Desirable Sámi: On Travelogues as Affective Resource in Early Indigenous Tourism

Authors

  • Gustav Westberg Örebro universitet
  • Karin Idevall Hagren Stockholms universitet

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5617/sakprosa.8917

Keywords:

affect, affective practice, colonialism, sámi, Swedish Tourist Association, indigenous tourism, travelouges, sápmi, authenticity

Abstract

Since the booming of mass tourism, the desire for authenticity has been projected on Sámi culture. With a focus on how early indigenous tourism established Sámi culture as desirable, this article unpacks how tourists are affectively positioned through travelogues in the Swedish Tourist Association’s yearbooks 1886–1914. The article is framed as an affective discourse study, and the travelogues are investigated with respect to how encounters between tourists and Sámi people are represented in terms of actant roles, and further, how such representations afford certain affective positions to the ideal reader of the travelogues. The results show how the desire for Sámi culture constitutes a mix of emotions such as lust, attraction, disgust, and well-being. The article argues that these affective positions resonate with colonial and scientific racism ideals. Concludingly, the article calls for further affective discourse studies of how tourists and Sámi people are positioned through ambiguous and conflicting emotions within indigenous tourism.

Author Biographies

Gustav Westberg, Örebro universitet

Gustav Westberg är filosofie doktor i nordiska språk och docent i svenska språket vid Örebro universitet. Hans forskning är grundad i multimodal kritisk diskursanalys, och har på sistone kretsats kring affekt i kommersiella och politiska diskurser. Några aktuella publikationer är ”Affect as a multimodal practice” (2021) i Multimodality and Society, ”Desiring the indigenous: affective commodification of the Sámi” (2021) i Social Semiotics, ”Affective Rebirth: Discursive gateways to contemporary national socialism” (2021) i Discourse & Society och ”Corona, vaghet och skam: om myndighets-komunikation och affekt på sociala medier (2020) i Språk & Stil.

Karin Idevall Hagren, Stockholms universitet

Karin Idevall Hagren has a Ph.D. in Scandinavian Languages and is a lecturer at Stockholm University. Her research utilizes a discourse analytical framework and concerns racism, national identity and social categorisations. Current research focuses on Swedish national identity in individual narratives, racism debates, and media reporting on Covid-19. Recent publications are ”Othering in discursive constructions of Swedish national identity, 1870-1940” (2021) in Critical Discourse Studies, and ”Nature, modernity, and diversity: Swedish national identity in a touring association’s yearbooks 1886–2013” (2020) in National Identities.

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Published

2022-03-18

Issue

Vol. 14 No. 1 (2022): Desirable Sámi: On Travelogues as Affective Resource in Early Indigenous Tourism

Section

Artikler