Dorothee Hippel, M.A.

Dorothee Hippel was a PhD Candidate at the Research Training Group from April 2012 to March 2013 and received a DAAD scholarship in April 2013 to pursue her research in Reykjavík for another semester.

Abstract of the Dissertation Project

The Icelandic Financial Crisis as Reflected in Writing

International financial markets play a central part in the processes of globalization. The crisis that engulfed the financial markets in Fall 2008 can be seen as a culmination of interactions between their own intrinsic logic and the processes of globalization. The effect of the financial crisis on Iceland is considered to be an extreme example. Here, one can examine in fast motion how the dynamics that unfolded and are still gathering momentum in a large part of the world affect economy and society, and how they correlate with cultural processes of reflection and interpretation.

These processes are the main issue of this dissertation. The project focuses on literature and language as crucial elements of Icelandic culture and identity formation. In every phase of the development of the crisis literature took an important role in the Icelandic discourse – from the rhapsodical modernization and the self-perception of Iceland, as well as Icelanders themselves, as international "Shooting Stars" before the crisis, through the lack of power and experiences of interdependence at the climax of the crisis, to the return to "traditional values" in the process of renovation in the aftermath.

The project will review the literary discourse and investigate the works of major importance. The aim is to analyze the function of literary discourse, the literary impact on society, and the ways literary themes, forms, and language become objects of globalization themselves.