“Sent to Denmark”: Exclusion and Isolation in the Exofictional Play Lykkenborg by Det Ferösche Compagnie

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This chapter analyses the intersection of disability and colonialism as it is staged in the Faroese play Lykkenborg (2022) which focuses on the life of Pól Jóhannes Poulsen (1925–1971), a life divided between the Faroe Islands and a Danish institution for people with disability. In a combination of characters based on historical people and fictional events, the dramatic narrative represents and reflects on the practice of sending Faroese people with disability to Denmark as part of social welfare policy in the Danish kingdom. By analysing how the manuscript and its performance enact an argument which compares the agency of its characters to the nations they represent, the rhetoric of being “sent to Denmark” is examined in exploration of how isolation and exclusion on islands versus the mainland are performed and discussed in Lykkenborg. My argument is that Lykkenborg performs a decolonial critique of the import of Danish institutional policies through the export of Faroese people with disability and thus partakes in the contemporary discussion about historical practices of exclusion through its poetic argumentation.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationIslands of Extreme Exclusion : Studies on Global Practices of Isolation, Punishment, and Education of the Unwanted
Editors Bjørn Hamre, Lisa Villadsen
Number of pages22
PublisherBrill
Publication date2023
Pages156–177
ISBN (Print)9789004688520, 9789004688513
ISBN (Electronic)9789004688520
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023
SeriesStudies in Inclusive Education
Volume52

ID: 375551378