Papers by Brynjarr Þór Mendoza
The island as a place and space bears with it a curious allure. Its isolation from the affairs of... more The island as a place and space bears with it a curious allure. Its isolation from the affairs of the larger world beyond allows it to form its own microcosm. The secluded nature of the island’s spatiality also means that narratives can be contained or withheld within its confines. Johanna Holmström’s Själarnas ö reconfigures exactly such a spatiality and complicates it further by depicting the experiences of figures whose voices lack an audience in literary representation, bringing to light the narratives of those who are isolated, shunned, and forgotten by society and outcasted by cultural institutions.
This paper will explore how literature can become a vehicle for the distribution of narratives of historically “invisible” figures. In particular, it argues that Själarnas ö raises a platform for the narratives on and of women diagnosed with mental illness through a depiction of the affective feelings and narratives that arise through the spatiality of the island. In this manner, the island becomes the central as well as starting point of the narratives that conditions their social reception, and within its space, characters are able to witness and relay the experiences of others. Additionally, this paper proposes that Holmström provides a different perspective on experience by focusing on the narrativization of bodily and embodied feelings. This is a distinctive understanding of experience and life-narratives in that both phenomena are not only represented as cognitive but also bodily in her novel. In this paper, I will question the ethics of narrative and experiential transmissions and ask: can literature properly give voice to the invisible and disregarded figures in society? How, if so, does it engage readers to empathize with such characters? How does Holmström’s novel critically engage with historical attitudes towards mental illness? My article builds on previous work by Jutta Ahlbeck and Michel Foucault through the lens of narrative hermeneutics.
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https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=14985
In this paper I will argue that Ólafur Elíasson's glacial oeuvre transposes Romantic notions of I... more In this paper I will argue that Ólafur Elíasson's glacial oeuvre transposes Romantic notions of Icelandic nature in art and extends them towards postcolonial imagery, allowing for an environmentalist critique of capitalist conquests of nature that is uniquely Icelandic in character. I will explore the history of aesthetics in Iceland and exmaine its relationship with (de- and post-) colonial movements, having conceptions of Icelandic nature as a focal point. I will then mark the onset of the consequent re-conception of Icelandic nature as an aesthetic object as it appears in Elíasson's glacial works in the context of Icelandic cultural currents, underlining the importance of his artworks both in the promotion of Icelandic nature as well as its conservation.
"Mörk skynjunar og náttúrulegrar hugsunar": Fagurfræði forvitninnar og sýndarfærsla fegurðarinnar í Rökkurbýsnum Sjóns, 2021
This thesis will explore the aesthetics of curiosity in Sjón’s novel, From the Mouth of the Whale... more This thesis will explore the aesthetics of curiosity in Sjón’s novel, From the Mouth of the Whale. The author of this thesis will analyse the surrealist elements in the novel by retracing concepts of beauty from Plato’s theories to manifestations of beauty as they appear in the novel. With such perspectives at hand, the epiphanies of the protagonist, Jónas the Learned, will be analysed as an experience of beauty through Slavoj Žižek’s theories on what he calls “the parallax view”.
Asking the titular question entails considering different concepts of authorship, from the modern... more Asking the titular question entails considering different concepts of authorship, from the modern sense of the term to Michel Foucault’s idea of the “author function,” as well as considering Halldór Laxness’s connection with the Icelandic sagas, in terms of his reception, editing, and rewriting/translation of them. The context of Halldór’s contemporary Iceland is also important, specifically the prevailing perceptions of the sagas. This article explores the interrelationship between Fóstbræðra saga and Halldór’s Gerpla through intertextuality and, ultimately, Halldór’s role in the contemporary reception of Fóstbræðra saga. The article was originally published in the journal Skáldskaparmál: Tímarit um íslenskar bókmenntir fyrri alda (1990). It has been slightly revised for republication in the author’s book, Orðaskil: Í heimi þýðinga (2017) and for this translation, which has been produced in collaboration with the author.
Scandinavian-Canadian Studies, vol. 26, 2019, pp. 132-155.
