It Stays in the Family: Imperial Debris and Region-building in Icelandic Discourses on Greenland

ABSTRACT: The Arctic has become a political arena for reimagining political cooperation among current and former members of the Danish Kingdom. Icelandic politicians have emphasized the potential advantages of a re-envisioned relationship with Greenland. However, while Iceland's proximity to Greenland presents opportunities in the contemporary Arctic, dissociations from Greenland in the 19th and early 20th centuries underscore Iceland's position within an imperialist framework. Recent political visions of the Greenlandic and Icelandic governments are aligned in many domains, but remnants of old imperial ideas still appear in subtle and intangible aspects such as language. This article illuminates these issues through an analysis of political statements regarding visions for the future and reflections on the colonial past and examines the use of rhetorical tools in framing the relationship between Iceland and Greenland, particularly in Icelandic sources from the early 21st century. The author also sheds light on the metaphors employed to shape this relationship, the connotations they carry, and the roles they assign. Special attention is given to the 2020 report by the Icelandic Foreign Ministry on proposals for enhanced collaboration with Greenland, where five different discourses that assign meaning to the Icelandic-Greenlandic relation are identified. Politicians and journalists use familial metaphors to portray West-Nordic relations positively. This article posits that while these rhetorical tools convey closeness and familiarity, they sometimes also perpetuate entrenched power structures. Therefore, the premise of this article is that the fundamental dynamics characterizing the relationship between the so-called "Western world" and the "Global South" have similarly influenced Icelandic-Greenlandic relations.