This chapter examines the contemporary revisiting and reimagining of the histories and memories of Finnish migrants in Sweden. Since 2000, a new generation of children and grandchildren of the Great Migration in the 1960s and 1970s has entered the public arena in Sweden, articulating new narratives in pop music, literature, theatre and film. While these “third-generation” Sweden Finnish artists themselves embody success stories of migration, enjoying positive publicity and the appreciation of Swedish mainstream audiences, it is argued that the new narratives are essentially stories about living with, managing and rejecting shame. To be either a cultural producer or an audience of new narratives about Sweden Finns is to engage with an affective legacy of shame, a sense of history and a repertoire of representations – and politics of pride as its rejoinder. Drawing from affect theories by Sara Ahmed and Margaret Wetherell, as well as Beverley Skeggs’ work on the production of class, this chapter investigates two novels, Svinalängorna by Susanna Alakoski (2006) and Ingenbarnsland by Eija Hetekivi Olsson (2012); two television programmes, Emigranterna SVT (2006–2007) and Kansankodin kuokkavieraat YLE Teema (2011); and a musical documentary, Ingen riktig finne/Laulu koti-ikävästä (Mika Ronkainen 2013). In this way, the study highlights an affective practice, a pattern in process and an economy of pride and shame mobilized for purposes of identity construction and community building.
Citizenships under Construction: Affects, Politics and Practices, ISBN 978-951-51-3690-9.