'New Gustavians'
Sweden, Europe and the return of the 18th century during the 1990s crisis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3384/cu.3378Keywords:
Swedish identity, cultural diplomacy, Gustavianism, return of history, ParisAbstract
The early 1990s saw Sweden severely hit by financial crisis, electoral upheaval and a swift reorientation within political elites resulting in an application to join the European Union (EU). Focusing on the Swedish blockbuster exhibition project Le Soleil et l’Etoile du Nord (The Sun and the North Star) in Paris during spring 1994, this paper argues that the early 1990s represent a key transition period for the renegotiation of the relationship between business, politics and culture in Swedish foreign promotion and cultural diplomacy. In a wide-ranging campaign launched in France ahead of the EU membership, political communication, cultural heritage narratives, and export promotion were brought together in an ambitious national identity political project that showcased a new, liberal-conservative and inherently European Sweden.
References
Axelsson, Erik (2006): Historien i politiken. Historieanvändning i norsk och svensk EU-debatt 1990-1994, doctoral dissertation, Uppsala University.
Battail, Marianne & Jean-François Battail (1993): Une amitié millénaire. Les relations entre la France et la Suède à travers les âges, Paris: Beauchesne.
Berryman, Jim (2013): “Art and National Interest: The Diplomatic Origins of the ‘Blockbuster Exhibition’ in Australia” Journal of Australian Studies, 37:2, 159-173.
Bjereld, Ulf, Alf W. Johansson & Karl Molin (2008): Sveriges säkerhet och världens fred. Svensk utrikespolitik under kalla kriget, Stockholm: Santérus.
Bydler, Charlotte (2015): “När blir det svenska svenskt i det nationella kulturarvet?”, in Charlotte Bydler & Katarina Wadstein MacLeod (eds): Kulturarv. Att skapa historia för framtiden, Stockholm: Axelius, 95-110.
Chaubet, François & Laurent Martin (2011): Histoire des relations culturelles internationales dans le monde contemporain, Paris: Armand Colin.
Edman, Viktor (2008): Sjuttonhundratalet som svenskt ideal: moderna rekonstruktioner av historiska miljöer, Stockholm: Nordiska museets förlag.
Gillis, John (1996): Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Glover, Nikolas (2009): “Imaging Community. Sweden in ‘cultural propaganda’ then and now”, Scandinavian Journal of History, 34:3, 246-263.
Glover, Nikolas (2012): National relations. National identity, public diplomacy and the Swedish Institute, Lund: Nordic Academic Press.
Goldfarb, Brian (2002): Visual Pedagogy: Media Cultures in and Beyond the Classroom, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Hellenes, Andreas Mørkved (2019), Fabricating Sweden. Studies of Swedish public diplomacy in France from the 1930s to the 1990s, doctoral dissertation, Sciences Po Paris & University of Oslo.
Hellenes, Andreas Mørkved (2021, forthcoming): “Tracing the Nordic model. French creations, Swedish appropriations and Nordic articulations”, in Haldor Byrkjeflot, Mads Mordhorst, Lars Mjøset & Klaus Pedersen (eds), The Making and Circulation of Nordic Models, Ideals and Images, London: Routledge.
Harding, Tobias (2007): Nationalising Culture. The Reorganisation of National Culture in Swedish Cultural Policy 1970-2002, doctoral dissertaton, Linköping University.
Hjorthén, Adam (2015): Border-Crossing Commemorations. Entangled Histories of Swedish Settling in America, doctoral dissertation, Stockholm University.
Ivarsson Westerberg, Anders, Ylva Waldemarson & Kjell Östberg (2014): “Det långa 1990-talet”, in Anders Ivarsson Westerberg, Ylva Waldemarson & Kjell Östberg (eds). Det långa 1990-talet. När Sverige förändrades, Umeå: Boréa, 11-33.
Ikonomou, Haakon, Aurélie Andry and Rebekka Byberg (2017): European Enlargement across Rounds and Beyond Borders, London: Routledge.
Lundholm, Lena (1995): Kultursponsring – ett teoretiskt och empiriskt perspektiv på utställningen ”Solen och Nordstjärnan”, master’s thesis, Stockholm University.
