Nordic War Stories : : World War II as History, Fiction, Media, and Memory / ed. by Marianne Stecher-Hansen.

• MitwirkendeR: Aunesluoma, Juhana,; Doxtater, Amanda,; Gilmour, John,; Hamm, Christine,; Hedling, Erik,; Hálfdanarson, Guðmundur,; Iversen, Gunnar,; Kristiansen, Tom,; Krogh Nielsen, Jan,; Krouk, Dean,; Lene Bak, Sofie,; Mussari, Mark,; Neijmann, Daisy,; Pajunen, Julia,; Roos, Liina-Ly,; Stecher-Hansen, Marianne,; Sundholm, John,; Valsson, Pétur,
• HerausgeberIn: Stecher-Hansen, Marianne,
• Place / Publishing House: New York ;, Oxford : Berghahn Books, [2021]; 2021
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Series: Worlds of Memory ; 7
• Physical Description: 1 Online-Resource

Situated on Europe's northern periphery, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden found themselves caught between warring powers during World War II. Ultimately, these nations survived the conflict as sovereign states whose wartime experiences have profoundly shaped their historiography, literature, cinema and memory cultures. Nordic War Stories explores the commonalities and divergences among the five Nordic countries, examining national historiographies alongside representations of the war years in canonical literary works, travel writing, and film media. Together, they comprise a valuable companion that challenges the myth of Scandinavian homogeneity while demonstrating the powerful influence that the war continues to exert on national identities.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Part I. War Historiography -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. Finland in World War II: Tragedy, Survival, and Good Wars -- Chapter 2. Danish Historical Narratives of the Occupation: The Promises and Lies of the 9th of April -- Chapter 3. The Norwegian War Experience: Occupied and Allied -- Chapter 4. The Icelandic National Narrative and World War II: "Freedom and Culture" -- Chapter 5. Sweden's Ambiguous War: Contradiction and Controversy -- Part II. War Literature: Archive -- Introduction -- Chapter 6. Karin Boye as Ambivalent Spectator of Fascism -- Chapter 7. Isak Dinesen in Hitler's Berlin: Neutrality's Cloak in "Letters from a Land at War" -- Chapter 8. Sigrid Undset's Problematic Propaganda: The Call for Democracy in Return to the Future -- Part III. War Literature: Canon -- Introduction -- Chapter 9. Hans Christian Branner: Angst and the Existential Crisis of War in Denmark -- Chapter 10. Crises of Memory in Norway's Occupation Novel: Sigurd Hoel's Meeting at the Milestone -- Chapter 11. The Battle over Finnish Cultural Memory of War: Väinö Linna's Th e Unknown Soldier -- Chapter 12. Investigating Sweden's Postwar Neutrality: Ethics in Per Olov Enquist's Th e Legionnaires -- Chapter 13. The Allied Occupation of Iceland: Indriði G. Þorsteinsson's North of War -- Part IV. War Cinema: Remembering and Forgetting -- Introduction -- Chapter 14. Somewhere in Sweden: Quality Fiction and Popularized History in the World War II Television Series -- Erik Hedling Chapter 15. Icelandic Cinema and the American Military Presence: Th e Girl Gogo, Atomic Station, and Devil's Island -- Chapter 16. War Memory, Compassion, and the Finnish Child: Klaus Härö's Mother of Mine -- Chapter 17. The War Film as Cultural Memory in Denmark: April 9th and Land of Mine -- Chapter 18. Acts of Remembering: Audiovisual Memory and the New Norwegian Occupation Drama -- Chapter 19. Finland Returning to War on Screen: Th e Unknown Soldier of 2017 -- Epilogue -- Index