1
Q
Solidarity (lateral and vertical)
A
- Social cohesion based in interdependence and interlocking/common interests
- Empathy across boundaries based on shared higher interest: a “community of strangers”
- Lateral: One oppressed group with another - first-gen immigrants (asian/hispanic)
- Vertical: Altruistic sympathy - rich to poor
2
Q
Swedish/Nordic Theory of Love
A
- (Stereotypically) high degrees of social trust, to relatively homogeneous demographics, to early inculcation of awareness of the needs and interests of others as a social value
- Nordic citizens practice values of social empathy and are taught to think outside their own narrow interests from a young age
- Debatable about good - Enemy of the People/Law of Jante contrast this value
3
Q
Gemeinschaft/Gesellschaft
A
- Gemeinschaft (community): composed of altruists who are exceptionally caring or loving
- Gesellschaft (society): modern self-realizing individuals who believe that a strong state and stable social norms will keep their neighbor out of both their lives and their backyards
- German terms perpetuated by Weber and Tonnies
- Ex: Sweden stereotype v. actuality
4
Q
Statist individualism
A
- Priorities between state, individual, and family: Germany is S&F, US is F&I, Sweden is S&I
- Statist individualism: allows for true love - “the Swedish theory of love posits that all forms of dependency corrupt true love”
- similar to Sara Videbeck
5
Q
“push” and “pull” emigration factors
A
- mass emigration from Scandinavia to the United States in the mid-1800s (?)
- push factors: low wages/no jobs, mass emigration to cities + rural lifestyle
- pull factors: cheap/fertile land,
- representing this is two statues in both Karlshamn, Sweden, and Lindstrom, Minnesota of Moberg’s characters Karl-Oskar and Kristina
6
Q
Law of Jante
A
- Originally: created by Aksel Sandemose (D-N, 1899-1965), meant to be sinister (no individuality, main character’s crime comes from childhood repression/shaming)
- “The Jante personality is the thoroughly conformist personality, the mass personality that terrorizes others into conformity. The repression stems as much from inside as from without, in that everyone holds himself as well as each other down.”
- Now, positive connotations of not being arrogant (Aleksander Skarsgård interview where he equates it to being humble)
7
Q
Avant-garde
A
- originates from French military - the group that went ahead of the main troops to lead the charge
- began to be applied to writers, artists, and philosophers in the 19th century seen as being years ahead of their contemporaries in style/vision of what art could be
- Ibsen thought of himself as an “intellectual aristocrat” far in advance of his contemporaries
8
Q
The people’s home/The fellow-citizens home
A
- repurposed by famous Swedish PM/creator of Nordic Model Per Albin Hansson (before + recently, have been used by conservative parties for patriotic/ethnically homogenous nostalgia purposes)
- society = home metaphor invokes: a warm sense of connection, fairness, egalitarianism, hard work
- Hansson describes a workplace culture driven by worker input, consensus decision-making, and collective bargaining structure – equate with what the society should be like
9
Q
Consensual democracy
A
- political system dominated by consensus decision-making and negotiation rather than adversarial partisan politics
- Per Albin Hansson pushed for this process in his speech about the people’s home
- contrasts with American “all or nothing” model - harder to get things done but if it happens, there are not a lot of compromises
10
Q
Hegemony
A
- an order in which a common social-moral language is spoken, in which one concept of reality is dominant, informing with its spirit all modes of thought and behavior
- predominance obtained by consent rather than force of one group or class over other classes
- ex: melting pot over soup metaphor
11
Q
Assimilation
A
- Enforced hegemony – changing to fit dominant culture
- ex: Danes and biking, newcomers who can’t bike are outsiders
12
Q
White melancholy
A
- is a psychic state, a structure of connection to the nation, common to Swedes as well as to the image of Sweden in the world
- brought up because Scandinavia is regarded as so progressive, but now having issues with race relations
13
Q
Astrid Lindgren
A
- Pippi Longstocking creator/author (1900s)
- Pippi represents: perpetual youth, superhuman
abilities, unexplained childhood autonomy, confident independence, colorful but ultimately non-threatening disorder - she’s a resonant literary figuration because it’s imaginable that she would be able to develop in a place like Sweden
14
Q
Ludvig Holberg
A
- Father of Danish drama – shift from Latin to Danish plays, Enlightenment figure (Norwegian-Danish, 1684–1754)
- Wrote Erasmus Montanus: book smart vs. common sense, alienation by intelligence, put back in his proper place/social station
- aspired to same model as Moliere: the correction of character excess in the service of Enlightenment ideals of moderation and sense
15
Q
Vilhelm Moberg
A
- Swedish historian, journalist, dramatist (1898–1973), wrote about villages (around time people were romanticizing peasants)
- Best known for a novel series often called “The Emigrants”, about a family emigrating from Småland to Minnesota in the 19th century (1.2 million Swedes emigrated to US between 1885-1915)
- Didn’t like city life - moved back out to rural areas
16
Q
Aksel Sandemose
A
- Danish-Norwegian modernist writer responsible for creating the concept of the Law of Jante
- fictional village community of “Jante” was modeled on the small town Sandemose grew up in, Nykøbing Mors in North Jutland
- VERY against what’s traditionally regarded as the “Nordic Model” - “By means of the Law of Jante people stamp out each other’s chances in life.”
