Going to Eden: Nordic exceptionalism and the image of blackness in Iceland

Abstract

Images and texts referring to Africa and African people have been created in Iceland since earliest time, in spite of Iceland's somewhat marginalized position. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century Icelanders were well familiar with the racial stereotypes dominating European discourse, and which often celebrated the colonial project, simultaneously as Icelanders themselves sought independence. My discussion suggests that social discourses addressing racism and race in Iceland reflect attempts to hold on to an idea of Icelandic innocence as a persistent and ongoing Icelandic characteristic, and Iceland seen as exempted from racism and colonialism of the past. This refusal to acknowledge racism has been also shown in other Nordic countries, thus reflecting a notion of Nordic exceptionalism. To demonstrate this, I focus on two social debates regarding racism in Iceland.