This unit focuses on the question of how ideas and perceptions of the Wadden Sea area have changed over time, how different people throughout history have written about it and felt attached to it (or not) and how this relates to their own backgrounds. It may use knowledge from the broader field of coastal history to explore the changing positions of the Wadden Sea area and communities living there in societies in what are now Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands, and beyond. The unit may engage with a specific historical period or a longer time frame. Guest lectures by colleagues in history departments may be particularly suitable for this unit.
Suggested secondary readings:
NL Deen, Mathijs. De Wadden. Een Geschiedenis. Amsterdam: Rap, 2013.
Egberts, Linde and Dag Hundstad. “Coastal Heritage in Touristic Regional Identity Narratives: A Comparison between the Norwegian Region Sørlandet and the Dutch Wadden Sea Area.” International Journal of Heritage Studies. 26.10 (2019): 1073-1087.
Gillis, John. The Human Shore: Seacoasts in History. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2012
Gillis, John. Islands of the Mind: How the Human Imagination Created the Atlantic World. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
Jensen, Lotte. “Floods As Shapers of Dutch Cultural Identity: Media, Theories and Practices.” Water History. 13 (2021): 217-233.
Suggested primary readings:
NL Gerhardt, Ida. “Waddeneiland.” https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/gerh002veer02_01/gerh002veer02_01_0046.php.
IT (DE, EN, NL) Guicciardini, Lodovico. Descrittione di Lodovico Guicciardini patritio fiorentino di tutti i Paesi Bassi altrimenti detti Germania inferior. 1567. https://amshistorica.unibo.it/185.
LA (DE, EN, NL) Pliny the Elder. “XVI.I: Countries That Have No Trees.” Naturalis Historia. Trans. J. Bostock and H.T. Riley. Perseus Digital Library. Tufts University. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D16%3Achapter%3D1.
LA (DE, EN, NL) Seneca the Elder. “I: Alexander Considers Whether He Should Sail the Ocean: 14-15.” Suasoria. Trans. W.A. Edward. Attalus.http://www.attalus.org/translate/suasoria1.html.
DE (EN) Storm, Theodor. Der Schimmelreiter. Berlin: Verlag der Gebrüder Pätel, 1888.
LA (DE, EN, NL) Tacitus. “XXXV.” De Origine et situ Germanorum. Trans. unknown. https://facultystaff.richmond.edu/~wstevens/history331texts/barbarians.html.
Vestdijk, Simon. “Stad aan de Wadden.” http://www.svestdijk.nl/poezie/stad-aan-de-wadden.html.
Literature and the Wadden Sea 