Impressionist tone of the painting radiates a sense -if only an impression -of the surreal and th... more Impressionist tone of the painting radiates a sense -if only an impression -of the surreal and the uncanny. The other is Ian McEwan's novel The Child in Time. The novel opens with the dissolution of home caused by the loss of a child; what happens thenceforth builds up a sense of the dissolution of reality wherein the reader is taken through the realm of the uncanny. Indeed, there is in The Child in Time a dimensional shift into the Surreal, a realm through which
Drafts by Brynjarr Þór Mendoza
In undertaking research on masculinities in conjunction with the study of African literature, it ... more In undertaking research on masculinities in conjunction with the study of African literature, it is well worth keeping in mind that such an endeavour cannot seek to provide incontestable answers to questions and concerns regarding these two branches of knowledge. Masculinity, African, and literary studies are fluid fields of understanding whose concepts and theories remain in constant flux and are under continuous scrutiny. African literature, especially, is frequently refashioned in light of the onset and shifts of varying understandings towards and from postcolonial, historical, and gender theories. Discussions from Western theories and terminologies are perpetually deconstructed, reshaped and reused, allowing perspectives from more African and postcolonially-oriented scholarship to take the reins. This study will examine Chigozie Obioma's The Fishermen, as the novel presents interesting and insightful ways with which one can come to an understanding of the concept(s) of masculinity in a Nigerian context. Following various theories from the study of masculinity/ masculinities, this essay seeks to explore the manners in which masculinity is depicted in The Fishermen as well as the underlying perspectives on the vectors at play in the work. Here, I will argue that masculinity in The Fishermen is depicted as multifaceted and homosocial, emerging and being manifested through the form of narratives whose central point converges in Ben. In
Fjallað verður um hugtak Heideggers um poiesis í tengslum við kenningasmíði á hugtakinu "afsköpun... more Fjallað verður um hugtak Heideggers um poiesis í tengslum við kenningasmíði á hugtakinu "afsköpun" (afskabelse/ decreation) í bók Rakelar Haslund-Gjerrilds, Alle himlens fugle (2020). (12-16 bls.)
B.A. thesis in Icelandic on the aesthetics of curiosity, the parallax view and poetics in Sjón's ... more B.A. thesis in Icelandic on the aesthetics of curiosity, the parallax view and poetics in Sjón's From the Mouth of the Whale. May 2021. Supervised by Birna Bjarnadóttir
Fornenska kvaeðið Beowulf hefur löngu verið háreistur minnisvarði í enskum bókmenntum sérstaklega... more Fornenska kvaeðið Beowulf hefur löngu verið háreistur minnisvarði í enskum bókmenntum sérstaklega eftir tvö tímamót í framhaldslífinu sínu í fraeðum og bókmenntasögu, nefnilega þegar J.R.R. Tolkien flutti fyrirlestur sinn The Monsters and the Critics árið 1983 og þegar birt var þýðing írska nóbelskáldsins Seamus Heaneys á kvaeðinu árið 1999. En þessi minnisvarði er hvorki eins þekktur né eins naerkominn á Íslandi og hann er á enskumaelandi ríkjum jafnvel þótt að kvaeðið hafi verið þýtt á íslensku af Halldóru B. Björnsson að nafninu Bjólfskviða. Þessi huldi gimsteinn ber þó sérstök einkenni sem áhugavert vaeri að skoða í samhengi íslenskra bókmennta sem og þýðingafraeðinnar. Bjólfskviða kemur fram sem rof í heimsbókmenntum og þýðingarfraeðinni um leið og hún byggir brú milli íslenskra bókmennta og þeirra ensku og tengir einnig fortíðina við nútímans. Þess vegna situr hún á ákveðnum staði í íslenskum bókmenntum. Hér er verið að skoða hlutverk Bjólfskviðu sem "innri þýðingu" -ef taka má hugtak Ástráðs Eysteinssonar -þar sem lagt verður fram að hún kemur sérstaeðum atriðum til íslenskra bókmennta, þ.e. textatengslum, róttaekri miðlun og sögulegri endursköpun.
