Descriptions of the Arctic and Sub-Arctic provide a rich material produced both in the Arctic and in other parts of the world. The extent of this material has increased considerably since the Romantic period, hand in hand with the systematic scientific investigation of these regions. These descriptions will often correspond more or less to Arctic realities, but also constitute their own reality: the way in which the Arctic has been understood and imagined throughout history. Taken together, they make up a discourse on the Arctic, formed both by actual Arctic experiences and its own intertextual continuities— in addition to many other earlier and contemporaneous discourses, including the discourse of literature. This international conference will concentrate primarily on Arctic discourses after Romanticism and up to the present day, using approaches to such discourses developed within literary studies. It will focus both on Arctic discourse in literary texts and literary discourse in non-literary descriptions of the Arctic. It will examine the development of Arctic discourses; the use of narrative, figurative and generic strategies in Arctic discourses; and the effect of changing communication technologies on Arctic discourses. It will also focus on contact zones between the European/American and the Arctic, and cultures which identify themselves as both Arctic and European/American.

Suggested themes for panels:
• Romantic and post-romantic sublimes in Arctic discourses
• Arcticism, Arctic counter-discourses and Arctic indigenous literatures
• Gendering the Arctic
• Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine discourses
• From exploration to sport: the history of Arctic discourse
• Arctic travel writing
• Borders and limits in Arctic discourses
• Living between the Arctic and the European/American
• Subject positions and identities in Arctic discourse
• The Arctic in art and film
• Changing conceptions of Northernness and Arcticity
• Nature's discourses in the Arctic
• Arctic metaphors in fiction and poetry
• Approaching the Arctic with literary, cultural, and discourse analysis
• Changing technologies, changing media, changing Arctic discourses
• Genre and the circulation of signs in Arctic discourse
• Embodying/textualizing the Arctic in postmodern novels and popular fictions
• Narrative in Arctic expedition reports, travel writing and reportage

”Arctic Discourses 2008”, Tromsø 21-23 February 2008, is part of the research programme of the Arktiske diskurser project, based at the University of Tromsø and funded by the University and The Research Council of Norway.

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