17
Q
Henrik Ibsen
A
- avant-garde playwright, saw himself as Dr. Stockman, ahead of the crowd and disliked for it
- Most famous Scandinavian playwright, known for social problem play
- in “An Enemy of the People”: the truth-crusading doctor is the equivalent of Ibsen trying to speak the truth in Ghosts and finding that they all “didn’t dare” to stage it
18
Q
Gunnar and Alva Myrdal
A
- pioneering Swedish sociologists (and Nobel Prize winners!) in the 1930s, work helped form the social-scientific basis for the Swedish welfare state policies
- 1934 book “Crisis in the Population Question” - most famous work, policies that would foster reproductive control for women AND incentivize family life through gov. childcare support
19
Q
Gro Harlem Brundtland
A
- Norwegian Labor Party politician who served three different terms as Prime Minister in late 1900s (12 years!)
- became the leader of the World Health Organization from 1998–2003
- a leader in sustainable development, spoke at the camp for her party moments before terrorist attack
20
Q
Åsne Seierstad
A
- Contemporary Norwegian journalist/author
- Wrote “One of Us,” story of terrorist attack on Utoya (Norway’s 9/11), and said that she began to realize that this was a story about contemporary Norway
- Criticized for scapegoating the attacker’s mother
21
Q
The implicit relation between Swedish state, family, and individual, according to Berggren and Trädgårdh
A
- In the “Pippi Triangle” between state, family, and individual, Sweden focuses on protecting the state and individual more, leaving the family less emphasized
- this is in contrast with US (fam and individual) and Germany (fam and state)
- the reason for this is because the state supporting the individual instead of their family supporting them financially allows for unencumbered/true love
22
Q
The type of social solidarity depicted in Erasmus Montanus
A
- In Erasmus Montanus, the social solidarity shown is to push toward keeping people in their place
- Erasmus is right about the earth being round, but
23
Q
The contradictions implicit in Vilhelm Moberg’s view of village “solidarity”
A
- Work hard, but also have time to help your neighbor all the time?
- FILL THIS IN MORE
24
Q
Ways in which the byalag prefigures the functions of the welfare state
A
- byalag: literally translates to village law; was a group that governed the village
- similar/prefigure of the welfare state because of the byalag “governed in rural Sweden rather like a parliament on a micro level”
- “was also responsible for many other tasks in the village, such as the care for elders and orphans and for solving disputes”
25
The negative view of solidarity in Aksel Sandemose’s work
- Sandemose thought that solidarity stamped out the individual
- the Law of Jante was intended as a devastating critique of the surveillant small village upbringing that turns every prisoner into his or her own guard, every hazed victim into a hazer in turn.
26
How the cultural uses and understanding of the “Law of Jante” have changed
- As social solidarity is now a widely recognized social good, the use of the Law of Jante is now about being humble
- treated as if it were a positive, aspirational social value, an expression of the modern Nordic consensus society and a positive form of social cohesion.
