IAC:
Hi all, this is the Icelandic Association of Chicago, and today we’re talking with Dr. Sciuto who has written the book Intersecting Worlds Colonial Liminality in the US Southern and Icelandic Literatures. This book uses the works of famous authors to describe how the US South and Iceland experienced colonization.
It draws on the similarities and contrast in both histories through literary descriptions and accounts of famous authors from that time period. We have the author with us today Doctor Jenna Sciuto.
And to let everyone know, we have a two-part interview in this entire section. Not only is Doctor Sciuto a professor, she’s also an Icelandic student. We are in the same practice groups together, so after this English language interview, there’ll be an Icelandic language interview about these books. But we kind of always want to pair the simple Icelandic with the more deep dive in English.
So Dr. Sciuto, thank you very much for joining us today. And I want to take a look at your new book, “Intersecting Worlds.” This is coming out soon. It should be out mid-January, correct? Yes, that’s right. Can you briefly describe what this book is about?
Jenna:
Sure, yeah. “Intersecting Worlds” examines the lingering impacts of layered colonial histories that I see as common to both Iceland and the US South. And primarily I’m looking at literature, so the way that these things are playing out through the works of writers like William Faulkner, Carson McCullers, Jean Toomer from the US South, Caribbean American writer Tiffany Yannick, and of course some Icelandic writers.
We’ve got Halldór Laxness, Svava Jakobsdóttir, Guðberg Bergsson, sorry, Guðbergur Bergsson, and Fríða Sigurðardóttir from Iceland. And what I’m intending to do is really recalibrate readings of US and US Southern writers by re-situating them on a global scale. So thinking through comparable depictions of race, coloniality, whiteness, gender, sexuality in these literatures.
IAC:
Okay, and okay, Iceland and the US South.
Jenna:
Mm-hmm, yeah.
IAC:
Please enlighten us too. What commonalities do these spaces share?
Jenna:
Yes, that is a great question. I guess the short answer would be because of their complex histories. So I’m interested in the liminality, the ambiguity, and just the general unease that result when we try to apply postcolonial theories to spaces like Iceland and the US South. So I’m interested in the parallels between them, but also the limitations that come in when we make these types of comparisons. So many listeners are probably aware that Iceland has been an independent nation since 1944, but also has had a real complex colonial history.
So, a former dependency of Denmark, Iceland also endured a US military presence from 1941 to 2006. And I argue that Iceland’s global positioning really invites comparisons to formally colonized spaces. But importantly, it’s a very different space as well. So Iceland’s history, its geopolitical location, is very much different from other colonized spaces. In relation to brutal violence, more overt forms of dehumanization. And if you’re interested in this, I highly recommend the work of Icelandic anthropologist, Kristín Loftsdottír. Kristín Loftsdottír, who showcases this very well in her work.
So a word on the US South too, because you’re wondering where that fits in, I’m sure.
Yeah, it’s a space that similarly has been depicted as both “colonized” and “quotes on purpose” because it’s quite complex by the federal government after reconstruction, but also the site of the colonization of the Black population by the White population during the system of enslavement and later iterations as well.
IAC:
And I guess I just thought of asking, why did you write this book and conduct this research? What was the motivation?
Jenna:
Well, I’m a big fan of Iceland and spending time there. But also I wanted to explore how conversations of colonialism shift when we consider a far north space like Iceland. So disrupting conventional understandings of space, complicating geographic inflections of power and power dynamics. So for instance, we might think of a space like the so-called “Global South” or “Global Southern” countries as spaces of socioeconomic, spatial marginalization in comparison with, say, a global “global north.” But I think when we try to bring in the far north, this binary becomes more complex. It becomes stickier.
So really my intention is just to destabilize some of these assumptions and binaries, which is actually also this topic of a special issue I’m currently working on for the journal, “The Global South.” Just to shout out my co-editor, Ryan Charlton, at Georgia State that should be coming out soon as well.
IAC:
Are there any direct connections between Iceland and the US Southern authors? Did the two Nobel Prize winners Halldor Laxness and William Faulkner ever meet?
