Scandihoovian Space in America’s Upper Midwest: Impersonating Ole and Lena in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

Settled by Norwegians and Swedes in the nineteenth century, America’s Upper Midwest has come to be regarded imaginatively by residents as a “Scandihoovian” space, thanks largely to the evolving presence of Ole and Lena. These comic, tural challenges confronting immigrants, but by the late nineteenth century they had in broken-English dialect. Ole and Lena thrived in the twentieth century as they were not only impersonated by comic performers throughout the region, but also popularmore Swedish than Norwegian, and typically performed by Scandinavian Americans, Ole and Lena have come to be viewed as mainly Norwegian and their impersonators may be non-Scandinavian-Americans who consider the characters to be emblematic of Upper Midwesterners, whatever their descent.