Reinhard Hennig

Professor Department of Nordic and Media Studies

Email: reinhard.hennig@uia.no
Phone: +47 38 14 11 81
Mobile phone: +47 93 92 50 10
Office: E2072 (Universitetsveien 25, 4630 Kristiansand, Norway)

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Areas of responsibility

I am a professor of Nordic literature whose research advances ecocriticism and the interdisciplinary field of environmental humanities. I lead the Agder Forum for Environmental Humanities and am a co-founder and coordinator of the Ecocritical Network for Scandinavian Studies (ENSCAN). I am a former president of the European Association for the Study of Literature, Culture and Environment (EASLCE).

I also serve on the steering committee of the Norwegian Researcher School in Environmental Humanities (NoRS-EH) and on the Advisory Boards of Ecozon@. European Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment, of the book series Nature, Culture and Literature (Brill) and Ecocriticism Unbound (DeGruyter), and of the European Association for the Study of Literature, Culture and Environment.

Research

My research examines how literary texts, narratives, cultural norms, and value systems shape human perceptions of and relationships with nature, the environment, and ecological challenges, including questions of risk, sustainability, and resilience. Together with Sissel Furuseth, I authored Økokritisk håndbok (2023), the first Norwegian-language introduction to ecocriticism. I have also edited the volumes Nordic Narratives of Nature and the Environment. Ecocritical Approaches to Northern European Literatures and Cultures (2018; together with Anna-Karin Jonasson and Peter Degerman) and Ecocriticism and Old Norse Studies. Nature and the Environment in Old Norse Literature and Culture (2023; together with Emily Lethbridge and Michael Schulte).

I currently lead the work package "Didactics of Oil" within the multidisciplinary research project Translatability of Oil (TOIL; funded by the Research Council of Norway, 2023–27).

A comprehensive overview of my research, publications, and academic activities is available at www.reinhardhennig.net.

General outreach

TOILblogg: "The curse of Tyrving returns"

Video presentasjon on Growth of the Soil and sustainability as a part of the Hamsun Centre's exhibition "The controversial Hamsun".

Podcast Litteraturens mønstre on sustainability and Old Norse literature (Norwegian language)

