EUR  â¬136.80EUR  â¬114.00 excl. VAT
Spectral Memories of Post-crash Iceland
Memory, Identity and the Haunted Imagination in Contemporary Literature and Art
Series: - Mobilizing Memories, Volume: 3
Author:
How does the spectre appear in Icelandic literature and visual art created in the aftermath of the economic crash in Iceland in 2008? Why does it emerge at that specific point in time and what can it tell us about repressed collective memories in Iceland? The book explores how the crash becomes an implicit background setting in novels that address the silences and gaps of the family archive, and how crime fiction employs generic features of horror to explicitly tackle the ghosts residing in the lost homes of the financial crash. Spectral space is an apparent theme of cultural memories produced in times of crisis, and the book explores how this is made apparent in visual art of the period.
Vera Knútsdóttir holds a PhD In Comparative Literature from the University of Iceland, MA in Literary Studies from the University of Amsterdam, and BA in Comparative Literature and French from the University of Iceland. She is currently a book editor at Forlagið publishing in ReykjavÃk and an independent researcher. Spectral Memories of Post-Crash Iceland is her latest publication.
Preface
List of Figures
Introduction
â1 Spectral Memory: What and Why?
â2 What is Cultural Memory?
â3 Spectral Memory as a Dynamic and Transformative Encounter Between Past and Present
â4 Outline of Chapters
1 The Spectral Spaces of the Economic Crisis: Visual Art
â1 The Crash: A Collective Shock
â2 The Crash: Crisis of Memory and Identity
â3 Aesthetic Response to the Crash: The Spectral-Uncanny
â4 Roles: Photorealist Drawings of the Unhomely Space
â5 Roles: The House and the Human Subject
â6 Waiting: Crash-Photographs of Emptiness and Melancholia in the Urban Space
â7 Waiting: Contemporary Urban Space and Memory
â8 Waiting: Capitalist Ruins
â9 Spectral Mourning in the Urban Space: Conclusion
2 Ghosts and Specters of Crash Fiction: Literature
â1 I Remember You: A Crash-Horror in the Time of Economic Crisis
â2 I Remember You: Two Stories of Hauntings in the Wake of the Crash
â3 I Remember You: The Haunted House
â4 Reactions and Agency: Why Does the Ghost Return?
â5 Hauntings in Ãsafjörður: Three Different Types of Spectral Presence
â6 Hauntings in Ãsafjörður: Spectral Mourning as Haunting
â7 Significance of the Haunting for the Narrative and Broader Context
â8 HvÃtfeld: Uncanny Family Novel
â9 HvÃtfeld and the Crash: The Falseness and Collapse of the Ideal
â10 HvÃtfeld: Unhomely Family Life and Melancholic Characters
â11 HvÃtfeld: Melancholic Mourning
â12 HvÃtfeld and the Spectral Space: The Unhomely Home
â13 Literary Ghosts and Spectral Memories of the Financial Crisis:Conclusion
3 Spectral Memories From the Institutional Archive: Visual Art
â1 The Archive as Storage for Spectral Memories
â2 Modernisation of the Archive: Colonialism and Photography
â3 Musée Islandique and Das Experiment Island by Ãlöf Nordal
â4 Musée Islandique
â5 The Colonial Archive and Historical Context
â6 Das Experiment Island
â7 The Uncanny Associations of the Archive
â8 What Kind of Memories?
â9 Traces by Unnar Ãrn Auðarson
â10 Fragments From the Deeds of Unrest: PartII
â11 The Photograph as an Archival Record
â12 Photograph as Spectre
â13 Fragments From the Deeds of Unrest: The Photograph and National Imagery
â14 Fragments: Murmur of a Nation
â15 Spectral Memories of the Institutional Archive: Conclusion
4 Spectral Memories From the Family Archive: Literature
â1 The Family Archive in Fórnarleikar: The Spectral State of Postmemories
â2 Postmemory and the Family Trauma
â3 Postmemory and the Family Archive
â4 Family Pictures: Archived Photographs
â5 Fórnarleikar: The Impossibility of Writing a Life Story
â6 Spectral Memories of the Childhood Archive in ElÃn, Ãmislegt
â7 âEnigmatic Time-Capsulesâ and Archive Fiction
â8 Archived Material: Spectral Memories
â9 ElÃn, Ãmislegt: A Novel on Forgetting?