27
The context for the composition of "An Enemy of the People"
- Ibsen wrote An Enemy of the People in part in response to the refusals to perform his play Ghosts the year before. (Nordic theatres refused to stage it)
- in "An Enemy of the People": the truth-crusading doctor is the equivalent of Ibsen trying to speak the truth in Ghosts and finding that they all “didn’t dare” to stage it
28
Ibsen’s stance toward “social solidarity” and the “compact majority”
- He said that social solidarity is
- "An averagely built truth lives...at most twenty years, rarely longer. But truths of such advanced years are always dreadfully scrawny. And yet it is only then that the majority adopts them..."
- He thought the majority was always primarily wrong and went after people who were visionary
29
Resonances of the metaphor “the people’s home”
- The "people's home" equates one's country with the family - taking care of the young and old better than some families, etc.
- activating these associations: warm sense of connection, fairness, egalitarianism, hard work
30
Consequences of reframing “benefits” as “rights”
- Right now, many US jobs have benefits like healthcare and PTO, when in fact those things can be necessary to one's life. When it becomes a right instead of a benefit, it is seen as a human/social justice/survival issue.
- "Losing one’s job does not mean losing one’s safety net. (The disparaging American term for “rights” in social policy is “entitlements,” a far-more loaded and contested term.)"
31
Internal differences between the Nordic countries
- Nordic countries see a lot of differences between themselves, "farther away you are the more they seem the same"
- Former imperial Countries: Sweden, Denmark
- Post WWII Social-democratic hegemony: Sweden, Norway
- Parliamentary monarchies: Sweden, Denmark, Norway
- EU members: Sweden, Finland, Denmark
- Former colonies: Norway, Finland, Iceland, Danish Carribean
- Mixed politics post WWII: Denmark, Finland, Iceland
- Presidential republics: Finland, Iceland
- Non-EU (Schengen) countries: Norway, Iceland
32
The general historical shifts in immigration in the North
- Nordic countries have always had immigration, now it's just more evident because of the refugee crisis
- General timeline:
•
- Historical ethnic minorities in the North:
• Irish and Slavic slaves in medieval Iceland
• Hanseatic German merchants in Norway in the 14th and 15th centuries
• The Sami as an indigenous minority
• African slaves in Danish colonies in the Caribbean
• Roma (“Gypsies”)
• Jews
• Finns in Sweden/Swedes in Finland/Russians in Finland
33
Various ways in which the events of July 22 affected the Norwegian sense of solidarity
- Solidarity demonstration with rose parade after the attack symbolized solidarity over loss/divide
- Protection house learning center over the "memory wound" design of the memorial
- Lots of uncomfy questions: Did it really come out of nowhere? Was the perpetrator “monstrous” or typically Norwegian in uncomfortable ways? Was he “one of us”? Were the victims?
34
Implications of the title "One of Us" for the idea of solidarity
- "One of Us" reminds people that the terrorist was also a product of the Norwegian society
- The idea of solidarity means that the victims, as well as the perpetrator, were Norwegian instead of (as the FRP has pushed) an outlier
- Solidarity in this title means that there is no excuse for citizens about the way society is structured/who counts as Norwegian
35
Assimilation and bicycling in Denmark: egalitarian individualism
- Bicycling is what allows immigrants to be read as more Danish, through the lens of individuality (although it's not really individual because the whole point is that all Danes bike around)
- "But it is as if Gulbîn and Jino are completely out of the race—and just have to stay at home with Mom and Dad. Couldn’t they just get a bicycle? Then I could teach them how to ride! Indeed, it gives you a bit more individuality to have a bike"
36
Key claims in Karlsson’s allegorical reading of "Let the Right One In"
- an allegory of contemporary (2008) Swedish social malaise
- the appearance of these apartment blocks is an iconic image of modern Sweden and the legacy of the “people’s home”; as a figuration of space, it is a shorthand image for Sweden, immediately recognizable as a stand-in for the Swedish welfare state.
- In Karlsson’s reading, the consistent pattern is to film Oskar as sickly white, as “deficiently” white, implying that white Swedishness has become a problem in itself. It is too “bloodless” and sterile. It needs to incorporate the outsider—to let the stranger in—so the culture (represented by the emasculated and passive Oskar) can regenerate itself.
Scandinavian 75
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Decks in class (3)
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