Vithet i svensk spelfilm 1989-2010 :  

Sammanfattning: This dissertation analyzes whiteness in Swedish fiction films between 1989 and 2010. It examines the relationship between whiteness and nation in Sweden, and whiteness as a national Swedish symbol and how this is reformulated at different times in history. The white bodies are analyzed with an intersectional perspective to see how whiteness is expressed throughout, and in relation to, gender, class and sexuality.The purpose of the dissertation is to show and to mark whiteness, and show that whiteness matters when we talk about Sweden and Swedishness – and to create tools to discuss whiteness in filmic representations in this specific national context.The introduction addresses the situation regarding whiteness in Sweden, and gives an overview of whiteness-studies in Sweden and of their necessity.The first part focuses on theory, introducing the field of critical whiteness studies and studies on nation, nationalism and national film. The central theories on whiteness come from professor of film studies Richard Dyer and professor of race and cultural studies Sara Ahmed.The second part of the dissertation is a series of interwoven film analyzes, categorized around class, gender, sexuality and space, and formed as a discussion. The concept of a post-welfare-nostalgia is introduced; a melancholy element in the films that is tied the loss of the welfare state.The conclusion consists of a discussion that, with the help of the earlier film analyzes in the dissertation, shows how Swedish feature films can be used to examine the lines that bind a correct Swedish whiteness made up of class, gender and sexuality – and how this relates to certain correct values. And on the other hand – to negative values that are not desirable within certain contexts of whiteness in these films, often related to lower-class-bodies.