Avtrykk av den europeiske flyktningkrisa i 2015

Minnearbeid i fire norske barnekulturelle verk

Abstract

Abstract: (English)

This article examines four Norwegian cultural expressions, aimed at children and young adults, that came out between the years 2016 and 2017, and tell of specific events and narratives known from what has been called the European refugee crisis in 2015. The four cultural expressions consist of a popsong, “Gutten på stranda” [The boy on the Beach”] by the Norwegian band Rasmus og Verdens Beste band, the stage production, “Myke øyne” [“Soft eyes”] by Kate Pendry, performed by Artilleriet Produksoner, the novel Hver morgen dyppet min søster brystene i isvann for å bli pen [Every Morning My Sister Dipped her Breasts into Icy Water to be Pretty] by Bjørn Sortland, and the theatre play “MariAmira” by Siri Broch Johansen. The article has thus a transmedial approach, and I examine how the refugee crisis is mediated across different cultural expressions. The theoretical foundation for the article is based on memory theory, and in the article, I argue that we can understand the mediation of the refugee crisis in the cultural expressions as “memory-making” (Erll & Rigney, 2009). I argue that through their mediation, the cultural works take part in establishing what is remembered from the refugee crisis, but also in how they are remembered. Thus, the fulcrum of the article is to examine how the mediation of specific events and narratives is establishing and shaping collective and cultural memory from the European refugee crisis from 2015.