Olwig, Kenneth
- Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
Reactionary modernism is identified with Nazism, but modernism itself often has a reactionary dimension, which arguably can be traced partially back to the Renaissance construction of the modern map and, from it, perspectival, scenic landscape. The perspectival space of scenic landscape characteristically creates a dialectical hybrid consisting of, on the one hand, an invisible, lawful, geometric spatial framework expressing a modern scientific rationality, and on the other hand, a visible and holistic, but illusory visual scene of organic nature, place, and community appealing to reactionary affect, nostalgia, and emotion. This “duplicitous” dialectic can be termed “diabolic” as opposed to “symbolic.” The construction and consequences of this hybrid are illustrated by how Selma Lagerlöf’s Swedish geography reader cum children’s story, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils Holgersson, affected the modernism of Torsten Hägerstrand’s time-geographical spatial science and the reactionary modernism of Konrad Lorenz’s Nazi biology, and by extension contemporary
Keywords
landscape scenery; Nazism; pedagogy; rewilding; spatial science
Published in
GeoHumanities
2017, volume: 3, number: 1, pages: 41-64
SLU Authors
UKÄ Subject classification
Behavioral Sciences Biology
Other Educational Sciences
Human Geography
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/2373566X.2016.1245108
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/80209