Research groups

Hennig, Reinhard (2026). Vikinger og fjellfolk i Malin Falchs Nordlys-fortellingsverden. In Bjorvand, Agnes-Margrethe & Slettan, Svein (Ed.), Nye barneboklesninger. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISSN 9788202874599. p. 103–119. doi: 10.23865/cdf.287.ch6. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Malin Falch’s multivolume graphic novel Northern Lights (Nordlys, 2018–) is strongly inspired by motifs and stories from Old Norse literature. As portal fantasy, Northern Lights comprises a realistically framed primary world and a fantastic secondary world populated by «Vikings» and «Mountain People», who respectively represent premodern Norse and Sámi ethnicity. Applying Marie-Laure Ryan’s principle of minimal departure as a theoretical framework, this chapter asks which signals the storyworld conveys to the readers for the perception of these ethnic groups and the relation between them. It finds that the patriarchal and aggressive Viking culture in Northern Lights is represented in relative accordance with Old Norse sources and archaeological findings. However, the Mountain People, while being idealized as peaceful and environmentally benign, deviate in many ways from how Sámi characters are represented in Old Norse literature, and their relationship with their Norse neighbors appears much more adversarial than in premodern texts. The storyworld of Northern Lights thus risks to anachronistically project modern Norwegian colonialism and anti-Sámi racism back to premodern times. However, there are several hints that in future volumes, the ethnic dualism characterizing the storyworld of Northern Lights will become more nuanced and counteracted by its central characters.
Hennig, Reinhard (2026). Taking Young Audiences Offshore: Petroleum Extraction in Norwegian Children’s Literature. Ecozona. 17(1), p. 297–312. doi: 10.37536/ECOZONA.2026.17.1.5785. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Norway is a major exporter of oil and natural gas, and the fossil fuel industry constitutes the country’s most important economic sector. Since all of Norway’s petroleum production is located offshore in the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea, and the Barents Sea, it is unobservable from land. This invisibility and inaccessibility make it hard for children to picture and comprehend what this form of extraction involves. Authors of Norwegian children’s literature have repeatedly tried to alleviate this imaginative deficit through conveying a child-oriented experience of working offshore in the oil and gas industry. This article applies a petroculture studies framework to the analysis of four such children’s books, published between 1986 and 2013. The fictional stories in these books tend to present oil platforms as utopian places that offer pleasant and exciting experiences but remain silent on environmental and climatic risks connected to this industry and on the possible depletion of the nonrenewable resources oil and gas. While the oldest of the studied examples is most nuanced in its portrayal of offshore work, the newer books are considerably more ideologically one-sided, and two of them even aim to recruit children as future oil workers. As overtly didactic works, these books have been dismissed in earlier research, while they have been attractive for use in educational contexts precisely due to their didactic characteristics. This indicates a need to enable educators to critically reflect on how works of fiction and nonfiction that are presented to them as benevolent, didactical tools may serve to normalize an unsustainable petroculture.
Hennig, Reinhard (2025). Chronotopes of the Anthropocene: Time and Space in Charlotte Weitze’s Den afskyelige and in Christian Byskov’s Græsset. European Journal of Scandinavian Studies. ISSN 2191-9399. 55(1), p. 189–207. doi: 10.1515/ejss-2025-2009. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
This article applies Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of the chronotope in a reading of two recent Danish novels that relate to the planet’s transition into a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. The analysis of Charlotte Weitze’s Den afskyelige and Christian Byskov’s Græsset shows that, while the central chronotopical motifs in these novels differ considerably, the minor chronotopes combine in both works to form a major chronotope that is constituted by an experience of time passing at a pace beyond human control, connected to places that lack stability and permanence. However, in both texts, this experience is accompanied by recourse to the older chronotope of the idyll through retrospection into a pre-Anthropocenic past that was allegedly characterized by cyclical, slow, or stagnant time and by stable, unchanging places.
