Contemporary Swedish Research Articles

Super-Charlies mamma

Theme: Motherhood and Mothering. Ill. ©Stina Wirsén Super-Charlie’s Mum: Public Mothers, Adult Address, and Parasocial Relationships in Contemporary Swedish Picturebooks This article examines contemporary Swedish celebrity picturebooks in which the central characters share names with the children of the authors. The focus is on the relationship between the authors’ public personas and the maternal figures depicted in the books, as well as the ways in which such publications can be understood from a book market perspective. The analysis includes Margaux Dietz’ books about Arnold (2020–2021), Marie Serneholt’s books about Nico and Phille (2020–2021), and Camilla Läckberg’s first instalment in the Super-Charlie series (2011–). The rise of celebrity-authored children’s books has been a notable trend in the Anglo-American publishing industry, with parallel developments emerging in Sweden. The symbiotic relationship between celebrities eager to publish children’s literature and publishers seeking to capitalize on public figures is key to understanding the mechanisms that drive the production of such books. By integrating theoretical frameworks from children’s literature research, motherhood studies, and sociology of literature, this article demonstrates the value of a multifaceted disciplinary approach when analyzing the contemporary Swedish children’s book market. The article explores the adult address created by references to the authors’ actual lives — visible through texts, paratexts, and illustrations — which are primarily accessible to the adult reader. This phenomenon reflects the parasocial relationships that these books utilize to engage readers. As a result, different approaches to motherhood can be discerned: as a carer, a role-model, or a playfully distant star author. These variations of the literary mother figure comment on the authors’ public personas for the benefit of the adult readers, which in turn showcase the commercial possibilities surrounding motherhood, online and on the book market.

The Role of Plants in Contemporary Swedish and Norwegian Picturebooks

The plant kingdom is vital to all other life on earth and is a fundamental part of children’s culture. Yet, we have little knowledge about how plants are currently represented in picturebooks aimed at children. In this article, I conduct a quantitative analysis of plant motifs in picturebooks published in Sweden and Norway in 2020. Inspired by concepts drawn from ecocritical children’s literature research and critical plant studies, the article investigates which plant species and types the books contain and how they are presented through text and pictures. Although the study finds that plants are prevalent motifs in contemporary Swedish and Norwegian picturebooks, it also shows that vegetal entities are often backgrounded and depicted as generic plant types.

Precarity and Class Consciousness in Contemporary Swedish Working-Class Literature

This article analyses aesthetical–political strategies for the promotion of class consciousness among workers in a few examples of contemporary Swedish working-class literature from different genres that describe and criticize precarious working conditions. Special attention is given to how these texts engage in dialogue with the notion of the precariat and to the authors’ use of decidedly literary forms. One important result is that Swedish working-class writers highlight the heterogeneity among those working under precarious conditions while also arguing that they share certain economic conditions, both amongst each other and with members of other groups (especially the traditional working class). Furthermore, it is argued that the use of literary forms (as opposed to, e.g., reportage or documentary) reflects the absence in the precariat of class consciousness, and the authors’ belief that literature can contribute to the creation of such a consciousness.

Climate Activism – Contemporary Swedish Feminist Comics

ABSTRACT This article argues that, while the creation and publishing of comics can be seen as activism per se, comics can also be utilised in more direct activist contexts. It relates comics, feminisms and masculinities to climate activism by analysing two prominent examples from Sweden: the comics album Jag vill inte göra slut. Serier för klimatet, [I don’t want to break up. Comics for the climate] (2016), and the comics by Karolina Bång in Maskulinitet, genus och klimaträttvisa [Masculinity, gender and climate justice] (2021), produced by the organisation Jordens Vänner [Friends of the Earth Sweden]. The comics are analysed visually and verbally with regard to the specific masculinities they discuss – the industrial modernist who denies the crisis, the ecomodernist, who suggests unproductive, short-term solutions, and the ecological masculinity, including care for nature and for each other, working for equity, eradicating negative gender norms, reducing unfair consumption and taking action for climate justice. The comics frequently use humour, irony, and satire – and are linked to climate activism.

