Publications

This article uses historical travel writing by Anglo-European Women to investigate the construction of gendered geographies in the Far North. Applying an interdisciplinary approach that combines history, literary analysis and gender studies, the paper examines the gendered aspects of travel, and the intersectionality of gender, class and race. Using examples from two published travel accounts and personal archives, the paper will demonstrate the historical processes of gender differences and representations, as well as capture the intersectionality of literature and the construction of place in real, imaginary and symbolic terms.

This week’s blog comes from Silke Reeploeg, a lecturer with the University of the Highlands and Islands based in the Shetland Islands. She has taught history and literature on a s200_silke.reeploegvariety of programmes including Orkney and Shetland Studies, Island Studies and Highlands and Islands Culture, and has recently completed a PhD thesis on the historical and cultural links between Scotland and Norway in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

This book chapter investigates transnational cultural encounters that cross the established research areas of Northern European, Nordic, and Scandinavian Studies. Using approaches from Scandinavian research on coastal communities and cultural spaces, the article examines cultural transfer between Norway and Scotland through trade and exchange during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The interdisciplinary and transnational approach adopted throughout the paper suggests new perspectives in researching coastal communities in Britain, as part of a wider understanding of cultural encounters between the communities of the North.

Cet article porte sur le rôle du bateau en tant que médiateur des cultures tangible et intangible dans la région de l’Atlantique nord, en comparant la représentation des bateaux et les collections maritimes conservées dans les musées dédiés aux folklores écossais et norvégien. Il explore les similarités et les différences des définitions de la côte comme « lieu maritime » par le biais d’objets, et s’intéresse plus particulièrement aux récits et aux aspects d’une mémoire commune influençant la formation de traditions culturelles régionales et nationales. En liant la théorie du transfert culturel aux études sur la culture matérielle, et à l’aide de l’approche microhistorique de l’Alltagsgeschichte, nous comparerons la façon dont les habitants des Shetland et les Norvégiens occidentaux ont participé à la construction et à leur identification à la culture côtière [kystkultur] par l’entremise d’objets maritimes et narratifs.