Hennig, Reinhard (2025). Norrøn litteratur og bærekraftig utvikling som tverrfaglig tema i norskfaget. In Svelstad, Per Esben & Messelt, Christopher (Ed.), Litteraturhistorie i kontekst. Dybdelæring, utforskning og kritisk tenkning i norskfaget. Fagbokforlaget. ISSN 9788245046625. p. 25–39. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2024). Bærekraftig utvikling i skogen? Økokritiske lesninger av bøkene om mormor og de åtte ungene. In Bjorvand, Agnes-Margrethe; Omland, Siv-Terese & Takle, Cecilie (Ed.), Anne-Cath. Vestly. Nye lesninger av forfatterskapet. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISSN 9788202784348. p. 140–159. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Anne-Cath. Vestly var en av våre viktigste og mest toneangivende barnebokforfattere i siste halvdel av 1900-tallet, og for flere generasjoner var hun Norges kanskje høyest elskede radiostemme i programmet Barnetimen for de minste. Gjennom bøker, lydbøker og filmatiseringer kan også dagens lesere bli kjent med Ole Aleksander Filibom-bom-bom, mormor og de åtte ungene, Lillebror og Knerten, Aurora, Guro og alle de andre karakterene Vestly har skapt. Denne boka viser at Anne-Cath. Vestlys verdier og unike forståelse for barns måte å være i verden på fortsatt har mye å lære og fortelle oss. Boka byr på diskusjoner av forfatterskapet opp mot aktuelle temaer i vår tid, som blant annet barnesyn, mangfold, bærekraft, livsmestring og relasjonell etikk. I tillegg får leseren god oversikt og mange dypdykk i Vestlys fortellinger, samt innblikk i hennes arbeidsmetode som forfatter, skuespiller og barnetimevert. Boka er aktuell for alle som er interessert i Anne-Cath. Vestly og i barne- og ungdomslitteratur. Den er særlig relevant for forskere og studenter i barnehagelærer-, grunnskolelærer- og lektorutdanning, bibliotekar- og skolebibliotekarutdanning, og på studier om litteratur, medie- og kommunikasjonsfag, ikke minst studenter som ønsker å skrive en bachelor- eller masteroppgave om Vestlys forfatterskap. Forfatterne er litteraturforskere fra Institutt for nordisk og mediefag og Institutt for pedagogikk ved Universitetet i Agder, og i tillegg bidrar Vestly-biograf Anne Helgesen.
Hennig, Reinhard; Lethbridge, Emily & Schulte, Michael (2023). Combining Ecocriticism and Old Norse Studies: Opportunities and Challenges. In Hennig, Reinhard; Lethbridge, Emily & Schulte, Michael (Ed.), Ecocriticism and Old Norse Studies. Nature and the Environment in Old Norse Literature and Culture. Brepols. ISSN 9782503604848. p. 11–36. doi: 10.1484/M.NAW-EB.5.134093. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2023). Imagining a Viking Age Risk Society. Threats, Risks, and Manufactured Uncertainties in the Sagas of Icelanders. In Hennig, Reinhard; Lethbridge, Emily & Schulte, Michael (Ed.), Ecocriticism and Old Norse Studies. Nature and the Environment in Old Norse Literature and Culture. Brepols. ISSN 9782503604848. p. 137–163. doi: 10.1484/M.NAW-EB.5.134098. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2021). Fra frykt til fremtidstro: Klimaendringer i nordiske bildebøker. In Goga, Nina & Larsen, Marianne Eskebæk (Ed.), På tværs af Norden. Økokritiske strømninger i nordisk børne- og ungdomslitteratur. Nordisk ministerråd. ISSN 9789289367424. p. 52–57. doi: 10.6027/nord2021-009. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2021). Anthropocene Aesthetics: Norwegian Literature in a New Geological Epoch. NORDEUROPAforum. p. 105–130. doi: 10.18452/23921. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2021). Miljø og medborgerskap i Arne Svingens barnebok En himmel full av skyer. Norsklæreren. ISSN 0332-7264. 2021(1), p. 40–55. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
I læreplanen for norskfaget integrerer fagfornyelsen bærekraftig utvikling samt demokrati og medborgerskap som tverrfaglige temaer. Denne artikkelen argumenterer for å kombinere arbeidet med begge temaene. Med bakgrunn i miljø- og klimaproblematikken har det blitt utviklet forskjellige modeller av medborgerskap som også omfatter miljørelaterte aspekter. Artikkelen tar utgangspunkt i de tre mest innflytelsesrike av disse modellene: Derek Bells miljømedborgerskap, Andrew Dobsons økologiske medborgerskap og John Barrys bærekraftmedborgerskap. Disse modellenes ulike definisjoner av medborgernes miljørelaterte rettigheter og plikter brukes som teoretisk bakgrunn i en analyse av Arne Svingens barnebok En himmel