Marklund, Carl (2015): “American Mirrors and Swedish Self-Portraits: US Images of Sweden and Swedish Public Diplomacy in the USA in the 1970s and 1980s”, in Louis Clerc, Nikolas Glover & Paul Jordan (eds), Histories of Public Diplomacy and Nation Branding in the Nordic and Baltic Countries: Representing the Periphery, Leiden: Brill, 172-194.
Marklund, Carl (2016): “From the Swedish Model to the Open Society: The Swedish Power Investigation and the Power to Investigate Power, 1985-1990”, in Ainur Elmgren & Norbert Götz (eds), The Political Culture of Nordic SelfUnderstanding: Power Investigation, London: Routledge, 20-34.
Kristofferson, Sara (2015): Design by IKEA: A Cultural History, London: Bloomsbury.
Lewin, Leif (2002): Ideologi och strategi: svensk politik under 130 år, Stockholm: Nordsteds.
Matsson, Helena & Sven Olov Wallenstein (2010): “Swedish Modernism at the Crossroads”, in Helena Matsson & Sven Olov Wallenstein (eds), Swedish Modernism. Architecture, Consumption and the Welfare State, Stockholm: Black Dog Publishing.
Mårdh, Hedvig (2017): A Century of Swedish Gustavian Style: Art History, Cultural Heritage and Neoclassical Revivals from the 1890s to the 1990s, doctoral dissertation, Uppsala University.
Nilsson, Torbjörn (2014), “Nyliberalismens spöke och Moderatarnas politik”, in Ivarsson Westerberg, Waldemarson & Östberg, 35-60.
Ringmar, Erik (1998): “Re-Imagining Sweden: The Rhetorical Battle Over EU Membership”, Scandinavian Journal of History, 23:1-2, 46-63.
Lundgren Ryde?n, Lizelotte (2000): Ett svenskt dilemma. Socialdemokraterna, centern och EG- fra?gan 1957-1994, doctoral dissertation, Go?teborg University.
Sejersted, Francis (2011): The Age of Social Democracy. Norway and Sweden in the Twentieth Century, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Schön, Lennart (2010): Sweden’s Road to Modernity. An Economic History, Stockholm: SNS förlag.
Stra?th, Bo (2000): “The Swedish Image of Europe as the Other”, in Bo Stra?th (ed), Europe and the Other and Europe as the Other, Brussels: P.I.E.-Peter Lang, 359-420.
Stra?th, Bo (2002): “Swedish Demarcations to Europe”, in Bo Stra?th & Mikael af Malmborg (eds), The Meaning of Europe: Variety and Contention within and among Nations, Oxford: Berg, 125-147.
Varga, Somogy (2013): “The Marketization of Foreign Cultural Policy: The Cultural Nationalism of the Competition State”, Constellations, 20:3, 442-458.
Westberg, Jacob (2003): Den nationella dro?mtra?dga?rden. Den stora bera?ttelsen om den egna nationen i svensk och brittisk Europadebatt, doctoral dissertation, Stockholms University.
Zander, Ulf (2001): Fornstora dagar, moderna tider. Bruk av och debatter om svensk historia från sekelskifte till sekelskifte. Lund: Nordic Academic Press.
Zarobell, John (2017): Art and the Global Economy, Oakland: University of California Press.
Östberg, Kjell & Jenny Andersson (2013): Sveriges historia 1965-2012, Stockholm: Norstedts.
A?kerlund, Andreas (2016): Public Diplomacy and Academic Mobility in Sweden. The Swedish Institute and Scholarship Programs for Foreign Academics, 1938-2010, Lund: Nordic Academic Press.
Nationalmuseum, Nationalmuseums avdelningar, (NM/AVD).
Handlingar rörande avdelningarnas utställningar, Serie F1A, Vol. 325, 411, 456
Svenska institutet i Paris, (SIP)
Handlingar rörande utställningar, Serie F2, Vol. 44
Af Ugglas, Margaretha (1991): “Ny start för Sverige”, Svensk tidskrift, 6.
Beer, Richard (1994): “Gustave et nous”, Cap sur la Suède, numéro spécial, printemps.
Bern, Stéphane (1994): “Les confidences des souverains suédois”, Le Figaro, March 16.
