Research interests
My main research has primarily focussed on the relationship between literature, nationalism and canonisation, in such areas as literary historiography, minority literatures in a majority context, emigrant/immigrant literatures, and literary self-representation.
While my initial research dealt with Icelandic-Canadian literature, I have since made contemporary Icelandic fiction the main focus of my research, and for some years now I have been wanting to explore in more detail the role of magical realism in Icelandic fiction from a post-colonial perspective.
Recently I have become interested in the role and representation of memory in literature, particularly in relation to the Icelandic experience of the Second World War and its aftermath (occupation and NATO base) as depicted in post-war Icelandic fiction.
I am also interested in studying the image of post-medieval Iceland in foreign fiction, focussing on relevant novels and short stories from other Scandinavian countries, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and France.
Research projects
I am currently involved in three separate research projects:
- an individual research project on the interpretation of the war experience and a critical reappraisal of wartime memory in post-war Icelandic fiction (funded by a Leverhulme Research Grant);
- an interdisciplinary research project on "Iceland and the Images of the North", led by Sumarliði Ísleifsson at the Reykjavík Academy, with a contribution on the representation of Iceland in European literature from the modern era (project funded by a Grant of Excellence from Rannís, The Icelandic Centre for Research: http://www.inor.is);
- a research project with Cristina Ros i Sole from LWW-CETL on the use of multimedia players in language learning.