full av skyer, en roman med en handling som har tydelige paralleller til utviklingen av den globale miljøbevegelsen Fridays For Future. Analysen viser hvordan romanen rommer elementer fra ikke bare én av de nevnte modellene, men kombinerer og estetiserer aspekter fra alle tre. Hovedpersonen gjennomgår en utvikling i sitt miljøengasjement fra å redusere sitt individuelle økologiske fotavtrykk gjennom endret privat forbruk, til et fellesskapelig engasjement i den offentlige sfæren med mål om å endre overordnede strukturer i samfunnet som står i veien for en bærekraftig utvikling. Romanen er derved et godt eksempel på hvordan skjønnlitterære tekster bidrar både til å formidle og forhandle idéer om relasjonen mellom miljø og medborgerskap. Arbeid med slike skjønnlitterære tekster gir mulighet til kritisk refleksjon over denne relasjonen, samt at det kan fremme elevenes handlingskompetanse med tanke på bærekraftig utvikling så vel som demokrati og medborgerskap.
Hennig, Reinhard (2021). Miljøhumaniora, økokritikk og utdanning for bærekraftig utvikling i norskfaget. In Axelsson, Marcus & Opset, Barbro Bredesen (Ed.), Fortellinger om bærekraftig utvikling. Perspektiver for norskfaget. Universitetsforlaget. ISSN 9788215050089. p. 13–38. doi: 10.18261/9788215050089-2021-01. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Fagfornyelsen integrerer det tverrfaglige temaet bærekraftig utvikling også i læreplanen for norskfaget. Dermed understrekes språkets og litteraturens betydning for bærekraftdidaktikken. Dette kapitlet gir derfor en introduksjon til miljøhumanistisk og særlig økokritisk forskning om sammenhengen mellom språk, litteratur og bærekraft, for å deretter diskutere hvordan utdanning for bærekraftig utvikling kan bli en del av litteraturundervisningen i norskfaget.
Furuseth, Sissel; Gjelsvik, Anne; Gürata, Ahmet; Hennig, Reinhard; Leyda, Julia & Ritson, Katie (2020). Climate Change in Literature, Television and Film from Norway. Ecozona. 11(2), p. 8–16. doi: 10.37536/ECOZONA.2020.11.2.3468. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Environmental and climatic change has become a frequent motif in contemporary Norwegian literature, television and film, and Norway has the worldwide first organization of writers committed to climate action (The Norwegian Writers’ Climate Campaign, founded in 2013). In this article, we argue that Norwegian climate change fiction and related works draw on elements that relate to specific national and/or Nordic cultural, societal and historical features, and that these elements give these works their distinct identity. We focus on four such features: (1) notions of “Nordicity”; (2) an (imagined) intimate connection between Norwegianness and nature, often seen as a typical element of Norwegian national identity; (3) references to Norwegian petroculture (since the Norwegian economy is largely based on the export of fossil fuels) , and (4) an atmosphere of gloom and melancholia in many of the works, which draws on a Nordic tradition of painting and literature, and which also often characterises the genre of Nordic noir.
Hennig, Reinhard (2020). No Future, No Past? How Consciousness of the Anthropocene Changes Environmentalist Narratives. In Ahlbeck, Jutta; Meurer-Bongardt, Judith; Tidigs, Julia & Österlund, Mia (Ed.), Vill jag vistas här bör jag byta blick. Texter om litteratur, miljö och historia tillägnade Pia Maria Ahlbäck. Föreningen Granskaren. ISSN 9789521239847. p. 43–63. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
How we relate to environmental questions depends on the narratives we use to describe them: on the narrative connections that we establish, for example, between the causes and effects of what we perceive as environmental problems, and in turn on how we narrate possible solutions and alternative pathways. What we could call our ‘environmental consciousness’ is therefore very much shaped by such narratives. The narratives used to frame environmental issues are also likely to have an influence on human action – on what we do in order to deal with what we regard as environmental problems.
Hennig, Reinhard (2020). Sagas for Sustainability? Commons, Conflict and Cooperation in the Sagas of Icelanders. Scandia Journal of Medieval Norse Studies. p. 36–63. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2019). An Arctic Archive for the Anthropocene: The Svalbard Global Seed Vault. In Frank, Susi K. & Jakobsen, Kjetil Ansgar (Ed.), Arctic Archives: Ice, Memory and Entropy. Transcript Verlag. ISSN 9783837646566. p. 197–217. doi: 10.14361/9783839446560-013. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
