Nordic Orientalism explores the appropriation of Oriental imagery within Danish and Norwegian nineteenth-century nation-building. The project queries Edward Said’s binary notion of Orientalism and posits a more complex model describing how European countries on the periphery – Denmark and Norway – imported Oriental imagery from France to position themselves, not against their colonial Other, but in relation to central European nations. Examining Nordic Orientalism across a century in the context of modernization, urbanization and democratization the study furthermore shows how the Romanticists’ naive treatment of the Orient was challenged by increased contact with the "real" Orient.

Elisabeth Oxfeldt has worked in the position of Danish Lecturer at the University of Oslo since 2002. She has lived in the US for 18 years and holds a BA in French literature as well as an MA and Ph.D. in Scandinavian literature from U.C. Berkely.