According to social scientists, the Nordic countries have claimed to have a unique humanitarian and peace-loving relationship to the colonialized or poor parts of the world, and, according to criminologists, the Nordic countries have exceptionally humane punitive systems. This article asks whether the native Norwegian author Simon Stranger's fictional account of the life of an irregular migrant in Norway may contribute something to the problematisation of the image of Norway as representative of a so-called Nordic Exceptionalism that two autobiographical accounts written by the irregular migrant Maria Amelie do notor cannotdo, and vice versa.
Based on a comparative analysis of Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s three novelsEtt öga rött(2003),Montecore, en unik tiger(2006), andAllt jag inte minns(2015), this article explores the significance of memories and forgetting to the development of both individual and collective identity. More specifically, the article discusses which narrative devices Khemiri employs in showing how the identities of the novels’ protagonists are influenced by memories and forgetting, and deliberates what the implications of Khemiri’s novels may be, for our understanding of individual as well as collective identity in today’s culturally diverse Scandinavian societies.
A Soviet-Russian immigrant in post-Soviet Russia: Denis Gutsko's novel Russophone Denis Gutsko's novel Russophone (Russkogovoriashchii) describes how a young man handles the transition from being a Russian in Soviet Georgia to becoming a Georgian Russian in post-Soviet Russia. Both Gutsko's biographical background and the topic of the novel are reasons why Russophone can be classifi ed as a work of Russian immigrant fi ction. The author discusses why a new Russian immigrant fi ction is currently in the making, and shows how the situation in Western Europe and the post-socialist states differs when it comes to literature by multicultural and migrant authors. She argues that a combination of theory from cultural memory studies and narrative theory can help us understand what Russophone can tell us about the confusion that Soviet Russian immigrants to post-Soviet Russia experience concerning the question of (national) identity.
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