â10 Spectral Memories From the Family Archive: Conclusion
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
List of Figures
Introduction
â1 Spectral Memory: What and Why?
â2 What is Cultural Memory?
â3 Spectral Memory as a Dynamic and Transformative Encounter Between Past and Present
â4 Outline of Chapters
Part 1:Spectral Memories of the Financial Crisis
1 The Spectral Spaces of the Economic Crisis: Visual Art
â1 The Crash: A Collective Shock
â2 The Crash: Crisis of Memory and Identity
â3 Aesthetic Response to the Crash: The Spectral-Uncanny
â4 Roles: Photorealist Drawings of the Unhomely Space
â5 Roles: The House and the Human Subject
â6 Waiting: Crash-Photographs of Emptiness and Melancholia in the Urban Space
â7 Waiting: Contemporary Urban Space and Memory
â8 Waiting: Capitalist Ruins
â9 Spectral Mourning in the Urban Space: Conclusion
2 Ghosts and Specters of Crash Fiction: Literature
â1 I Remember You: A Crash-Horror in the Time of Economic Crisis
â2 I Remember You: Two Stories of Hauntings in the Wake of the Crash
â3 I Remember You: The Haunted House
â4 Reactions and Agency: Why Does the Ghost Return?
â5 Hauntings in Ãsafjörður: Three Different Types of Spectral Presence
â6 Hauntings in Ãsafjörður: Spectral Mourning as Haunting
â7 Significance of the Haunting for the Narrative and Broader Context
â8 HvÃtfeld: Uncanny Family Novel
â9 HvÃtfeld and the Crash: The Falseness and Collapse of the Ideal
â10 HvÃtfeld: Unhomely Family Life and Melancholic Characters
â11 HvÃtfeld: Melancholic Mourning
â12 HvÃtfeld and the Spectral Space: The Unhomely Home
â13 Literary Ghosts and Spectral Memories of the Financial Crisis:Conclusion
Part 2: Spectral Memories From the Post-Crash Archive
3 Spectral Memories From the Institutional Archive: Visual Art
â1 The Archive as Storage for Spectral Memories
â2 Modernisation of the Archive: Colonialism and Photography
â3 Musée Islandique and Das Experiment Island by Ãlöf Nordal
â4 Musée Islandique
â5 The Colonial Archive and Historical Context
â6 Das Experiment Island
â7 The Uncanny Associations of the Archive
â8 What Kind of Memories?
â9 Traces by Unnar Ãrn Auðarson
â10 Fragments From the Deeds of Unrest: Part
â11 The Photograph as an Archival Record
â12 Photograph as Spectre
â13 Fragments From the Deeds of Unrest: The Photograph and National Imagery
â14 Fragments: Murmur of a Nation
â15 Spectral Memories of the Institutional Archive: Conclusion
4 Spectral Memories From the Family Archive: Literature
â1 The Family Archive in Fórnarleikar: The Spectral State of Postmemories
â2 Postmemory and the Family Trauma
â3 Postmemory and the Family Archive
â4 Family Pictures: Archived Photographs
â5 Fórnarleikar: The Impossibility of Writing a Life Story
â6 Spectral Memories of the Childhood Archive in ElÃn, Ãmislegt
â7 âEnigmatic Time-Capsulesâ and Archive Fiction
â8 Archived Material: Spectral Memories
â9 ElÃn, Ãmislegt: A Novel on Forgetting?
â10 Spectral Memories From the Family Archive: Conclusion
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
The book should be of interest to both local and broader audience; to scholars and students of memory studies, cultural studies, comparative literature and Icelandic contemporary affairs and museology.