“Ein våg me ikkje ha visst um”? Frankfurt 2019 as an expression of Norwegian foreign cultural policy
Master thesis
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Date
2019Metadata
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- Master i kulturstudier [131]
Abstract
Having been heralded as the most important foreign cultural policy effort in Norwegian history, this thesis investigates selected milestone events in the preparatory phase leading up to the country’s guest of honour status at the 2019 Frankfurt Book Fair. In my analysis of the discourse produced at (and through) these events, I challenge the notion of uniqueness that is insinuated by the organizers’ choice of Olav H. Hauge’s poem Det er den draumen as the project’s literary mascot. From a foreign cultural policy standpoint, I claim, there is little reason to believe that “Frankfurt 2019” is to “slip in to a harbour that we’ve never known”1. Referencing a body of relevant policy documents and existing research as supporting evidence, I argue instead that the discourse around this particular undertaking is clearly influenced by, and to a large degree representative of, the three knowledge/power regimes that researcher Ola K. Berge identifies as dominant within the field.