Swedish history textbooks as identity constructing narratives (1931-2009)

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to trace meaning conveyed in narratives of Sweden and «Swedishness» in history textbooks published between 1931 and 2009. Its objective is also to show how narratives have been transformed and changed over time, and what factors may have influenced these changes. A third aim is to show which of these narratives are expressed by some contemporary students. The empirical material consists of 52 history textbooks and 54 student texts. The research has a hermeneutical perspective, and draws on methods of narrative theory and conceptual history. It identifies six meta-narratives in the texts: the narrative of neutrality, the narrative of the prosperous country, the narrative of the welfare country, the narrative of the role model country of democracy, the narrative of the stranger, and the narrative of the world’s most gender-equal country. Each of these meta-narratives has different narrative forms that contain different protagonists generating, in turn, different categories of sub- narratives. This article argues that, while all textbook narratives are present in the students’ texts, they are often constructed indifferent temporal contexts, and have a slightly different moral perspective.