Nordic War Stories: World War II as History, Fiction, Media, and Memory(7 Worlds of Memory)

Situated on Europe’s northern periphery, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden found themselves caught between warring powers during World War II. Ultimately, these nations survived the conflict as sovereign states whose wartime experiences have profoundly shaped their historiography, literature, cinema and memory cultures. Nordic War Stories explores the commonalities and divergences among the five Nordic countries, examining national historiographies alongside representations of the war years in canonical literary works, travel writing, and film media. Together, they comprise a valuable companion that challenges the myth of Scandinavian homogeneity while demonstrating the powerful influence that the war continues to exert on national identities.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations Editor’s Acknowledgements Editor’s Introduction Marianne Stecher-Hansen Part I: War Historiography Chapter 1. Finland in World War II—Tragedy, Survival, and Good Wars Juhana H. Aunesluoma Chapter 2. Danish Historical Narratives of the Occupation—The Promises and Lies of April 9th Sofie Lene Bak Chapter 3. The Norwegian War Experience—Occupied and Allied Tom Kristiansen Chapter 4. The Icelandic National Narrative and World War II—“Freedom and Culture” Guðmundur Hálfdanarson Chapter 5. Sweden’s Ambiguous War—Contradiction and Controversy John Gilmour Part II: War Literature – Archive Chapter 6. Karin Boye as Ambivalent Spectator of Fascism Amanda Doxtater Chapter 7. Isak Dinesen in Hitler’s Berlin—Neutrality’s Cloak in “Letters from a Land at War” Marianne Stecher-Hansen Chapter 8. Sigrid Undset’s Problematic Propaganda – The Call for Democracy in Return to the Future Christine Hamm Part III: War Literature – Canon Chapter 9. Hans Christian Branner—Angst and the Existential Crisis of War in Denmark Mark Mussari Chapter 10. Crises of Memory in Norway’s Occupation Novel—Sigurd Hoel’s Meeting at the Milestone Dean Krouk Chapter 11. The Battle over Finnish Cultural Memory of War—Väinö Linna’s The Unknown Soldier Julia Pajunen Chapter 12. Investigating Sweden’s Postwar Neutrality—Ethics in Per Olov Enquist’s The Legionnaires Jan Krogh Nielsen Chapter 13. The Allied Occupation of Iceland—Indriði G. Þorsteinsson’s North of War Daisy Neijmann Part IV: War Cinema – Remembering and Forgetting Chapter 14. Somewhere in Sweden – Quality Fiction and Popularized History in the World War II Television Series Erik Hedling Chapter 15. Icelandic Cinema and the American Military Presence – The Girl Gogo, Atomic Station, and Devil’s Island Pétur Valsson Chapter 16. War Memory, Compassion, and the Finnish Child – Klaus Härö’s Mother of Mine Liina-Ly Roos Chapter 17. The War Film as Cultural Memory in Denmark – April 9th and Land of Mine Marianne Stecher-Hansen Chapter 18. Acts of Remembering – Audiovisual Memory and the New Norwegian Occupation Drama Gunnar Iversen Chapter 19. Finland Returning to War on Screen – The Unknown Soldier of 2017 John Sundholm Editor’s Epilogue Marianne Stecher-Hansen Index

About the Author :
Marianne Stecher-Hansen is a Professor in the Department of Scandinavian Studies, University of Washington.

Review :
"This edited volume is an indispensable contribution to World War II studies of cultural memory and representation. Although too often placed at the margins of great-power narratives about the larger European theater of war, the five Nordic nations here receive the nuanced, rigorous, and riveting investigations they have long deserved, especially within a comparative, pan-Nordic context. Theoretically rich in its engagement with memory and post-memory studies, this collective work brilliantly documents and brings to life a war that ended some 75 years ago yet continues to shape and reshape powerful national narratives of identity, destiny, guilt, innocence, cowardice, and valor." • Scandinavian Studies “"As a whole, this is an interesting anthology that participates in opening a very fertile area of research.  Its comparative approach brings many new elements into play that can contribute positively to the national approaches of previous studies” • Edda “The volume makes an important contribution to understanding how the mass media in particular shaped the (nation-state) memory of the Second World War in a region of Europe that is mostly out of focus.” • Clio-Online “The Nordic nations all had different and contrasting experiences of the Second World War. Not only did this condition the memories of contemporaries, but it also led to different ways of portraying the wartime experience that would lead to creating and sustaining both existing and new memories for ensuing generations. This book contains excellent accounts of how this work of memory was done in the five nations and it continues to influence their societies today. There is much for cultural historians to value in this  volume, but international historians will also find a plentiful amount to add to their understanding of not only the Second World War but of the decades that followed.” • History “The fascinating chapters in Nordic War Stories reveal the vastly different fates of the five Nordic countries concerning occupation, resistance, neutrality and engagement.” • Marianne N. Soleim, The Arctic University of Norway