Bildt, Carl (1991): Hallänning, svensk, europé, Stockholm: Bonniers.
Clason, Anders (1985): “Därför läser jag Form”, Form, 2-3.
Debove, Alain (1991): “Un entretien avec le premier ministre suédois”, Le Monde, December 25.
Élle Décoration (1994): special issue, spring.
Engberg, Peppe (1994): “Hade han sökt jobbet hade han inte fått det”, Résumé, March 24.
Ersman, Nina (1994): “Hatar svenskarna Frankrike?”, Briefing från Utrikesdepartementet, 1.
Faxén, Magnus (1993): Svenska Bilder. Översyn av Sverigeinformationen, Ds 1993: 72, Stockholm: Utrikesdepartementet.
Gerholm, Tor Ragnar (1991), “Sverige – medelvägen mellan vad?”, in Tor Ragnar
Gerholm (ed) Sverige – medelvägen mellan vad? Stockholm: Ratio.
Hedqvist, Hedvig (1994): “Nordstjärnan strålar i blått mörker”, SvD, March 16.
Le Soleil et l’E?toile du Nord. La France et la Sue?de au XVIIIe sie?cle, (1994): Paris: Association Franc?aise d’Action Artistique.
Niëto, Françoise (1994a): “Le raconteur de l’Histoire”, in Cap sur la Sue?de.
Niëto, Françoise (1994b): “La Suède et l’intégration européenne”, in Suède magazine.
Nilson, Ulf (1994): “Stackars kungen!”, Expressen, March 16.
Norée, Britt (1994): “Näringslivets tungviktare flaggar för Sverige på fransk charmoffensiv”, DI, March 19.
Norrman, Karl-Erik (1997): “Vår historia är anvandbar”, Briefing från Utrikesdepartementet, 3.
Nyhetsbrev: Solen och Nordstjärnan. Frankrike och Sverige under 1700-talet (1993): December.
Nyhetsbrev: Solen och Nordstjärnan. Frankrike och Sverige under 1700-talet (1994): April.
Ohlsson, Per T. (1993): Gudarnas ö: om det extremt svenska, Stockholm: Bromberg.
Pagold, Susanne (1994): “Svensk sol över Paris”, DN, March 23.
Routier, Airy (1993): “Renault-Volvo. Re?ve?lations sur un mariage”, Le Nouvel Observateur, October 14.
Sjöberg, Lars, Ursula Sjöberg & Ingalill Snitt (1994): The Swedish Room, London: Francis Lincoln.
Stahre, Lars (1994): “’Redaktör Anckarström’ Häftig kritik mot ledare om kungen”, DI, March 26.
Stråth, Bo (1992): Folkhemmet mot Europa. Ett historiskt perspektiv på 90-talet. Falun: Tiden.
Sundblad, Rolf (1994): “Svensk fru senaste nytt i Frankrike”, DN, April 2.
Sverige i utländsk press (1991): Utrikesdepartementet.
Sverige i utländsk press (1994): Utrikesdepartementet.
Sörbom, Per (1994): “Direktören har ordet”, in A?rsredovisning 1993/94, Svenska institutet.
Tarras-Wahlberg, Elisabeth (1994), “Ett brev från kungahuset: Vi drar in miljoner”, Expressen, March 23.
Tarschys, Rebecka (1994): “Snitt genom tid och rum”, DN, October 23.
Tasset, Jean-Marie (1994): “Le partage d’un certain bonheur”, Le Figaro, March 22.
Tegelberg, Elisabeth (1994): “Sverigebilder i Frankrike”, Göteborgs universitet: Göteborg, 1994.
Wallenberg, Peter (1994): “Kungaparets medverkan oumba?rlig”, SvD, March 31.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Andreas Mørkved Hellenes
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright for all manuscripts rests with the author(s). The editors reserve the right to edit manuscripts. Contributors are responsible for acquiring all permissions from the copyright owners for the use of quotations, illustrations, tables, etc. Each author must, before final publication fill, in a publishing agreement provided by LiU E-Press.
Since 2021 Culture Unbound uses a Creative Commons: Attribution license for new articles, which allows users to distribute the work and to reform or build upon it without the author's permission. Full reference to the author must be given. For older articles please see each article landing page.
