Subscribe
Now Sweden has finally received its much-debated cultural canon. It consists of a list of a total of 100 works and social phenomena that are considered to distinguish Sweden’s history, culture and social life in various ways. 50 works are taken from literature, art and music. And 50 social phenomena are taken from religion, inventions and social life.
Some things included in this cultural canon go as far back as the Christian Middle Ages. Swedish legal texts from the 13th century are also included in the canon. These legal texts are considered the first longer texts written in Swedish (and not in ecclesiastical Latin). Pure fiction takes its starting point in a famous 17th century poem but then focuses on the novel from the late 19th century and early 20th century.
When it comes to social phenomena, the Swedish “paternity leave” is included, i.e. the period of paid parental leave that only the child’s father can take and therefore not the mother. This would be a sign of the awareness that existed early in Swedish society about the benefits of gender equality in the home. Examples of other phenomena that are included in the canon are the Nobel Prize, the Swedish Parliament building, Vasaloppet (a cross-country ski race) and the Swedish Academy’s dictionary.
The reactions to this Swedish cultural canon have been many and varied. Some think the list is watered down. Others think it is strange to include social reforms such as paternity leave. They think there should be more focus on art and literature. And it is true that there are several great works of literature that are not included. With a few exceptions, the often popularly rooted 19th-century poets are conspicuous by their absence.
But it is possible to argue for the breadth of this canon. Many people seem to have difficulty keeping track of what the word culture means and, above all, what we put into the word when we talk about a national culture.
The word culture has two basic meanings. First, it denotes aesthetic production: literature, painting, architecture, music. But it also denotes the patterns of life, language and values that characterize a specific civilization. We often confuse these two when we talk about the different cultures of our countries or about our Western culture in general.
It should be noted, for example, that when the research network World Values Survey constructs its famous cultural map of the world in which different nations are placed in different cultural spheres, it is precisely values and lifestyles that are at the center. It is not about music and literature. This is also how we think of culture when we talk about the cultural clashes that are now taking place in Western Europe due to modern immigration. It is the differences between, on the one hand, individualistic and secularized Western Europe (and the West in general) and, on the other hand, the traditionalist and more authoritarian-minded Muslim world that we pay attention to and perhaps worry about. And when we say that we Europeans must stand up for our modern values around the individual, free enterprise and legal certainty, we can also say that we must defend our jointly shared Western culture in the sense of values and social order.
So, it is not unreasonable that social phenomena that testify to the progressive thinking that has characterized Sweden for so long are also included in the cultural canon.
It is an interesting fact that the political left has had difficulty appreciating this project. The fundamental reason is probably that the project itself presupposes the idea that Sweden – like all other countries in Europe – is and has been an identifiable nation. Even though the country is now part of the global order, even though the country is part of the EU and NATO and even though Sweden has been an active and enthusiastic member of the United Nations for so long, Sweden is still a specific nation with its own language and its own culture.
This is incredibly unbearable for the political forces for whom all nationalism is an expression of ill will and evil. They unfortunately associate all nationalism with aggressiveness and oppression. They are unable to see that nationalism always has an inalienable value in that it constitutes a necessary component of a nation’s self-care. For a nation to survive, it must to some extent affirm its own existence and its own culture. And this can happen at the same time as affirming openness to the outside world and respect for other people and other nations. But in times of globalization, free trade and migration, not caring for one’s own nation and culture ultimately becomes self-harm.
This is a complexity that certain political forces are unable to process. They do not understand that our modern internationalized world requires a measure of care for one’s own.
And that is why the political left has also disliked this project from the beginning. A Swedish cultural canon risks revealing what certain political forces have tried to deny for several decades: Sweden has a Swedish history. And Sweden does not only have a Swedish history. Sweden also has a Swedish culture. Sweden has several Swedish writers. And these writers also include people who were both conservative and nationalist. This means that Sweden does not have a Persian or Kurdish history. This means that it is the ancestors of the Swedes who built the country and not the immigrants. We do not have to say no to immigration for that. But it is an undeniable fact that Sweden has been Swedish for a thousand years (and longer than that if you want) and that the Swedes have a history that is only theirs.
All of this may sound obvious and should be considered obvious, but it has not been so.
Since the 1970s, the Swedish elites have had a hard time with nationalism. They have had a hard time with Swedish self-assertion. And that was one of the reasons why Sweden had almost uncontrolled immigration between 2000 and 2015. Later, other countries in Western Europe caught up in this sad race, but Sweden was early on with the idea that the morally right thing to do was to open its borders wide.
One of the arguments that was put forward at the time to justify this rapid change in the country was that there had never been a homogeneous Swedish Sweden. Researchers, opinion leaders and politicians put forward a lot of sophistical arguments to prove the non-existence of the Swedish Sweden. “Sweden has always had immigration”, they said, for example. Which is of course true, but the question is how extensive it should be. “Swedish culture has always changed”, they also said. Which is a self-evident truth, but that does not mean that all kinds of changes should be welcomed. “A national culture cannot be defined and put into a box”, which is also true. But that does not mean that there are no national cultures or that we cannot in some way describe them and make a distinction between different cultures.
But now there is a Swedish cultural canon. And it is truly based on Swedish historical culture. No one needed to define Swedish culture to produce this canon. No one needed to deny that Sweden’s national culture is diverse and sometimes contradictory. And since no cultural phenomena that were younger than 50 years were allowed to be included in this canon, it also became the case that everything in it is truly Swedish. The extensive immigration that Sweden has had in the last 50 years is not noticeable in this cultural canon.
And this means that it is now an official truth that Sweden has a Swedish origin. That it is the Swedes who own their history. It is the Swedes who own their culture.
And all of this is valuable when the country is now trying to repair itself after 50 years of self-harm.