Perspectives from Sápmi and Beyond

Kaja Gjelde, MA

In this seminar-style course, participants will gain an overview of Sámi literature from diverse perspectives of and about the Sámi. The Sámi are an Indigenous people whose traditional territory, Sápmi, spans across northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Written accounts of the Sámi go as far back as the Roman Empire, and through the ages the Sámi have been falsely perceived as subhuman and even an exotic ‘Asiatic’ race. However, since the early twentieth century Sámi authors, poets and artists have taken back the narrative. This course highlights Sámi voices in Sápmi and beyond for reconstructing the past to better understand the present, including a variety of forms and literary genres: poetry, joik text, folklore, non-fiction testimony and more.