‘The Girl Who Was Chased by Fire’: Violence and Passion in Contemporary Swedish Fascist Fiction

Abstract Fascism invites its adherents to be part of something greater than themselves, invoking their longing for honor and glory, passion and heroism. An important avenue for articulating its affective dimension is cultural production. This article investigates the role of violence and passion in contemporary Swedish-language fascist fiction. The protagonist is typically a young white man or woman who wakes up to the realities of the ongoing white genocide through being exposed to violent crime committed by racialized aliens protected by the System. Seeking revenge, the protagonist learns how to be a man or meets her hero, and is introduced to fascist ideology and the art of killing. Fascist literature identifies aggression and ethnical cleansing as altruistic acts of love. With its passionate celebration of violence, fascism hails the productivity of destructivity, and the life-bequeathing aspects of death, which is at the core of fascism’s urge for national rebirth.

Superwomen, Latte Dads and Feminist Alphas: Negotiations on Feminism in Contemporary Swedish Popular Romance Novels

Superwomen, Latte Dads and Feminist Alphas: Negotiations on Feminism in Contemporary Swedish Popular Romance Novels

Position and Role of Modal Particles in Contemporary Swedish (based on the studies of Swedish and Russian linguists)

Position and Role of Modal Particles in Contemporary Swedish (based on the studies of Swedish and Russian linguists)

When the Others Other: Images and Representations of Transnational Adoptees of Color Among Non-Adopted Swedes of Color as Reflected in Contemporary Swedish Minority Literature

When the Others Other: Images and Representations of Transnational Adoptees of Color Among Non-Adopted Swedes of Color as Reflected in Contemporary Swedish Minority Literature

Har du inga gummistövlar? Fattigdom i 2010-talets svenska bilderbok

Title: Representations of Poverty in Contemporary Swedish Picture Books This article explores nine Swedish children’s picture books that portray children and other people living in poverty. The aim is to scrutinize the discursive and aesthetical practices that construct the literary image of poverty, poor people, and their relationship to society and each other. The article shows that the Swedish picture book participates in recent debates on child poverty and begging EU citizens. The representations of social inequality include both depictions of poor children and of children meeting socially excluded people, such as beggars. The depictions are located in between discourses on poverty, children, and children’s rights. Inequality is, on the one hand, represented by a lack of material resources, such as new rubber boots or expensive fruit, and on the other, by adults begging in the street. The aesthetics of the picture book format is utilized in a productive way, encouraging readers to reflect on questions of poverty, power, and solidarity.

‘A Queer Way of Loving’: Sexual Reorientation and Gender Identity Transition in Contemporary Swedish Literature

The aim of this article is to examine the troubles and emotional turbulences concomitant with the experience of sexual and gender-related otherness as they are depicted in contemporary Swedish literature. Within the framework of the special issue on “Border Crossings, Rites of Passage, and Liminal Experiences”, literary portraits of troubling queer life journeys provide interesting material since they foreground various transitory situations and transformative events that can be characterised as liminal, i.e. on the threshold of a new stage while leaving behind an old. The literary figures in question repeatedly have to decide whether they dare to cross certain borders or should stay where they are, either in a concrete physical or in a metaphorical meaning. To explore the linkages between sexual and gender identity, place, transgression, and emotional belonging, I will draw on Arnold van Gennep's concept of “rites of passage” and Sara Ahmed's queer phenomenological approach that explores how individuals are shaped by their physical and emotional orientation in the world. Being orientated, Ahmed explains, means feeling at home, knowing where one stands. However, deviating from the position which society has intended for one unsettles this feeling and calls for reorientation.

The Swedish verb låta ‘let’ from a synchronic and diachronic perspective

This paper aims at highlighting the syntactic and semantic variation of the Swedish verb låta ‘let’ from both a synchronic and diachronic point of view. On the basis of corpus data containing Old and Modern Swedish texts from the 13th to the 19th centuries, the syntactic and semantic development of the verb is investigated within the framework of grammaticalization theory.The first part of the paper focuses on the morphosyntactic features of the verb. Considered from a synchronic point of view, the occurrence of låta ‘let’ as a main verb in Contemporary Swedish is limited to a number of more or less fixed expressions, whereas it is much more common as an auxiliary-like verb. However, when considered from a diachronic perspective, it appears that the main verb was much more prevalent a few centuries ago than what it is today.The second part of the paper describes the semantics of the verb. Whereas the semantic profile of the lexical verb låta ‘let’ has become blurred, the auxiliary låta ‘let’ is remarkable in that it covers a scale of meanings ranging from factitive to permissive causation. The study maps the semantic profile of the verb and is concerned with the development of the causative and permissive meanings.The results of the analysis render distinct evidence that the verb has indeed gone through a grammaticalization process.

