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- Elzinga, Aant, 1937
(author)
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Changes in the Canadian Arctic - Review of Gerd Braune, Die Arktis. Porträt einer Weltregion, Berlin: Chr. Links Verlag 2016, 248 pp.
- 2017
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In: Journal of Northern Studies. - 1654-5915. ; 10:1/2016, s. 106-108
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Review (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The book under review is based on journalist Gerd Braune's many visits to the Canadian Arctic and elsewhere above the Arctic Circle. It gives an insightful account of the history of Iqualuit, the capital of the autonomous Canadian territory Nunavut and other regions of the Canadian North, both the upsides and downsides of rapid "development" and compares similar histories and events with other Arctic regions, particularly Greenland, Alaska and Russia, and to some extent Scandinavia. The book affords an important contribution to some hot topics of our time: climate change, natural resource exploitation, entanglement of geosciences with current trends, and indigenous peoples' responses in various modes of coping with rapid change.
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- Elzinga, Aant, 1937
(author)
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Changing Trends in Rembering Amundsen and Scott. A Review Essay : Review of: Ross D.E. MacPhee, Race to the End. Amundsen, Scott, and the Attainment of the South Pole (New York: Sterling Publishing Co., 2010) 245 pages plus panorama foldout plates and map. ISBN 978-1-4027-7029-6; Edward J. Larson, An Empire of Ice. Scott, Shackleton, and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Science (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2011) 288 pages. ISBN 978-0-300-15408-5; Cornelia Lüdecke, Roald Amundsen. Ein biografisches Porträt (Freiburg etc., Verlag Herder GmbH, 2011)
- 2012
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In: Journal of Northern Studies (Umeå). - 1654-5915. ; 6:2, s. 113-146
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Review (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The past couple of years have seen publication of several books dealing with the epic drama of men struggling with Nature and each other to be the first to reach the geographic South Pole. Roald Amundsen and four companions, citizens of a newly independent Norway were the first to make it, reaping the prize before the rival party of Robert Falcon Scott did. Amundsen had officially set out to repeat Fridtjof Nansen’s experiment of locking his ship the Fram in the Arctic sea ice to follow its drift and undertake original oceanographic research, but he had the audacity to change his mind and head for the South Pole, thereby challenging Scott whose expedition had the backing of the British Empire. The outcome is well known. Amundsen’s superior planning, know how regarding survival under polar conditions and efficient use of Inuit style clothing and dogsleds won the day over Scott’s naval tradition of man hauling, poorer clothing and insufficient preparations. Amundsen made it back to civilization to announce his own achievement; Scott and his four companions froze to death near a depot they were unable to reach on their return to base-camp. Both men had their names inscribed in the history of their respective nations, symbolizing respectively the ingenuity and prowess of a newly independent nation on the rise and the onset perhaps of the decline of the world’s biggest imperial power at that time. Amundsen and Scott have been remembered many times and in different ways during the past century. On each occasion new facts and perspectives have come to light, and equally interesting - in retrospect - is how the constructions of memory are historically contingent, they change with the times. The paper reviews three recent books prompted by the centennial commemoration of Amundsen's and Scott's race to the South Pole.
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- Elzinga, Aant, 1937
(author)
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Discourse analysis and the performative turn in polar studies - Review of Johan Schimanski & Ulrike Spring, Passagiere des Eises. Polarhelden und Arktische Diskurse 1874, Wien: Böhlau Verlag 2015, 719 pp, 55 ill.
- 2017
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In: Journal of Northern Studies. ; 10:1 (2017), s. 140-152
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Review (other academic/artistic)abstract
- As the Arctic ice retreats, various aspects of the region are attacting increasing attention to science, politics and the media as well as in the arts, firing imaginations regarding future scenarios and generating greater interest in relevant events of the past. The book under review here fits into and contributes to this general trend. It is a product of research funded by the Norwegian Research Council under the auspices of a broad collaborative interdisciplinary project entitled "Arctic Discourses". The monograph is an excellent example of what are nowadays called the Arctic Humanities. Ulrike Spring is a cultural historian presently affiliated with the University College of Sogn og Fjordane, and Johan Schimanski is a prominent scholar of comparative European literature; he is affiliated with both the University of Oslo and the University in Tromsö. Their collaboration in the present volume breaks new ground and demonstrates the power and significance of the cultural turn in the historiography of Arctic science and exploration. They use discourse analysis and a "performativity" perspective primarily focused on print media mostly in Vienna but also other countries in 1874 covering the impact of the surprise return to civilization of members of the privately sponsored Austro-Hungarian expedition 1872-1874 to Franz Josef Land; the expedition vessel "Tegetthoff" had been crushed in the ice and its men were by many believed to be lost. When they suddenly surfaced again the mass media of the day engaged in a cultural construction of heroes in both fictional and realistic phantasms circulated through Europe. Schimanski and Springer differ radically from the traditional approach of historians of science and exploration by focusing not on the conventional narrative of the expedition; instead they analyse a long series of diverse narratives relating to the grandiose display of festivities and celebratory events through which the returning heroic figures were culturally constructed as such in their contemporary contexts via newspaper reports, daily weeklies, posters, exhibitions, academic lectures and pictures of their leaders posing as Arctic explorers in photographic studios as well as cartoon depictions in saterical magazines. Comparisons are made between events and commentaries in Vienna and more peripheral locations in the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, and with reports in for example Norway and Sweden. Differences are related to differing country-specific resonances with economic and symbolic stakeholder interests in the Arctic and concomitant imaginaries of its future potential uses. The conceptual frame of performativity theory is used to interpret literary styles, tropes and journalistic strategies unravelled by Shimanski & Spring. In my review I follow closely the descriptive and interpretative work the two authors outline in a long series of chapters and discuss several of their novel findings, among them how in Vienna in the mid-1870s the "feuilleton" form served as an intellectual space for "interdiscourse" between explanatory and romanticizing prose, and how journalism at the time accommodated transitional forms between arts and sciences, and thus formed a kind of bridge between the two - regarding the latter point I offer some critical remarks. In closing I express a hope that the monograph will be translated into English to reach a broad readership.
