Att gjuta en nation : Statyinvigningar och nationsformering i Sverige vid 1800-talets mitt

Sammanfattning: The present study discusses three unveilings of statues in mid 19th century Sweden: Gustavus Adolphus in Gothenburg in 1854, Engelbrekt in Örebro in 1865, and Charles XII in Stockholm in 1868. The main theme of the study is the connection between history and contemporary politics. The unveilings of statues inspired the production of history in a number of different genres. Speeches, plays, poems, popular pieces and scholarly works were all part of the same process. These historical narratives portrayed and framed connections between concepts such as memory, history, the region, the nation, the past and the future. The unveilings of statues provided a public forum for the production of a national history: the narratives produced history for current political purposes. National conceptions were often linked to concrete practices and events. Several mid-19th century projects of political reform were used in this way. Therefore I consider it more adequate to use the notion of nation building, rather than nationalism.My study combines three different perspectives: firstly, a stance on monument history which rejects the modernist view on art, aiming instead to put the statue in its historical context; secondly, a view on the history of public life which sees public events as formative; and thirdly, an ambition to investigate the characteristics of the nation, as presented within the historical context of a 19th century statue unveiling. The purpose of this combination of perspectives is to link the discussion of monuments and public events to a more comprehensive description of the shaping of a nation.