This volume explores the Arctic as an important and highly endangered archive of knowledge about natural as well as human history of the Anthropocene. Focusing on the Arctic as an archive means not only to investigate it as a place of human history and memory―of Arctic exploring, conquering, and colonizing―but to take into account also the specific environmental conditions of the circumpolar region: ice and permafrost. These have allowed a huge natural archive to emerge, offering rich sources for natural scientists and historians alike. Examining the debate on the notion of (“natural”) archive, the cultural semantics and historicity of the meaning of concepts like “warm,” “cold,” “freezing,” and “melting,” as well as various works of literature, art, and science on Arctic topics, this volume brings together literary scholars, historians of knowledge and philosophy, art historians, media theorists, and archivologists. Contributions relate the ice of the Arctic to other memory media in nature and culture, like snow and ice, earth and stone, but also film, photography and text; in the context of the melting archives of the Arctic. What kind of memory supports do these different media supply? What kind of events are preserved in ice, for example compared to earth, and what is discarded, and what information is provided when entropy rises?
Hennig, Reinhard (2019). Memory of Environmental and Climatic Change in the Sagas of Icelanders. Scandinavian Studies. ISSN 0036-5637. 91(3), p. 323–344. doi: 10.5406/scanstud.91.3.0323. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2019). Jostein Gaarder's The World According to Anna (2013/2015) - Didactic Cli-Fi. In Goodbody, Axel & Johns-Putra, Adeline (Ed.), Cli-Fi. A Companion. Peter Lang Publishing Group. ISSN 9781788740722. p. 181–186. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2019). Å trosse naturen i seg selv. Kjønn og kjønnsroller i Maja Lundes roman Bienes historie. Norsk litterær årbok (NLÅ). ISSN 0078-1266. p. 272–290. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2019). Aesthetic Appreciation of Landscape in the Sagas of Icelanders. In Egeler, Matthias (Eds.), Landscape and Myth in North-Western Europe. Brepols. ISSN 9782503580401. p. 45–61. doi: 10.1484/M.BBL.5.115990. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2018). Knowing the Right Thing, but Not Doing It. Knut Hamsun’s Markens grøde in the Anthropocene. NORDEUROPAforum. p. 16–43. doi: 10.18452/19210. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2018). Environmental Concern as (Counter)Cultural Criticism in the Novels of Jón Kalman Stefánsson. In Wolfrum, Friederike & Kriesch, Désirée (Ed.), Counter | Culture. Literature, Language, Agency. Verlag Königshausen & Neumann. ISSN 9783826058158. p. 171–186. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2018). Environmental Humanities. In Glauser, Jürg; Hermann, Pernille & Mitchell, Stephen A. (Ed.), Handbook of Pre-Modern Nordic Memory Studies. Interdisciplinary Approaches. De Gruyter Brill. ISSN 9783110431360. p. 327–332. doi: 10.1515/9783110431360. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard; Jonasson, Anna-Karin & Degerman, Peter (2018). Introduction: Nordic Narratives of Nature and the Environment. In Hennig, Reinhard; Jonasson, Anna-Karin & Degerman, Peter (Ed.), Nordic Narratives of Nature and the Environment. Ecocritical Approaches to Northern European Literatures and Cultures. Lexington Books. ISSN 9781498561907. p. 1–18. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2017). Miljö och minne: att skapa ett långtidsperspektiv på hållbarhetsfrågor. In Andresen, Edit; Lidén, Gustav & Nyhlén, Sara (Ed.), Hållbarhetens många ansikten: Samtal, forskning och fantasier. Mittuniversitetet. ISSN 9789188527370. p. 117–125. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2017). Climate Change Denial in Literary Fiction: Gert Nygårdshaug’s ‘Eco-Thriller’ Chimera. REAL: Yearbook of research in English and American literature. ISSN 0723-0338. 33, p. 191–215. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2015). Aus der Vergangenheit lernen? Die Bedeutung der mittelalterlichen isländischen Literatur für die Umweltdiskussion der Gegenwart. In Botanova, Kateryna; Cooiman, Jurriaan; Croizier, Florence & Giger, Ursula (Ed.), Culturescapes Island: Zwischen Sagas und Pop. Christoph Merian Verlag. ISSN 9783856166762. p. 45–52. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2015). Environmental Scarcity and Abundance in Medieval Icelandic Literature. RCC Perspectives. ISSN 2190-5088. p. 37–43. doi: 10.5282/rcc/7145. Full text in Research Archive

