From In-Betweenness to Invisibility: Changing Representations of Sweden Finnish Authors

Abstract

Abstract In this article, I examine representations of Sweden Finnish authors Antti Jalava and Susanna Alakoski in Swedish literature reviews in the 1980s and 2000s. The study builds on constructivist views of ethnicity and identity in order to understand Sweden Finns' changing status in a multicultural Sweden. In addition, the article discusses Sweden Finnish literature in relation to recent studies and debates on immigrant literature in Sweden. Sweden Finns are a Finnish ethno-linguistic group, who were recognized as a national minority in Sweden in 2000. Immigrants and their descendants are generally excluded from minority policies. Although Finns and the Finnish language have a historical presence in Sweden, most present-day Finnish speakers in Sweden, or those identifying themselves as Sweden Finns, have their background in post-World War II labor migration or even in more recent migration. In addition to integration, Sweden Finns' status as a national minority derives from a growing awareness of Finnish history in Sweden, but also from a unique combination of national, bilateral Finnish Swedish politics as well as Nordic cooperation. Therefore, the rapid change in Sweden Finns' societal status from immigrants to a national minority in a few decades raises questions about how different ethnic and cultural boundaries are drawn and redrawn in different times. In order to examine these changing ethnic categories, I use critical discourse analysis (CDA) to analyze how the Swedish majority media have portrayed authors with Finnish background at different times, and how these representations reflect Sweden Finns' changing societal status in Sweden. As material, eighteen literature reviews from Swedish newspapers regarding Antti Jalava's novel Asfaltblomman (1980) and Susanna Alakoski's novel Svinalängorna (2006) are analyzed with a focus on author representations and questions of ethnicity and authenticity. The results of the study show that author representations reflect Sweden Finns' integration into Swedish society. While Jalava was mostly depicted as an immigrant or as “neither Swedish nor Finnish” in the early 1980s, Alakoski was instead seen foremost as part of the Swedish literary canon through representation as a working-class author. However, despite Sweden Finns' recognition as a national minority, as well as Alakoski's own migrant background, she was represented neither as a Sweden Finn nor as someone with an immigrant background, although her Finnish background was implicitly acknowledged. Therefore, the study also contributes to contemporary studies of immigrant literature in Sweden by highlighting the exoticizing and racializing aspects of the contemporary discursive construction of “immigrant literature” and “immigrant author.”