Sé litið á íslenska bókmenntasögu má marka tignarlegar hetjudáðir, furðuleg aevintýri og eftirtek... more Sé litið á íslenska bókmenntasögu má marka tignarlegar hetjudáðir, furðuleg aevintýri og eftirtektarverða atburði. En þessi lýsing er í raun rómantískrar raddar. Hina afstöðu er haegt að sjá í góðkunnum orðum Jóns Ólafssonar frá Grunnavík, frá 18. öld, "baendur flugust á" sem daemdu Íslendingasögunum fyrir því að vera ofauknar og ýktar frásagnir um landnámsfólk Íslands. Því má kannski telja að þessi fullyrðing sé hin óvaegnasta í rófinu. Engu að síður er sanngjarnt að segja að þaer fornu sögur saeti nokkurn veginn furðu. Tilhneigingu 1 Grímur Thomsen: "Sérkenni íslenzkra bókmennta". Íslenzkar bókmenntir og heimsskoðun. Reykjavík 1975, bls. 53. 2 Sama rit, bls. 65. 3 Sjá t.d. Edmund Burke. A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of teh Sublime and Beautiful. Ritstj. James Boulton. 1987. 4 "Sérkenni íslenzkra bókmennta", bls. 65-70.
Food, fertility and decay in the Þjazi-Iðunn narrative Many are the myths in Old Norse literature... more Food, fertility and decay in the Þjazi-Iðunn narrative Many are the myths in Old Norse literature that provide narratives of the adventures of the gods and their battles against the giants. Some take place in Ásgarður, others in the Jötunheimar, while others are set in locations that evade a specified emplacement. Often are they full of mysteries, brimming intrinsically with significance but also somehow eluding a canonical interpretation. Many arguments for interpretation have been set forth in the battlefield of Old Norse studies, and even at present there is still much ado about a broad scope of topics.
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Papers by Brynjarr Þór Mendoza
This paper will explore how literature can become a vehicle for the distribution of narratives of historically “invisible” figures. In particular, it argues that Själarnas ö raises a platform for the narratives on and of women diagnosed with mental illness through a depiction of the affective feelings and narratives that arise through the spatiality of the island. In this manner, the island becomes the central as well as starting point of the narratives that conditions their social reception, and within its space, characters are able to witness and relay the experiences of others. Additionally, this paper proposes that Holmström provides a different perspective on experience by focusing on the narrativization of bodily and embodied feelings. This is a distinctive understanding of experience and life-narratives in that both phenomena are not only represented as cognitive but also bodily in her novel. In this paper, I will question the ethics of narrative and experiential transmissions and ask: can literature properly give voice to the invisible and disregarded figures in society? How, if so, does it engage readers to empathize with such characters? How does Holmström’s novel critically engage with historical attitudes towards mental illness? My article builds on previous work by Jutta Ahlbeck and Michel Foucault through the lens of narrative hermeneutics.
Scandinavian-Canadian Studies, vol. 26, 2019, pp. 132-155.
Drafts by Brynjarr Þór Mendoza
This paper will explore how literature can become a vehicle for the distribution of narratives of historically “invisible” figures. In particular, it argues that Själarnas ö raises a platform for the narratives on and of women diagnosed with mental illness through a depiction of the affective feelings and narratives that arise through the spatiality of the island. In this manner, the island becomes the central as well as starting point of the narratives that conditions their social reception, and within its space, characters are able to witness and relay the experiences of others. Additionally, this paper proposes that Holmström provides a different perspective on experience by focusing on the narrativization of bodily and embodied feelings. This is a distinctive understanding of experience and life-narratives in that both phenomena are not only represented as cognitive but also bodily in her novel. In this paper, I will question the ethics of narrative and experiential transmissions and ask: can literature properly give voice to the invisible and disregarded figures in society? How, if so, does it engage readers to empathize with such characters? How does Holmström’s novel critically engage with historical attitudes towards mental illness? My article builds on previous work by Jutta Ahlbeck and Michel Foucault through the lens of narrative hermeneutics.
Scandinavian-Canadian Studies, vol. 26, 2019, pp. 132-155.
Submitted for presentation at the Leeds Medieval Congress in 2020.
Um höfundarvirkni, textatengsl og þýðingu í sambandi Laxness við fornsögurnar" by Ástráður Eysteinsson. (Pre-print).