Dr Annie Webster on 'Unequal Cultures of Cosiness: Uhyggelig Horror in the Nordic Stories of Hassan Blasim'.

The Home and Domestic Cultures research network and RILCH invite you to a research seminar by Dr Annie Webster on 'Unequal Cultures of Cosiness: Uhyggelig Horror in the Nordic Stories of Hassan Blasim'.

The seminar is on Tues 10^th March 2026 in John Foster Building (G23) 17:30pm - 18:45pm. Everyone welcome - feel free to circulate details.

Abstract:

A culture of cosiness has been intensely commodified in recent years through lifestyle books, the mindfulness industry, fashion and home décor, as well as video games. Concepts of cosiness have also become incorporated into regional brands, from the Nordic ‘hygge’ to the Scottish ‘coorie’. The term ‘cosycore’ has even been coined to articulate this fascination with the aesthetics of cosiness. Yet despite promoting a welcoming ethics of care and inclusion, these cultures of cosiness also reveal politics of exclusion as they encourage insular, even homogenising, perspectives. In a 2016 Guardian article titled ‘Hunting for Hygge’, for example, Danish schoolteachers leading a group of Iraqi children around Copenhagen inform the reporter that ‘Iraqis don’t have hygge.’

This talk explores unequal cultures of cosiness and how peripheral communities have, or have not, been included in the ‘cosycore’. Focusing on the short stories of contemporary Iraqi author Hassan Blasim, who gained asylum in Finland in 2004, I explore how he confronts cultures of cosiness through a distinctive form of alienating horror which expresses a sense of ‘uhygge’ – the antithesis of the cosy comfort evoked by the internationally celebrated concept of ‘hygge’. After exploring how Blasim occupies – and creatively exploits – an uhyggelig authorial position within the Nordic cultural brand, I conclude by considering the wider potential of cosiness as a comparative framework for theorising modes of cultural exclusion which have emerged in response to recent global crises from the 2008 financial crash, Covid-19, and the ongoing migration crisis.

Bio:

Annie Webster is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures at the University of Edinburgh. Her research explores how recent conflicts in Iraq and Syria have catalysed innovations in the subject, form, and international circulation of Arabic literature and other modes of cultural production. Her current project, ‘Stories of the Syrian New Scots: Resettlement Geographies in Refugee Arts’, investigates the creative practices of Syrian refugees in Scotland across rural and remote areas. Her work has been published in journals including Interventions, Wasafiri, and Comparative Critical Studies.