Critical Geographer, Northern Art and Contesting of Gendered Northernness

Abstract

This paper discusses the question of what is the position of a critical researcher in front of his research subject. The discussion starts from the theoretical presumption, based on postcolonial and ecofeminist theories, that the north has attained its imaginative regional ‘form’ as an outcome of colonialist endeavors, as a part of a historical process which has been fundamentally linked with masculinist ideologies. With this in mind, literature is considered here as a crucial institutional factor in the processes of stereotype construction, while at the same time still offering a deconstructive possibility to challenge the prevailing conceptions. The discussion is based on an interview of Rosa Liksom, one of the most influential northern artists whose literary work has contested the gendered aspects of northern literature and stereotypes related to northernness. The purpose of this paper is to delve self-reflectively into what happens to the theoretical arguments and findings of a critical geographer when they are confronted with the arguments and opinions of the creator of his research materials.