Jenna:
Yeah, that’s a great question. Faulkner visited Iceland for five days in October 1955. He was there as part of a State Department effort to broadcast US cultural achievements internationally. He was gifted a copy of a saga that was actually published by laxness and signed by many different Icelandic writers. However, they did not actually cross paths during the visit. There’s really no evidence that they met in person, even though both writers spent time in Hollywood.
Yeah, and just a word on Faulkner’s visit, it’s pretty fascinating in and of itself. It occurred against the backdrop of widespread discontent regarding the US military base at capital Vic, which laxness also focuses on in his work. But when asked about the US Army’s presence in Iceland, Faulkner reminded people that the troops were there with the backing of NATO, not the US.
So he’d said, “Is it not better to have American forces here in the name of freedom than a Russian one in the name of aggression and violence, as in the Baltic state?”
So pretty interesting. He’s really on the side of the US military here through this work. However, there’s really an anti-colonial undercurrent that runs through many of his novels and has a very, very different effect, I think, I argue in the book.
And so these are the types of tensions that I’m interested in diving into in the book.
IAC:
You’ve got me very curious and there’s no scope on that topic, but I guess the answer is going to be to read the book. Actually, can you talk to any other projects that you’re currently working on in your academic research and tenure?
Jenna:
So I’m at an exciting point, just beginning a new project on Southern Gothic forums and tropes in Icelandic literature with my frequent collaborator, Haukur Ingvarsson at the University of Iceland. And we’re focusing on Gunnar Gunnarsson’s 1920 novel, Seven Days of Darkness alongside Sjón’s 2013 novel, Moonstone, The Boy Who Never Was. And even though they’re written nearly a century apart, both take place in Iceland in 1918.So the backdrop then becomes World War I, the outbreak of the Spanish flu, and also the eruption of the volcano, Katla.
So really infusing Southern Gothic tropes into these novels as we hope to show in the article we’ll be working on.
IAC:
And I guess lastly, where can one find a copy of this book when it comes out mid-January?
Jenna:
Intersecting Worlds will be available for pre-order through the University Press of Mississippi’s website, but also other sites, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, Amazon, or my favorite, Thrift Books.
And I do have a discount code to share with any listeners interested in purchasing it through the University Press of Mississippi site. So 30% off with the code “intersecting30” and just the number 30 there.
But also just feel free to request it from your local library. That’s a great option and helps authors out just as much.
IAC:
Excellent. Dr. Sciuto, thank you very much for joining us today.
And I kind of wanted to make a bit of space for what’s happening after this interview, which was previously when you and I sat down about a week ago to talk about nearly the same things just on a much more simpler scale. As we’re both Icelandic language students, it’s our attempt to try the same process, but at least then, Schutze. So I hope everyone enjoys that. And again, thank you very much for joining us.
Jenna:
Thank you for having me.
….
IAC:
Hi All. This is the Icelandic Association of Chicago. As you know I’m learning Icelandic and in this interview we’re only going to use Icelandic and maybe a little English staggered in to keep language learners abreast. All questions have been written out and are designed to stay inside the Common European Framework of Reference level A2. You will hear mistakes; We’re still learning. Our intention is to make listening material for upper beginner language learners.
Today we’re speaking with Jenna, a fellow language learner who lives outside of Iceland and an author of the recently / soon to be published book titled “ Intersecting Worlds: Colonial Liminality in US Southern and Icelandic Literatures” or “Skörun Heima: Nýlenduliminalítet í Bókmenntum Suðurríkja Bandaríkjanna og Íslands.”
Not only is she a Professor of Global Anglophone Literature in Massachusetts and the author of two books — the aforementioned Intersecting Worlds and Policing Intimacy: Law, Sexuality, and the Color Line in Twentieth-Century Hemispheric American Literature — but, she is attempting to tackle one of hardest endeavors known to man – learning Icelandic.
We will discuss how long she has been learning language, how he practices, difficulties with learning, how to overcome those, and most importantly, advice for current language learners.
So here goes…
Góðan dag. Við erum Íslendingafélagið í Chicago og í dag er ég að gera eitthvað óvenjulegt. Eins og þú veist er ég að læra íslensku og í þessu viðtali ætlum við að tala bæði á íslensku og smá ensku kannski. Allar spurningar eru nú þegar skrifaðar út fyrir framan og eru hannaðar til að vera á CEFR A2 stigi. Þú heyrir kannski mistök því við erum ennþá að læra íslensku. Við ætlum að búa til hlustunarefni fyrir byrjendur eins og okkur.
