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N°46,2024 - “Alone in Nature?”
Nordiques special issue

deadline for paper proposals: September 15, 2023

It has often been said that Nordic people have a special relationship to nature, and this closeness to nature has also at times been seen as a more important relationship than that to other fellow citizens, becoming ultimately even a form of an existential or spiritual quest. In addition, this theme can also be related to a specific Nordic self-conception based on solitude that values autonomy, resilience, and self-sufficiency, and sustains gendered identity constructions as well as political conceptions of the nation. What is referred to here as the ‘Nordic cult of loneliness’ is an observation of how individual perseverance, a highly valued need for individual space, and an often-repeated longing to escape from the pressures of everyday life are expressed in terms of a ‘positive solitude’. We see a strong connection between the close relation to nature and socially and individually appreciated loneliness, yet we are also interested in the negative effects these value formations may have for example in unvoluntary experiences of loneliness.

Based on these hypotheses, the special issue of Nordiques on “Alone in Nature?” explores various forms and manifestations of this relationship to nature and society through both diachronic and historical as well as synchronic and conceptual approaches. The topic can be studied through both legislation and policy documents, in literature, film, music, and other Nordic cultural self-defining texts or discourses, as well as in architecture, urban planning and the “hyttekultur” for example. The long-term historical structures acting on a sparsely populated region, with a feeble urban history and culture compared to other European countries, have obviously had an impact on this tradition, yet it can also be seen as having a close connection to modernity and to the rediscovery and reinvention of rural traditions by an urban middle class. This relationship to nature also seems to reinvent itself in many modern ways, maintaining its relevance in today’s Nordic societies. Classic figures of Nordic environmentalism such as Arne Næss and Pentti Linkola for example have explored modes of existence and thinking that seek a fragile balance between reclusion and participation, and Ulf Lundell’s 1982 hit song “Öppna landskap” (Open Landscapes), to name an example from a totally different domain, likewise describes complex articulations of solitude, society, and nature that can be regarded as self-defining for the Nordic identity. As this list of names shows, we also need to critically reflect of on the role of gender and ethnicity in texts and practices that construct the double relation to nature and society.

Deadline for proposals (300 words): September 15, 2023.

Please send the proposals in word format to harri.veivo[a]unicaen.fr and peter.stadius[a]helsinki.fi.

Notification of acceptance: September 30, 2023.

Submission of the manuscript (40 000 characters): December 15, 2023.

The manuscripts will be submitted to a double-blind peer-review.

Nordiques is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary journal of Nordic studies published twice a year on free access on OpenEdition Journals (https://journals.openedition.org/nordiques/).

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