Naturen och det kusliga

Nature and the Uncanny: Some Examples from Contemporary Swedish Literature
 The relationship between humanity and the environment has become increasingly problematic in contemporary society. The news constantly confronts us with a variety of ecological crises which transform our everyday surroundings into unfamiliar places. However, the majority of society ignores the extent of the problem. By combining ideas related to the concept of the uncanny with an eco-critical perspective, this article explores how literature in a time of ecological crisis deals with the concept of nature: How is nature defined? What kind of relationship between the human and the other is depicted? What places are portrayed? Examples are drawn from two contemporary Swedish authors, Lars Jakobson and John Ajvide Lindqvist.

Tillfället gör dikten

Appropriation and Reuse as Media Archaeology in Contemporary Swedish Poetry
 This article deals with the practice in contemporary poetry of appropriation and recycling of extra-literary (or extra-aesthetic) materials, such as dictionaries, handbooks, user manuals, radio talks et cetera. The practice is situated within an avant-garde tradition of readymades, collages, and found poetry, which offers a historical context to the contemporary work. The analytical focus of the article is on three Swedish poets, who in various ways have explored this field of conceptually oriented writing during the last decade – Oskar Ponnert, Ida Börjel, and Ulf Karl Olov Nilsson. Even though their poetics vary, one might trace some common traits in their recycling of already existing textual, acoustic, and visual materials through concepts such as ’indexicality’ and ’materiality’. The article also suggests that their work could be designated as a kind of media archaeology in poetry – as a way of discussing and reflecting upon the conditions of memory and representation in a contemporary media society.

Creative Space in Contemporary Swedish Moving Image Production

Production of moving images is turning completely digital. This leads to new possibilities and new constraints for creativity within film and TV production chains. This paper describes professionals' current comprehension of the consequences of the shift from celluloid to digital technologies, within the Swedish Moving Image Industry. New technologies bring new workflows, new design processes and new constraints. We aim to illuminate factors that affect design creativity in digital moving image production by addressing questions about production related responses to the digital turn as well as the affects of such responses on creativity. Inspired by Ingar Brinck's creativity theories 1999, 2007 we view aesthetic problem solving as a cognitive process and suggest creative space to be the critical phenomenon to manage. We also use organization theories, particularly the work of Katherine Miller 2011 to explain why creativity ought to be a primary management concern. The empirical material used is semi-structured interviews with management personnel in Swedish moving image production companies. Outcomes include that the variety of digital formats available today is hard for crafts people to overview. This has brought costly workflow constraints that largely limit creativity. We suggest a pre-production file format check-list as a tool to support design management.

Rerouting: Discipline, Assessment and Performativity in Contemporary Swedish Educational Discourse

As Sweden drew nearer to the 2006 national election, two themes emerged in the educational debate: a concern for order and discipline in schools, and the ambition to raise educational levels of achievement. The objective of this article is to locate these two themes within a broader framework of understanding by: 1) discussing examples of how the reinforcement of disciplinary power in schools was introduced, justified and deployed by right-wing constellations during this time; and 2) to relate these policy changes to both a Foucauldian theory of power and to current discussions on performativity, assessment and governmentality. Considered as attempts to locate students, teachers and schools within networks of performativity, thereby strengthening the image of Sweden as a “performing knowledge nation”, we argue that these policy changes have a much closer relationship with the art of “perception management” than with any genuine interest in education for human proficiency.Keywords: discipline, assessment, governmentality, PISA

Www.Not_So_Foreign_Sweden.Com: Representing Immigrant Identity in Contemporary Swedish Literature and Visual Arts

Www.Not_So_Foreign_Sweden.Com: Representing Immigrant Identity in Contemporary Swedish Literature and Visual Arts

Marginalization of democratic values: a gendered practice of schooling?

Contemporary Swedish debate is much occupied with young men's attraction to anti-democratic ideals and the fact that they seem to learn less than girls about democratic values in school. Within politics, voices have been raised in favour of putting more effort into the schooling of young people's—especially boys'—social competence and democratic understanding. This paper analyses present school practice and discusses how schools go about handling issues of democracy. This will be done by reference to empirical results from two Swedish studies carried out in the 1990s. The presentation will focus in particular on the marginalization and gendered fostering of democratic values in school. It will also touch upon the implications for the kind of masculinities and femininities reproduced.