Saga - 2018, Síða 57

„okkar“ og „hinna“ sem undirstrikar sífellda mótun og endurmótun
marka innan flæktra rýma. Þetta síbreytilega eðli gefur okkur færi á
að skoða mörkin milli hins innlenda og hins erlenda í nýju ljósi sem
dregur ekki síst athygli okkar að því hvernig þau færast til og hverfa
jafnvel um stundarsakir, en birtast síðan aftur á nýjum stað.
Abstract
íris ellenberger
MASkING THE PROVINCIALITy
Mobility and cultural conflicts in Reykjavik 1890–1920
This article examines how the international mobility of the period 1890–1920 man-
ifested itself in Iceland, a small community at the edge of the mass migration
movements in North Atlantic countries. The ways in which different but
connected streams of people intertwined and formed contact zones in the local
community of Reykjavik are discussed. The different mobilities of various social
groups are examined with an emphasis on people traditionally considered
Icelandic, at least in part. That is to say, the internal migration of rural residents
to the city and the mobility of the Reykjavik dominant class across transnational
social spaces that crossed national borders. The goal is to show how these contact
zones and the mobility within and outside them had a formative influence on the
local society. The different relationship of these groups to the concept of otherness
is therefore also discussed, i.e. the different ways and circumstances in which they
were viewed as “the other”.
In order to form a clearer picture of how the definitions and conflicts between
different social groups shaped the local community, the traditions, habits, clothing
and language of the Reykjavik dominant class is examined with reference to
Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of how the dominant class distinguishes itself from other
social classes on the basis of refined taste. The conclusion is that bourgeois con-
sumer products were disseminated through the transnational social spaces that
were the products of the mobility that characterised the late 19th and early 20th
century. The purpose of this import was not least to confirm and maintain the
social status of the dominant class over Reykjavik residents who did not have a
comparable social status. Attempts by women of the Reykjavik dominant class to
acquire the “proper” furnishings for their living rooms and “modern” clothing
were therefore logical strategies to maintain their elevated social status. These
were also important means of power in a society that doubled in size every
decade owing to people of the lower class migrating from rural areas to the city.
This article illustrates how the great mobility that characterised Atlantic coun-
tries in 1890–1920 did not leave Iceland unaffected and how Reykjavik was linked
to various migrant streams during the period. The ways in which these different
flows of people intertwined to form contact zones between different cultures in
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