As increasing levels of attention are directed northwards to the rapidly changing Arctic region, states and stakeholders from near and far position themselves in anticipation of what is yet to come – challenges and opportunities, Arctic futures. For the eight Arctic states with territory north of the Arctic Circle, this has prompted new emphasis on their ‘Arctic identities’: political claims of homelands and histories through which formal credibility and authority are consolidated and normalised. However, as a space that has often been imagined in terms of distances, frontiers, ice, cold, and snow, Arctic identity narratives are a matter of re-interpretation, re-negotiation, and re-imagination of the ‘nation-state’, who and where ‘we’ are. While emotive statements of identity may or may not resonate with electorates, what has hitherto been less explored is how these work within the state itself to condition political practice. That is, how a formal title of Arctic statehood is understood, related to, and subsequently enacted by those tasked with its everyday performance – indeed, the everyday practices through which the ‘Arctic state’ emerges as such. Recognising the state as an idea(l) that only ‘materialises’ as an effect of practice arguably necessitates attention to those performing said practices – state personnel. To this end, I here introduce the concept of ‘state identity’ discourses in order to explore how state representatives’ articulations of identity are bounded in spatiotemporal terms, and yet, are always relational; the Arctic state comes about through encounters at all scales of interaction, from the international to the intimately personal. With reflections from state representatives in three of the eight Arctic states – Norway, Iceland, and Canada – I argue that we need to acknowledge the numerous subjectivities, stories, and relations through which the Arctic state comes into being, thereby ‘peopling’ the state.

This thesis asks whether there existed a unified view of the Arctic during the time period connected to the high point of British endeavour to find a Northwest Passage, from the first expeditions of the nineteenth-century in 1818 to the return of the last Franklin search party in 1859, forty-one years later. Using this time frame as its marker, the focus of the thesis is primarily on British representations of Arctic landscapes, exploration and Inuit peoples. Through careful empirical analysis of a variety of media, including professional painting, on-the-spot sketches, prints and popular exhibitions, it examines from an art historical viewpoint the historical, political, social and aesthetic contexts in which Arctic representations occurred.

This thesis examines and analyzes the extant archaeological, historical, and literary evidence for the beliefs and practices of the Greenland Norse, their influences, and their evolution over time. By critically examining previously held assumptions about the cultural, climatic, and religious conditions of Greenland during this time the available data is placed in its proper context and reveals the geoconceptual world of the Greenlanders and their place in it. This interdisciplinary approach illustrates the extent to which the physical environment and location of Greenland played a role in the transition from a collective of enterprising colonists to an established Christian community over the course of almost 500 years. Specific questions addressed within include: 1 ­ How does archaeology challenge, support, or augment the historical and literary narrative of Greenland’s transition into a Christian place?; 2 – What are the physical correlates of the Greenlanders’ beliefs and practices, and how have they been interpreted? This thesis finds that the development of Christianity was driven by the Greenlanders’ increasing perception of their place in the world as one of marginality and spiritual danger.

Ce mémoire de recherche porte sur la méthode de travail de six historiens du haut moyen âge : Frédégaire, Jonas de Bobbio, Nithard, Richer de Reims, Raoul Glaber et André de Fleury. Elle démontre que l'élaboration d'oeuvres historiographiques et hagiographiques dépendait de l'utilisation de sources à la fois orales et écrites tout au long de la période. Du VIIe au XIe siècle en Gaule franque, la perception et l'utilisation des sources connaissent toutefois des changements : signe d'une évolution des mentalités, les historiens utilisent de plus en plus la rumeur publique, au point d'éclipser d'autres types de sources orales plus courantes au début de la période. Cependant, les saintes Écritures sont omniprésentes à toutes les époques et les témoins directs reconnus nommément sont toujours de sexe masculin et membres de la hiérarchie ecclésiastique. L'évocation constante de la Parole et de son interprète exclusif, le prêtre, démontre que l'histoire demeure un moyen d'éducation du groupe intra-monastique; l'écrit historiographique n'a pas encore atteint le stade la prédication populaire. / Québec Université Laval, Bibliothèque 2014