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Bjorvand, Agnes-Margrethe; Slettan, Svein; Bakken, Jonas; Brandt, Lisa Annika; Fredwall, Ingeborg Eidsvåg & Heivoll, Anita Berge [Show all 12 contributors for this article] (2026). Nye barneboklesninger. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISBN 9788202874599. 257 p. doi: 10.23865/cdf.287. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
I denne antologien finner du forskningsartikler om en rekke nye bøker og bokserier for barn, samt essays av barnelitteraturforfattere og -illustratører. Artiklene gir eksempler på hvordan du kan nærlese barnelitterære tekster, og både artiklene og essayene kan gi inspirasjon til forskning og studier av barnelitteratur. Boka er utgitt parallelt med en tilsvarende antologi om nyere litteratur for ungdom: Nye ungdomsboklesninger. Bøkene springer ut av et ønske om å løfte fram forskning på barne- og ungdomslitteratur, samt å synliggjøre litteratur som kan gi barn og unge gode leseopplevelser. Litteraturen er hele tiden i endring, og nye generasjoner barn trenger nye bøker. Boka er aktuell for forskere og studenter, lærere i barnehage og skole, bibliotekarer og andre som er opptatt av ny innsikt i litteratur og å vekke barns leselyst. Antologien inneholder artikler om ulike typer bøker av både etablerte og nye forfattere og bildekunstnere: Lisa Aisato, Nora Dåsnes, Endre Lund Eriksen, Malin Falch, Jon Fosse, Jørn Lier Horst, Åshild Irgens, Mari Kanstad Johnsen, Ruth Lillegraven, Hannah Mileman, Per Ragnar Møkleby, Torstein Nordstrand, Simon Nyhus, Erna Osland, Maria Parr, Hans Jørgen Sandnes, Ketil Selnes, Bjørn Sortland og Arne Svingen.
Furuseth, Sissel & Hennig, Reinhard (2023). Økokritisk håndbok. Natur og miljø i litteraturen. Universitetsforlaget. ISBN 9788215049915. 224 p. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard; Lethbridge, Emily & Schulte, Michael (2023). Ecocriticism and Old Norse Studies. Nature and the Environment in Old Norse Literature and Culture. Brepols. ISBN 9782503604848. 312 p. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard; Jonasson, Anna-Karin & Degerman, Peter (2018). Nordic Narratives of Nature and the Environment. Ecocritical Approaches to Northern European Literatures and Cultures. Lexington Books. ISBN 9781498561907. 258 p. Full text in Research Archive

