Dr. Silje Solheim Karlsen: “With and Without Borders: Contemporary Fiction from Sápmi”

Co-sponsored by the Center for European Studies and The Department of German, Nordic, and Slavic +.

Abstract: Sápmi crosses four national borders, encompasses several Sámi languages, four national languages, and minority languages such as Kven and Meänkieli. Although the national borders are relatively modern, the cultures, kinships, the Sámi verdde tradition, and the stories arose in the originally borderless landscape. After many years of state assimilation policies, colonization, and poor conditions for language and culture, we have in recent years seen a resurgence in literature based in Sápmi and Nordkalotten. The contemporary Sámi and Kven literature encompasses everything from historical novels, fantasy/mythology, poetry, children’s and young adult literature, and political/activist literature. Common features in all this literature can be said to include the past through thematization of history and mythology, while also focusing on the present and the future with challenges such as marginalization, language loss, and the right to land and water. The literature thus promotes a sense of belonging and identity, decolonization and revitalization. In the northernmost part of Norwegian Sápmi, in Finnmark and Northern Troms, we have a concept known as the “meeting of three tribes” (Norwegian: tre stammers møte) as large parts of the region are characterized by Sámi, Kven, and Norwegian culture and tradition. In this lecture, I will discuss a selection of contemporary literature from Sápmi where diversity an culture encounters are central, and where the literature can be seen as decolonial discourses that affirm Sámi – and Kven – tradition, culture, and presence.

Silje Solheim Karlsen is Professor of Nordic Literature, Department of Teacher Education and Pedagogy (ILP), UiT – The Arctic University of Norway, campus Alta and Adjunct Professor of Nordic literature, Department of Sámi Teacher Education, Sámi University of Applied Sciences. She received her PhD in Nordic literature at the UiT in 2012 with the thesis Triumf, lojalitet, avstand: Fridtjof Nansens Fram-ekspedisjon (1893-1896) – og bøker i dens kjølvann. Her research interests are Sámi literature, Arctic multicultural literature, poetry and literary didactics and her recent publications are about Sámi topics in school and education, yoik as motif in Sámi poetry and contemporary Sámi and Kven literature.