From trauma to heroism: Cultural memory and remembrance in Norwegian occupation dramas, 1946–2009

Abstract

This article analyses Norwegian occupation dramas from 1946 to 2009. Tracing the history of the genre, it highlights ways in which the uses, interpretations and representations of war experiences have shifted from a focus on trauma to a cult of heroism. This discussion of a distinct genre in Norwegian cinema is linked to theories of communicative and cultural memory that are used to explain changes in the representation of the war years.

The Landscapes of Eco-NoirReimagining Norwegian eco-exceptionalism in Occupied

“…Explicitly symbolic, this sentence evokes the image of a blurred and unclear landscape, shrouded in fog, thus suggesting that national security is threatened by antagonistic natural phenomena. Interestingly, in some of the Norwegian occupation dramas, representations of nature as antagonistic -negative and alienating -expressed cultural memories and dilemmas that undermined the hegemonic narrative of the nation's heroic resistance movement, represented by more normative depictions of nature (see Iversen, 2012). Here, Vold and Christensen represent opposition to the pro-Russian government, now led by Anita Rygh (Janne Heltberg).…”

“…In addition, landscapes in Occupied encode multiple references to Norway's history, primarily World War II, not least by cinematically evoking the Norwegian occupation dramas, a genre dealing with the country's occupation by Nazi Germany, in which nature and landscapes function as conveyors of national and ideological contents (cf. Henlin-Stromme, 2012;Iversen, 2012;Sørenssen, 2012; see also Leyda, 2018). Another layer of historical and geopolitical references encoded in landscapes (and beyond) involves the Cold War, as well as current tensions between Russia and Europe or what it is often deemed in the media as the "New Cold War".…”

Dansk film under nazismen

“…Gunnar Iversen (2012) har foreslået en periodisering af norske besaettelsestidsfi lm, der saetter en første fase umiddelbart efter besaettelsen op som traumatisk i den forstand, at den fokuserer på en besvaerlig bearbejdning af uønskede fakta. Anden fase kendetegnes i højere grad af en betoning af den heroisme, der praegede enkeltstående, vellykkede operationer som i Kampen om tungtvannet fra 1948 (genindspillet som tv-serie, NRK 2015).…”