| Popis: |
Islands are epitomes of difference, isolation and separation that bring forth questions of an inside and an outside. From spaces of exception and test-tubes to places of banishment and new beginnings islands mark a separation from the mainstream and the many. As the grounds and spaces of deviant cultures mediated through variegated infrastructural, technological and cultural links, their difference easily engenders identity narratives, practices of cooperation, connection and control and steadfast discourses of heritage and tradition that live in their own trajectories. Island life is often conditioned by self-sufficiency, strong communities, sustainability and everyday functionalism. Yet, if seen from the outside, from the continental perspective, islands merge into an archipelago of otherness where the mainland is usually defined as the standard. Such othering subsumes the differences islands have between themselves and, arguably, within. From this difference arises a question of how islands (are expected to) contribute to regional and national cultures, how much latitude they have for being creatively different and how islands and archipelago communities forge a sense of identity and place. Drawing from examples from Danish and Finnish islands, their separateness and distinctions, politics of connection and coherence and discourses of heritage and island legacies, the presentation lays the basis for understanding island life, how it is experienced, managed and represented and how being together but apart both challenges and contributes to national identity and heritage discourses. |
