Anatole Danto is a maritime anthropologist working in Brest and interested in the archives held by the Ministry of Defense and the French Polar institute. He has worked on different works resulting from French Navy and Polar expeditions into the North in the collections of the Académie de Marine.

During this seminar, funded by the last call of the ReNEW program, I propose to expose the long term of French representations of a particular Nordicity: that of the sub-Arctic coasts of the North Atlantic.
A particularly active nation between the 18th and 20th centuries, France sent prolific missions to this terra (and mare) incognita, with a truly encyclopedic aim. Little by little, these missions will see their purpose become clearer, because beyond discovery and knowledge, the hoarding of resources begins to become apparent.

We will thus draw up the continuities and ruptures observable within these representations, with an analysis of their diversity. We will also expose the institutions, actors and tools mobilized and used to paint a portrait of these relatively little-known coastal territories, sometimes serving certain discourses (on nature: fish, birds, whales, plants, minerals; on sciences and their advances; on indigenous communities; on climate and meteorology; on powers of domination and their instruments; etc.).

To support our analysis, we will base ourselves on an iconographic retrospective, finding its origins in certain relatively plethora of archives kept by the French Armies, in Brest, the historic departure port of the fleet bound for the Atlantic, and the Arctic.

THE SEMINAR IS ARRANGED BY ART FOREST, SÖDERTÖRN HÖGSKOLA