About the event
Depictions of natural disasters were a recurring feature of skillingstrykk, a type of cheap print popular amongst a broad public in Norway and Scandinavia from the sixteenth century until the mid-twentieth century. This talk argues that a study of this particular print form – marginalized by most literary historians – is a potential keyhole into a Norwegian environmental history from below. How did the authors describe storms, floods, avalanches and famines, and what can the songs tell us about emergency response, grief and resilience in the pre-modern era? The presentation will focus mainly on the songs of the seventeenth and eighteenth century, and will include sung examples.
About the presenter
Siv Gøril Brandtzæg is an Associate Professor in comparative literature at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and the leader of the project The Norwegian Skilling Ballad, 1550-1950: Recovering a cultural heritage, funded by the Research Council of Norway. She is the author of the research blog https://skillingsviser.no/.
Reading
Lotte Jensen, 'Disaster upon Disaster Inflicted on the Dutch'. Singing about Disasters in the Netherlands, 1600-1900. BMGN — Low Countries Historical Review, Vol.134 (2) 2019.
Organiser
NB: External guests should register with Ada Arendt.