernach, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt, Germany.