Sweden, “Swedishness” and the images of Sweden in a transnational perspective

This project explores how the image of Sweden and Swedishness is constructed in other film cultures. As a part of this project I look into how Anita Ekberg was constructed as a star in Hollywood in the 1950s, and how she came to embody ideas about the Swedish sex symbol.

My previous project on the cinematic representation of the emigration to America and the Swedish Americans, and how Swedish Americans used the Swedish film to remember the old country and create a new identity, raised several questions about how the nation is narrated in film. How are perceptions of Sweden and the Swedish reproduced/constructed/represented both in Swedish films and films from other countries and cultures? How is the “national” manifested in a world and in a film culture that despite globalization still persist in national presentations and representations, not least by such organizations as the Swedish Institute and by the governing documents that direct the work of the Swedish Film Institute? This project consists of a number of separate sub-projects which are united by this thematic starting point, but performed individually.