Bodies under assault: Nation and immigration in Henning Mankell's Faceless Killers
2007; University of Illinois Press; Volume: 79; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2163-8195
Autores Tópico(s)Media Studies and Communication
ResumoSweden has in just a few decades developed from a relatively ethnically homogenous to a multicultural society. In almost all municipal decisions taken in Sweden, has to be taken into account. This is one of most important changes in in Sweden since industrial revolution. (United Nations 3) ********** THE STATEMENT above comprises second paragraph of Sweden's I996 report to United Nations Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The statement reflects Swedish official view that immigration has fundamentally changed Sweden on all levels of civic from general level of society to practices. Paramount changes to nation and individual municipalities, quotation implies, are imposed from outside in a model of simplistic causality. The official description thus affirms a view common in contemporary Swedish popular culture, namely that this small, peaceful country has been forcefully transformed by foreigners. The immigrant aspect is (negatively) compared with its (positive) correlate, remarkable and accelerated industrialization process that transformed a once provincial and impoverished Sweden into Europe's primary example of a prosperous Western welfare state in less than half a century. The official description nevertheless accurately reflects significant changes in ethnic make-up of Sweden. In I995, more than 10 percent of population was born abroad and first or second generation comprised nearly 20 percent of population (United Nations 3). (1) This rapid transition process was uneasily received during 1990s when attitudes in media, official policy, and by a broad range of members of population were expressed in largely negative and racist terms toward immigration and those construed as immigrants (namely those of non-western European or non-North-American descent), as Allan Pred shows in Even in Sweden. The rapid transformation of Sweden, as described in United Nations report, has only become visible and integrated into aspects of popular culture since about year 2000, reflecting slow pace of Swedish reconciliation with an unrelenting globalization process that it can no longer pretend to ignore. High-grossing productions by director Josef Fares (Jalla! Jalla!, 2000) and popular TV-series Det nya landet (2000), written by Peter Birro and Lukas Moodysson, as well as successful novels by Jonas Hassen Khemiri (Ett oga rott [2003; An Eye Red]) and Marjaneh Bakhtiaris (Kalla det vad fan du vill [2005; Call It Whatever Hell You Want]) straightforwardly and unsentimentally represent the aspect of Swedish everyday life to recall again UN report. In late 1980s and early 1990s, however, popular representation of an already multi-ethnic Sweden was tentative and hesitant. Several well-received films flirted with nostalgic views of a Sweden untainted by racism and lionized as savior of Jews persecuted during World War II; Kjell Grede's God afton, Herr Wallenberg (1990; Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg, 1990) exemplifies this stance. Others showed an increasing awareness of return of a repressed racist past and rise of neo-fascism, which Suzanne Osten investigates in a montage/documentary-inspired film about a neo-Nazi and his Jewish therapist who is also a Holocaust survivor--Tala! Det ar sa morkt (1993; Speak Up! It's So Dark, 1993). Henning Mankell's first detective novel about Inspector Wallander, Mordare utan ansikte (1991; Faceless Killers, 1997), hit Swedish market around same time as Grede's and Osten's films. The early 1990s was a period of profound social changes for Swedish welfare state, exemplified by rising unemployment and increasing ethnic and racial segregation. In contrast to Grede and Osten, whose cinematic sophistication and art-film orientation arguably lessened reach and impact of their respective political messages, Mankell's detective story became a runaway, popular, and critical success. …
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