Reading the Nordic Seas: Oceanic Literacy in a Wetter World

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Karl Emil Rosenbæk Reetz

Titel

Postdoctoral Fellow

Institution

University of Oslo

Beløb

DKK 2,773,528

År

2025

Bevillingstype

Internationalisation Fellowships

Hvad?

Retriving lost knowledges of oceanic interrelations is of crucial importance for initiating more amenable existences in the future. The project 'Reading the Nordic Seas' therefore asks two interconnected questions: How does Nordic ocean fiction describe human-sea relationships? And how can this cultural archive of ‘blue encounters’ inform the current ecological emergency of a wetter world?

Hvorfor?

The project adresses the issue of sea level rise. Being coastal nations, Denmark and Norway has a long tradition of human-sea relationships. Modern Industrialisation, however, pushed the knowledge of respecting the sea in background. The rising seas demand that we, again, develop a nuanced oceanic literacy beyond extraction and mastery and towards co-habitation.

Hvordan?

The project analyses a range of Danish and Norwegian sea fictions spanning the industrial period of the last 200 years. There exists a rich, yet underexplored archive of literary texts that portray a vast range of oceanic knowledges. These can, the project hypothesises, inspire more life-friendly, adaptive, and culturally resonant responses to the watery challenges of the current epoch.

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