Scandinavian Post-1989 Narratives of Guilt and Privilege: Men at War, Global Women and Sacrificed Children

Scandinavian Post-1989 Narratives of Guilt and Privilege: Men at War, Global Women, and Sacrificed Children (SCANGUILT) Europe is confronted with a series of social, cultural, and economic challenges pertaining to globalization. For Scandinavians in particular, a post-1989 world order has brought about enduring social identity crises, based on feelings of guilt and privilege vis-à-vis the rest of Europe and the world. We find evidence of these crises in narratives that carry a strong ethical dimension and aim at influencing the reader's or audience member's social conscience. The overall thesis of the project has been that the analysis of these narratives would show how Scandinavians negotiate their sense of identity, peace, and privilege in a new way in postnational narratives of guilt. Thus, SCANGUILT heightens awareness of complex social issues by analyzing them in light of the cultural narratives produced to reflect upon, and affect, these issues. The project has been interdisciplinary, combining film, media, literature, sociology, education, art, and gender studies. The research group has consisted of the PI (Principal Investigator, Oxfeldt), 2 Ph.D. students who finished their dissertations in 2018, a postdoc, and an international advisory board. The international scholars contributed to a themed issue of Scandinavian Studies entitled: "The Happiest People on Earth? Scandinavian Narratives of Guilt and Discontent" (vol. 89, 2017). A similar SCANGUILT project received support from the Faculty of Humanities (UiO) and resulted in two more Ph.D. dissertations as well as two themed volumes of scientific journals. Together the projects have furthermore produced 20 articles in academic journals, 18 chapters in cross-disciplinary anthologies and themed journal issues, as well as 56 conference papers. For general audiences the project has fostered 18 articles and 27 media appearances (from Scandinavian tv and radio interviews to articles in mainly Nordic journals and newspapers, but also in international journals, such as Wired UK). Overall, the project has gained high impact within the fields of literature and the adjacent fields of education, film, social, and gender studies through its original theme-oriented approach to understanding the dialectics between fiction, on the one hand, and a geopolitical social reality on the other. It has a led to new research projects, developed by the research group "Nordic Literary Studies in Flux" and in cooperation with international postdocs, as well as in cooperation with scholars (PIs) from the Faculties of Theology, Sociology, and the Humanities receiving funding from UiO: Nordic at UiO.

Akademia: Publisert to doktoravhandlinger, et temanummer av Scandinavian Studies, og en monografi (forventet 2020). Et tilsvarende prosjekt støttet av HF på UiO har resultert i enda to doktoravhandlinger, to temanummer av vitenskapelige tidsskrifter og to antologier. I tillegg: 20 artikler i vitenskapelige tidsskrifter, 18 bidrag til tverrfaglige antologier og temanummer samt 56 konferanseinnlegg. På internasjonale konferanser har vi skapt tverrfaglig forskning via workshops og streams. Bidratt med SCANGUILT-forskning i andres prosjekter og videreutviklet forskningsplaner mhp. fremtidige prosjekter. Holdt gjesteforelesninger og keynotes i utland og mottatt søknader om postdoc-opphold. Allmenn formidling: Produsert 18 populærvitenskapelige framstillinger og oppnådd 27 mediebidrag. Holdt foredrag i klubber og foreninger. Utdanning: Henvendt oss til lærere, lektorer og lektorstudenter via publikasjoner med fagdidaktisk innhold, foredrag for lektorer samt forskningsbasert undervisning.

Europe is confronted with a series of social, cultural and economic challenges pertaining to globalization. For Scandinavians in particular, a post-1989 world order has brought about enduring social identity crises, based on feelings of guilt and privileg e vis-a-vis the rest of Europe and the world. This project heightens awareness of complex social issues by analyzing them in light of the fictional narratives produced to reflect upon, and affect, these issues. The project is interdisciplinary and combine s film, literature, sociology, education and gender studies. The approach is unconventional as the project bridges a gap between the disciplines by centering on three key motifs: Men at war, global women and sacrificed children. From a social and politica l point of view, these motifs are interrelated as they pertain to drastic historical changes in foreign defense policy, domestic demographics and cosmopolitan empahty. From a literary point of view, they carry a significant, gendered allegorical potential , illustrating how Scandinavian welfare is intertwined with human injustice experienced in other parts of Europe and the world. The overall thesis is that the analysis of these motifs will show how Scandinavians negotiate their sense of identity, peace an d privilege in a new way in postnational narratives of guilt. The project seeks to gain high impact within the fields of literature and the adjacent fields of education, film, social, and gender studies through an original theme-oriented approach to under standing the dialectics between fiction, on the one hand, and a geopolitical social reality on the other. As our focus is on this dialectic in a specific Scandinavian post-1989 welfare-state context, our ambition is that our results enter into dialogue wi th and carry forward a broader, international field of literary and cultural studies. We also seek to contribute to a renewal of the field of Scandinavian literature and literary studies in general.