LETTER FROM STOCKHOLM
Miss Julia, by the writer August Strindberg, The Saga of the Emigrants, by Vilhelm Moberg, or the poems of Tomas Tranströmer, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2011? Surely Fanny and Alexander, by Ingmar Bergman, or perhaps rather The Seventh Seal, even if the filmmaker has always been more appreciated abroad than in his own country? And what about children’s literature, like Pippi Longstocking, by Astrid Lindgren, or Nils Holgersson’s Wonderful Journey through Sweden by Selma Lagerlöf, also awarded the Nobel Prize in 1909? Not to mention popular culture: Millennium, of Stieg Larsson, the songs of ABBA and those of Avicii?
Since the liberal conservative Swedish government, allied to the far right, announced its intention to establish a “cultural canon”, discussions have been going well in the Scandinavian kingdom: what work deserves to be included? And for what purpose, knowing that the two formations which claim paternity are also the most conservative in Sweden: the Christian Democratic Party (KD) and, above all, the Democrats of Sweden (SD, extreme right)?
Presented on October 14, the coalition agreement hardly offers an answer, except that the canon will have to be constituted by “committees of independent experts”named after “their artistic competence in the different fields”.
Danish model
On several occasions already, SD deputies have tried – in vain – to have such motions passed in Parliament. “At a time characterized by a general lack of interest in cultural policy issues, uprooting, questioning of the very existence of Swedish culture and the fragmentation of society, we believe it is very useful to encourage increased reflection on cultural heritage and those parts of it which are considered particularly valuable or important for the formation of Swedish identity”they wrote, during their last attempt, in October 2021.
They evoked the Danish model: in 2006, at the initiative of the populist right, seven committees, made up of experts, had established nine lists of twelve works, considered classics in the fields of architecture, visual arts, design and craftsmanship, film, literature, art music, popular music, performing arts and culture for children. We found there The little Mermaid (Hans Christian Andersen), Babette’s Feast (Gabriel Axel) and Feast (Thomas Vinterberg), but also the TV series Matadorthe Panton chair and the Lego brick.
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