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- Elzinga, Aant, 1937
(author)
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German Antarctic expeditions and research from the Wilhelmine Empire until present day - Review of Cornelia Lüdecke, Deutsche in der Antarktis. Expeditionen und Forschung von Kaiserreich bis heute, Berlin: Chr. Links Verlag 2015, 224 pp. & 207 ill.
- 2017
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In: Journal of Northern Studies. - 1654-5915. ; 10:1 (2016), s. 116-126
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Review (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The book under review here draws upon Cornelia Lüdecke's earlier research plus her studies of additional archival material to provide a popular account of German exploration and research in Antarctica. Thus it covers five major periods: Erich von Drygalski's German South Polar Expedition of 1901- 1903; Wilhelm Filchner's expedition 1911-1913 known as the Second German Antarctic Expedition; the Schwabenland Expedition 1938/1939 under the auspices of the Third Reich; and the period after the Second World War when first the German Democractic Republic acceded to the Antarctic Treaty in 1974, establishing the Georg Foster station two years later, followed by West Germany's post-war entry on the Antarctic scene and gaining Consultative Party status to the Treaty with the establishment of the Georg von Neumayer station 1981. German re-unification subsequently merged the two German trajectories after the end of the Cold War, signifying the fifth period that still continues. The character of the various expeditions and associated focal points of research are described and illustrated with photographic images. In my review I highlight tensions and conflicts apparent in the first two German expeditions and compare the professional approach assumed in the third expedition when aerial photography was used to lay a basis for Nazi German claims to a section of Antarctica, a plan that failed, preempted by Norway's claim to sovereignty over Dronning Maud Land. The review also discusses interesting aspects relating to developments from the late 1980s onward when Gotthilf Hempel, the director of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Science (AWI at Bremerhaven) played an instrumental role in moving Germany once more into the role of a major actor in Antarctic research.
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- Elzinga, Aant, 1937
(author)
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History of polar research
- 2001
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In: ISIS. ; 92:1 (May), s. 185-186
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Review (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This is a review of a book by the Swedish historian of science Urban Wråkberg, Vetenskapens vikingatåg: Perspecktiv på svensk polarforskning 1860-1930 (Scientific viking excursions: Perspective on Swedish polar research 1860-1930). The book gives an excellent overview of Swedish polar research during the period cited and places various endeavours in both intellectual and socio-political as well as economic contexts.
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- Elzinga, Aant, 1937
(author)
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Håkan Jorikson, I skuggan av Andrée och Nordenskiöld. Polarresenären och zoologen Axel Ohlin. En biografi, Stockholm: Carlssons Bokförlag 2015
- 2017
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In: Journal of Northern Studies. - 1654-5915. ; 10:2 (2016), s. 183-187
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Review (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The author of this book, Håkan Jorikson, has an educational background in history and ethnology. Presently he is the director of the Museum and Polar Center in Gränna, a position held since the year 2000. In connection with his work at the museum Jorikson has over the years gained many insights into the history of polar exploration and research, based on archival studies, caches of unique photographs and hitherto unstudied correspondence; he has also served as a lecturer and guide during eco-touristic cruises in polar regions. The book under re- view is a biography of the life and work of Axel Ohlin (1867–1903), a largely forgotten figure in polar research and exploration. Ohlin was a marine zoologist who participated in two of Otto Nordenskjöld’s expeditions, namely the Magellan Lands Expedition to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego (1895–1897) and the one to the Antarctic Peninsula (1901–1903). Jorikson has gone through much of Ohlin’s hitherto un-consulted correspondence, his diary and those of other members of Nordenskjöld’s expedition and a wide range of published material relating to Swedish and international polar exploration history. It is a fine piece of detective work that unravels some hitherto hidden aspects that also go beyond Ohlin’s life and work. Retrospectively, history has, however, not been kind to Ohlin. Not only is he mostly forgotten, but when he is remembered it is often as the rather obscure querulous figure, a kind of outsider and loser. On the inside of the book’s dust cover Jorikson characterizes his life as that of the anti-hero, “the opposite image of those, in different ways successful polar profiles and expedition stories.” Indeed much of the literature on polar history is focused on the “he- roes.” Ohlin was essentially a bohemian who refused to fit into the mold of his contemporary academic world. It is heartening to read the present book as an antidote to the celebratory genre. The book’s narrative has a nice flow to it, popular and easy to read but without sacrificing stringency and detail. The work also contains nearly fifty illustrations, images of places, scientists, ships and deck scenes, and a few documents. Most of the illustrations are black-and-white scans of photographs but there are also a couple of photocopies of our anti-hero’s portrait in colour. The list of unpublished sources and archival material together with a sizeable bibliography is useful for anyone who wishes to delve further into topics and aspects dealt with, while an index of person names is handy for both scholars and more casual readers. Overall the book is an important contribution to current scholarship on the history of Swedish polar exploration and re- search. Given the complexity of the chief character, Axel Ohlin, and the turbulence and elements of suspense attending his life the book will also appeal to a wider readership interested in the lure of the Polar Regions.
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