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Hennig, Reinhard (2026). The Last Troll: Fantastic Species as Threatened and Threatening Nature in Contemporary Norwegian Literature and Film. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2026). Resilience and Literature. doi: https:/www.hf.uio.no/iln/english/research/projects/eco-emotions/monthly-seminars/eco-emotions-seminar-with-reinhard-hennig.html. Full text in Research Archive
Slotnes, Oda Sagebakken; Vatne, Helle Marie & Hennig, Reinhard (2025). Litteraturens mønstre: Bærekraft og norrøn litteratur med Reinhard Hennig. doi: https:/player.captivate.fm/episode/86d131a9-2b0d-49f6-929d-854f08b9dc92/. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Episode 14: Hva er bærekraft og bærekraftig utvikling? Og hvordan studerer man litteratur utifra et bærkraftsperspektiv? Det er flere eksempler på samtidslitteratur som tar for seg den pågående økologiske krisen - fra 1970-tallets Rachel Carson til 2010-tallets oppblomstring av romaner og sakprosa som tydelig engasjerer seg i dagens bærekraftsproblematikk. Men, er det også mulig å lese eldre tekster og norrøn litteratur utifra disse perspektivene? Disse og flere spørsmål diskuteres i samtale med professor Reinhard Hennig, hvor vi ser nærmere på utdrag fra Islendingesaga, Kongespeilet og Voluspå.
Hennig, Reinhard & Merkelbach, Rebecca (2025). Vulnerability and Resilience in Old Norse Literature. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2025). National Cultures and the Geopolitics of Climate Change. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2025). På skattejakt under havbunnen. Olje og oljeindustri i norsk barnelitteratur. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2025). Book Review of "Petrochemical Fantasies. The Art and Energy of American Comics". Ecozona. 16(2), p. 230–232. doi: 10.37536/ecozona.2025.16.2.5805. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Book review of Petrochemical Fantasies. The Art and Energy of American Comics.
Hennig, Reinhard (2025). Reading Oil: Ecocritical and Environmental Humanities Approaches to Modern Petroculture. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2025). Er det best å la Tyrving ligge? [Internet]. TOILblogg. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2025). Bærekraftsmålene og utdanning for bærekraftig utvikling i en norsk kontekst. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2024). Markens grøde: Et budskap om bærekraft? Full text in Research Archive
Skogheim, Cathrine & Hennig, Reinhard (2024). Reiser nesten 30 timer for å være med på åpningen. [Journal]. Avisa Nordland. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2024). Forskerfokus: Klima, miljø og bærekraft i norrøn litteratur. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2024). Nachhaltigkeit und nachhaltige Entwicklung in der altnordischen Literatur. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2024). Altnordische Literatur und das Anthropozän. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2024). Marine Petroculture: Offshore Drilling in Norwegian Children's Literature. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2024). The Norwegian Donald: Oil in Translated Comics. Full text in Research Archive
Wehus, Walter Norman & Hennig, Reinhard (2023). Sagaforfattarane skreiv om miljøproblem allereie for 800 år sidan. [Internet]. forskning.no. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2023). The Anthropocene Chronotope: Time and Place in Charlotte Weitze’s Den afskyelige and in Christian Byskov’s Græsset. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2023). Deltakelse i panelsamtale om "Bærekraftskommunikasjon: hva fungerer best, og hvorfor er det vanskelig?". Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2023). Ecocriticism and Old Norse Literature and Culture. Full text in Research Archive
Furuseth, Sissel & Hennig, Reinhard (2023). Økokritisk håndbok - klima og miljø i litteraturen. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2023). Ecocriticism in Europe: Past, Present, and Future. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2022). Ecocriticism und altnordische Literatur. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2022). Klima, miljø og bærekraft i norrøn litteratur. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2021). Om klima, miljø og bærekraft i nordisk skjønnlitteratur. [Internet]. https://www.uia.no/. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2021). Nostalgia, Ecocatastrophe, or Sustainability? Environmental Storytelling and Ecocritical Theory. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2021). Change, Continuity, Sustainable Development: The Viking Age Environment in the Sagas of Icelanders. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2021). Naturressourcen und Nachhaltigkeit in den Isländersagas. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2020). Paneldebatt. Øvelser i økokritisk tenkning. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2020). Utdanning for bærekraftig utvikling og økokritikk. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2020). Writing the Anthropocene: Contemporary Norwegian Literature and the Global Environmental Crisis. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2020). Det kan være trøst i katastrofelitteraturen. p. 22–22. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2020). Introduction: Ecocriticism and Old Norse Studies. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2020). Imagining a Viking Age Risk Society. Environmental Risk and Manufactured Uncertainties in the Sagas of Icelanders. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2019). Skjønnlitteratur, økokritikk og utdanning for bærekraftig utvikling. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2019). Klimakatastrofen som skjønnlitteratur. Knut Faldbakkens Uår og nyere norsk klimafiksjon. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2019). Bærekraftig utvikling som tverrfaglig tema i språk- og litteraturfag. Full text in Research Archive
Guanio-Uluru, Lykke; Hennig, Reinhard & Myren-Svelstad, Per Esben (2019). Skolens læreplan overser elevenes miljøengasjement. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2019). Bærekraftig utvikling som tverrfaglig tema i norskfaget. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2018). Narrating Ecocitizenship in Nordic Novels of the Anthropocene. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2018). Margareta Petersson & Rikard Schönström (eds.): Nordens litteratur. European Journal of Scandinavian Studies. ISSN 2191-9399. 48(2), p. 348–351. doi: 10.1515/ejss-2018-0029. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2018). Bærekraftig litteraturvitenskap? Økokritikkens bidrag til humanistisk miljøforskning. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2018). The Ecocritical Network for Scandinavian Studies: Background and Perspectives. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2018). Økokritikk og utdanning for bærekraftig utvikling. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2018). Henning Wærp: Arktisk litteratur. Fra Fridtjof Nansen til Anne B. Ragde. Edda. Nordisk tidsskrift for litteraturforskning. ISSN 0013-0818. 105(3), p. 261–265. doi: 10.18261/issn.1500-1989-2018-03-09. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2018). Nordic Negotiations of Ecocitizenship in the Anthropocene Garden: Charlotte Weitze’s Novel Den afskyelige. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2017). Literary Memory of Environmental and Climatic Change in the Sagas of Icelanders. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2017). Literature and Literary Studies in the Anthropocene. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2017). Ellen Rees: Cabins in Modern Norwegian Literature. Negotiating Place and Identity. European Journal of Scandinavian Studies. ISSN 2191-9399. 47(2), p. 402–407. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2017). Markens grøde i antropocen. Full text in Research Archive