Mig langar að kynna Jenna sem er að læra íslensku og býr á ekki Íslandi. Hún er rithöfundur og nýtt bók hennar er kallað Skörun Heima: Nýlenduliminalítet í Bókmenntum Suðurríkja Bandaríkjanna og Íslands
Hún kennir í heimsbókmenntum á ensku í Massachusetts og hún skrifaði tvær bækur — Skörun Heima og Lögregla Nánd. En hún er að reyna eitt það erfiðasta – að læra íslensku.
Við ætlum að ræða hversu lengi hún hefur lært íslensku, hvernig hún æfir íslensku, vandamál við að læra tungumálið og ráðleggingar fyrir byrjendur.
Jenna, gætirðu kynnt þig fyrir okkur?
Jenna:
Já, godan daginn. Ég heiti Jenna. Ég er frá Massachusetts í Bandaríkjunum. Ég er prófessor í bókmenntum. Ég skrifa um bandarískar bókmenntir, arabískar bókmenntir og líka núna íslenskar bókmenntir.
IAC:
Hversu lengi hefur þú verið að læra íslensku?
Jenna:
Ég hef lært íslensku síðan 2020, en ég hef lært meira síðan í september 2023, þegar ég byrjaði á námskeiðum með INLUS (eða Icelandic National League of the United States).
IAC:
Hvernig lærir þú tungumálið?
Jenna:
Ég nota margar aðferðir. Mér finnst þær virka vel fyrir mig. Ég tek net-námskeið þegar ég get (Takk fyrir Birna, kennarinn minn!), og ég er í íslenskum lestrar- og þýðingarhópi. Þetta er skip-u-lagt af INLUS. Ég reyna líka að lesa, horfa á bíómyndir og sjónvarp, hlusta á hlaðvörp (eins og þetta!), og nota stafrænar glósur og forrit eins og Icelandic Online og TVÍK, nýtt app. Mér finnst RÚV Orð vera mjög gagnlegt til að læra íslensku með sjónvarpi. Það hefur íslenskan texta og innbyggðar skilgrein-in-gar.
IAC:
Hverjar eru áskoranirnar sem þú mætir þegar þú lærir íslensku?
Jenna:
Já, Ég er enn hikandi að byrja samtöl á íslensku. Í sumar bjó ég í Reykjavík í þrjá mánuði. Ég var Snorri Sturluson fræðimaður í gegnum Árnastofnun. En ég talaði bara stundum íslensku og átti erfitt með að opna mig. Jæja, hugur minn fraus(froys) þegar ég reyndi að tala lengur en stutt samtal í búð eða á veitingastað.
IAC:
Hvernig færðu yfir þessi hindranir?
Jenna:
Næsta sumar kem ég aftur til Íslands og ætla að búa í sveit á Austurlandi. Ég ætla að vera skáld á staðnum á fyrrum heimili Gunnars Gunnarssonar, Skrið-u-klaus-tri, nálægt Egilsstöðum. Mig langar að tala meiri íslensku og vera með meira sjálfstraust.
Til að hjálpa mér með þetta tek ég þátt í æfingum, eins og samtals-hópi hjá Íslendingafélagið í Chicago (eða Icelandic Association of Chicago). Ég ætla að læra ný orð og vera öruggari með einfaldar setningar. Ég á nýja vinkonu sem er líka að læra íslensku. Við æfum oft saman!
Mér finnst hjálplegt að tala og æfi mig í að tala stutt í einu yfir vikuna. Ég reyni að læra, lesa eða hlusta á íslensku á hverjum degi.
IAC
Hvað myndir þú mæla með til að hjálpa öðrum að læra íslensku?
Jenna
Ráðið mitt er að sökkva þér í tungumálið á marga vegu: hlustaðu á hlaðvörp og tónlist, horfðu á þætti, og lestu bækur! Ef þú getur, talaðu við aðra sem eru að læra. Þið getið hjálpað hvort öðru og haft gaman af því að læra saman!