Borealism

Borealism is a form of exoticism in which stereotypes are imposed on the Earth's northern regions and cultures (particularly the Nordic and Arctic regions).

The Faroese folk metal band Týr performing in Copenhagen in 2007. Their development of a Viking-Faroese brand has been interpreted as self-exoticisation that capitalises on international enthusiasm for borealism.[1]

The term was inspired by the similar concept of Orientalism, first coined by Edward Said.[2][3] Like Orientalism, Borealism has its roots in eighteenth-century European Romanticism and Romantics' fantasies about distant regions (though wild imaginings about the arctic regions can be traced back into Antiquity). Borealism can include the paradoxical ideas that the North is uniquely savage, inhospitable, or barbaric, and that it is uniquely sublime, pure, or enlightened.[4]

A further form of borealism is the explicit invocation of the boreal by white-supremacist far-right politicians.

Etymology

The term borealism derives from the adjective boreal, which originates from the name of the deity of the north wind Boreas (Βορέας) in Greek mythology.[5] The term denotes what is or comes from in the northern hemisphere. It opposes austral, denoting what lies in or comes from the southern hemisphere, and is also connected to the terms oriental (denoting what lies in the east) and occidental (denoting what lies in the west).

Boreal is not synonymous with northern, the latter qualifying what is north; the first indicates an absolute position, while the second indicates a relative position.

Borealism in art and culture

Examples of borealism include Icelandic financiers being imagined as 'raiding Vikings' during the banking boom that culminated in the 2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis;[6] the traditional music of Scandinavia being seen as distinctively sublime;[7] the stereotyping of Sámi people as strange and magical savages;[8] differences between Canadians and Americans being accounted for by Canadians' proximity to arctic wilderness;[9] and commentators imagining that the music of the Icelandic band Sigur Rós is the product of Iceland's distinctive geology of glaciers and volcanoes.[10]

Borealism in far-right politics

Although the concept of "hyperboreal" in relation to the origins of European civilization was already used by esoteric and metaphysical writers such as Helena Blavatsky and René Guénon, the term "boreal" was adopted into far-right political language by the Italian reactionary and traditionalist Julius Evola, who is influential in extreme right-wing circles. In his book Rivolta contro il mondo moderno (Revolt against the Modern World; 1934) Evola writes that in the "Golden Age" the center of the "Olympic civilization" that spread across the Eurasian continent was in a "Boreal" or Nordic "region". The Thule-Gesellschaft, a secret society of which the Nazi Heinrich Himmler was a member, believed that the Aryan race came from the mythical northern province of Hyperborea.

In the discourse of twenty-first-century postmodern politics, the term boreal is used by politicians like Jean-Marie Le Pen in France and Thierry Baudet in The Netherlands to refer vaguely and semi-mythically to Northern Europe and its ethnic groups, culture and languages. The term is used to imply a white cultural and political space "from Gibraltar to Vladivostok", as opposed to the migrating minorities, in an attempt to avoid openly racist connotations. Thus the term "boreal" is used as a euphemistic way of saying "white" when referring to White people. Le Pen's statements about a "boreal Europe" and "white world" contributed to him being expelled by Marine Le Pen in 2015 as a member of the Front National.[11][12]

The term has also been used by Russian-nationalist movements since the 1990s after the fall of the Berlin wall as an indication of ethnic Russians.

In the Netherlands, Forum for Democracy (FvD) leader Thierry Baudet introduced the word in a political context.[13] At the first party congress of the FvD in 2017, he spoke about "our boreal Europe"; in the victory speech he gave to his followers after the 2019 Dutch provincial elections, about "our boreal world".[14][15][16] Following criticism of his speech, he stated in an interview that he was referring to "a beautiful, poetic designation" of Europe, the western world or western civilization. According to Baudet, the boreal is also the part of the world that is illuminated by the aurora borealis or the northern lights. These are mainly Western countries in Europe and North America.

See also

• Aryan
• Caucasoid
• Dog-whistle politics
• Ethnic groups in Europe
• Genetic history of Europe
• Orientalism
• Nordicism
• Sociology of race and ethnic relations
• White supremacy

References

1. Green, Joshua, 'From the Faroes to the World Stage', in The Oxford Handbook of Popular Music in the Nordic Countries, ed. by Fabian Holt, Antti-Ville Kärjä (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), pp. 111–29 (esp. p. 123).
2. Kristinn Schram, 'Borealism: Folkloristic Perspectives on Transnational Performances and the Exoticism of the North' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2011), p. 8.
3. Kristinn Schram, 'Banking on Borealism: Eating, Smelling, and Performing the North', in Iceland and Images of the North, ed. by Sumarliði R. Ísleifsson (Québec: Presses de l'Université du Québec, 2011), pp. 305-27 (p. 310).
4. Philip V. Bohlman, 'Musical Borealism: Nordic Music and European History', in The Oxford Handbook of Popular Music in the Nordic Countries, ed. by Fabian Holt and Antti-Ville Kärjä (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), pp. 33-57 (pp. 39-42). ISBN 9780190603908.
5. 'Boreal, adj.', Oxford English Dictionary Online, 2nd edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press), accessed 26 July 2019.
6. Kristinn Schram, 'Banking on Borealism: Eating, Smelling, and Performing the North', in Iceland and Images of the North, ed. by Sumarliði R. Ísleifsson (Québec: Presses de l'Université du Québec, 2011), pp. 305-27.
7. Philip V. Bohlman, 'Musical Borealism: Nordic Music and European History', in The Oxford Handbook of Popular Music in the Nordic Countries, ed. by Fabian Holt and Antti-Ville Kärjä (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), pp. 33-57. ISBN 9780190603908.
8. Sanna Lehtonen, 'Touring the Magical North – Borealism and the Indigenous Sámi in Contemporary English-language Children’s Fantasy Literature', European Journal of Cultural Studies, 22.3 (2017), 327–44. doi:10.1177/1367549417722091.
9. Thomas G. Barnes, '“Canada, True North”: A “Here There” or a Boreal Myth?', American Review of Canadian Studies, 19.4 (1989), 369-79. doi:10.1080/02722018909481462.
10. Tore Størvold, 'Sigur Rós: Reception, Borealism, and Musical Style', Popular Music, 37.3 (2018), 371-91 doi:10.1017/S0261143018000442.
11. “We must save Boreal Europe & the white world”: Jean-Marie Le Pen’s Rivarol Interview Counter-Currents Publishing, 9 april 2015
12. Race blanche" : pour Jean-Marie Le Pen, Nadine Morano a "énoncé une évidence historique
13. Hoe Thierry Baudet aan de lippen hing van Jean-Marie Le Pen
14. On owls, women and the boreal world: 10 things Thierry Baudet has said
15. Meet Thierry Baudet, the suave new face of Dutch rightwing populism
16. The New Face of the Dutch Far-Right - Thierry Baudet once called politicians brain-dead. Now his upstart white nationalist movement has eclipsed Geert Wilders and won more Senate seats than the prime minister’s party