Furuseth, Sissel & Hennig, Reinhard (2017). Ecocriticism and Environmental Education. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2016). Klimatförändringar som litterärt motiv och som etiskt gränsöverskridande. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2016). Sagas for Sustainability: Altnordistik und die Environmental Humanities. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2016). Collapse or Continuity? Norwegian Climate Change Fiction from the 1970s to Present-Day. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2016). Naturens undergång? Litteratur och litteraturvetenskap i antropocen. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2016). Natural Resources, Sustainability and Environmental Change in Medieval Icelandic Literature. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2015). The Construction of Environmental Memory in the Icelandic Sagas. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2015). Mittelalterliche Ökologie? Vormoderne literarische Texte als Quellen der Umweltforschung. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2015). Naturresurser och miljö i den fornnordiska litteraturen. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2015). Saga-Ökologie: Naturressourcen, Umweltbedingungen und kulturelles Gedächtnis in der altisländischen Literatur. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2014). Deep-Frozen Hope in the Arctic: The Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2014). Golden Age and Environmental Change in Medieval Icelandic Literature. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2014). No Future and No Past? How the Anthropocene Changes Environmentalist Narratives. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2014). Norwegian Eco-Cosmopolitanism Going Arctic: The Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2014). Isak Sellanraa als Klimaflüchtling. Ökologische Szenarien in der norwegischen Gegenwartsliteratur. Full text in Research Archive
Hennig, Reinhard (2014). Constructing Collective Environmental Memory: Representations of Scarcity and Abundance in Medieval Icelandic Literature. Full text in Research Archive
Jager, Andreas Benedikt; Hennig, Reinhard & Kvangraven, Endre Harvold (2024). Literary Birding: Human–Bird Relations in Contemporary Novels from Norway and Sweden. Universitetet i Stavanger. ISSN 9788284392394. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this dissertation, I examine how human–bird relations are reflected in Norwegian and Swedish novels from the 2000s. Through ecocritical analysis of five psychological novels, I explore themes such as ornithological practice, identification, and care. While these themes are dealt with in depth in three articles, the extended abstract offers a comprehensive summary and discussion of my findings, as well as an overview of related topics. Besides ecocriticism, I draw on environmental hermeneutics, econarratology, and ecofeminism, as well as the environmental humanities and animal studies more broadly, aiming to bring literary studies into dialogue with ornithology. Birds have always inspired wonder and fascination, variously appearing as auguries, messengers, and symbols. From economic resources to aesthetic enrichments and ecological indicators, birds occupy a wide range of cultural roles that are reflected in art, myth, legend, and literature. With increased knowledge about birds and other wildlife, and increased awareness of anthropogenic threats to them, traditional and utilitarian views are being challenged by ecological perspectives. This can be linked to recent developments in the world of birding and ornithological research, but also to the role of birds in cultural history, as folklore and superstition are reinterpreted and revitalized—a process which is particularly evident in literature. While some people experience a deep connection with wild creatures, others are drawn to them for aesthetic reasons or see them as vulnerable beings in need of protection. I find that birds in contemporary Scandinavian novels are often linked to specific places, thereby signaling local attachments but also—through migration—the dream of flight and the possibility of escaping to distant lands. Birds are presented in local contexts, but their significance nearly always points further, to their breeding or wintering grounds, to global ecologies. Birds can foster identification in a spiritual or ecological sense and can be subjects of aesthetic inspiration or delight. Mostly, however, birds in contemporary Scandinavian novels are linked to care and caring practices, often involving parenthood and childcare but framed in ways that include nonhuman animals and their habitats.
Huntebrinker, Berit; Hennig, Reinhard & Slettan, Svein (2023). Narrating Environmental Citizenship. Norwegian picturebooks and comics in the Anthropocene. Universitetet i Agder. ISSN 9788284271002. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
In my project, I examine how aspects of “environmental citizenship” are discussed in Norwegian picturebooks and comics. The term “environmental citizenship” encompasses several concepts that originate from political sciences and discuss what it can mean to be a responsible, or “good”, citizen with regard to the environment. The concepts are characterised by various understandings of what citizenship means and which role the environment and its intrinsic value play. Common for the concepts is an argument for the need to change something in our behaviour towards the world we live in. An econarratological perspective: I examine seven multimodal texts in my dissertation, four picturebooks and three comics, published between 1974 and 2019. My theoretical approach is based on econarratology, a direction in literary studies that combines an ecocritical perspective with particular attention to narratological questions, or the texts’ narrative structures. How is the texts’ multimodal “storyworld” presented and which role does the environment play in it? How are aspects of environmental citizenship discussed through verbal text and pictures? And how do the texts address readers to convey perspectives on the environment? These are some of the questions I discuss in the analytical chapters of my dissertation. Main findings: It shows itself that multimodal texts for young readers present various understandings of what it means to be an environmentally aware citizen. The texts foreground different aspects as important when it comes to our relationship with the environment and how we can live more environmentally friendly. The variety in the narratives underlines that a more nuanced examination of picturebooks and comics is both fruitful and necessary in order to take the complexity of children’s literature seriously when it comes to environmental questions.

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Published Apr. 16, 2024 11:31 AM - Last modified May 19, 2026 1:32 PM