235 resultados para digitala- och sociala medier
Resumo:
The dissertation examines the power mechanisms and institutional power hierarchies of the 1940s-1950s era arts elite in Helsinki and their influence on issues of taste in the visual arts. For the purposes of this study, the elite is understood to consist mainly of the board members of the principal elected bodies in the field of the arts. The theoretical framework employed is based on Pierre Bourdieu s field theory and the network perspective. The author has examined what the key, pervasive valuations were that governed the exercising of power by the arts elite in issues of taste, involving determination of who was an acknowledged artist and what was good art. The dissertation demonstrates that this exercising of power was governed by certain collective practices which maintained the illusion that the exercising of power was democratic and based on artistic quality. These practices were the corporate system, using artistic arguments in issues of taste, and using networks in the exercising of power. The struggle in the field of the arts was about who ultimately was entitled to define the value of contemporary art; the issue did not arise regarding historical art. Artists managed to gain a leading position as gatekeepers in issues regarding contemporary art. The author discusses a number of conflicts in the field of the arts that highlight the institutional hierarchies and the capital held by the various players. The structural changes that occurred in administration in the field of cultural production in the 1950s led to the separation of bureaucratic competence on the one hand and aesthetic competence on the other. There was a hierarchy in the field of the arts between institutions, between instruments of legitimisation, and between the symbolic and social capital of players in the field. The hierarchy in the arts ultimately depended on how well the elite could influence tastes through the instruments at their disposal. The various instruments of legitimisation grants, purchases, etc. were ranked differently in the evaluation of acknowledged artists and good art. The dissertation discusses what values, in the form of types of symbolic capital, the arts elite embraced and what role these played in the elite s exercising of power, with particular focus on gender, language, region and economic capital. The aesthetic capital of an artist was of only minor importance in the exercising of power by the arts elite. The dissertation further discusses the points of contact between the arts elite and players in other fields, such as the economic, media and consumer fields. When the arts elite, through the Academy of Fine Arts, became an active player in the art market, this led to a hierarchy where the division between acknowledged and not-acknowledged galleries became sharper.
Resumo:
The study examines the debate in Finland at the beginning of the 20th century surrounding the philosophy of Henri Bergson. Both within as well as outside of academic philosophy Bergsonism was adapted to the philosophical and cultural landscape in Finland by a process of selective appropriation. The ambiguous relationship between the sender and the receiver is accentuated in reference to philosophical celebrities such as Bergson, whose reputations spread more quickly than the content of their philosophy and whose names are drawn into the political and social discourse. As a philosophical movement the aim of Bergsonism was to create a scientific philosophy of life as an alternative to both idealism and modern empirical and antimetaphysical currents, during a period when European philosophy was searching for new guidelines after the collapse of the idealistic system philosophies of the 19th century. This reorientation is examined from a Finnish viewpoint and in the light of the process of intellectual importation. The study examines how elements from an international discourse were appropriated within the philosophical field in Finland against a background of changes in the role of the university and the educated elites as well as the position of philosophy within the disciplinary hierarchy. Philosophical reception was guided by expectations that had arisen in a national context, for example when Bergsonism in Finland was adjusted to a moral and educational ideal of self-cultivation, and often served as a means for philosophers to internationalize their own views in order to strengthen their position on the national stage. The study begins with some introductory remarks on the international circulation of ideas from the point of view of the periphery. The second section presents an overview of the shaping of the philosophical field at the turn of the 20th century, the naturalism and positivism of the late 19th century that were the objects of Bergson s critique, and an introduction to the attempts of a philosophy of life to make its way between idealism and naturalism. The third and main section of the study begins with a brief presentation of the main features of the philosophy of Bergson, followed by a closer examination of the different comments and analyses that it gave rise to in Finland. The final section addresses the ideological implications of Bergsonism within the framework of a political annexation of the philosophy of life at the beginning of the 20th century.
Resumo:
The objective of my dissertation Pull (or Draught, or Moves) at the Parnassus , is to provide a deeper understanding of Nordic Middle Class radicalism of the 1960 s as featured in Finland-Swedish literature. My approach is cultural materialist in a broad sense; social class is regarded a crucial aspect of the contents and contexts of the novels and literary discussions explored. In the first volume, Middle Class With A Human Face , novels by Christer Kihlman, Jarl Sjblom, Marianne Alopaeus, and Ulla-Lena Lundberg, respectively, are read from the points of view of place, emotion, and power. The term "cryptotope" is used to designate the hidden places found to play an important role in all of these four narratives. Also, the "chronotope of the provincial small town", described by Mikhail Bakhtin in 1938, is exemplified in Kihlman s satirical novel, as is the chronotope of of war (Algeria, Vietnam) in those of Alopaeus and Lundberg s. All the four novels signal changes in the way general "scripts of emotions", e.g. jealousy, are handled and described. The power relations in the novels are also read, with reference to Michel Foucault. As the protagonists in two of them work as journalists, a critical discussion about media and Bourgeois hegemony is found; the term "repressive legitimation" is created to grasp these patterns of manipulation. The Modernist Debate , part II of the study, concerns a literary discussion between mainly Finland-Swedish authors and critics. Essayist Johannes Salminen (40) provided much of the fuel for the debate in 1963, questioning the relevance to contemporary life of the Finland-Swedish modernist tradition of the 1910 s and 1920 s. In 1965, a group of younger authors and critics, including poet Claes Andersson (28), followed up this critique in a debate taking place mainly in the newspaper Vasabladet. Poets Rabbe Enckell (62), Bo Carpelan (39) and others defended a timeless poetry. This debate is contextualized and the changing literary field is analyzed using concepts provided by sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. In the thesis, the historical moment of Middle Class radicalism with a human face is regarded a temporary luxury that new social groups could afford themselves, as long as they were knocking over the statues and symbols of the Old Bourgeoisie. This is not to say that all components of the Sixties strategy have lost their power. Some of them have survived and even grown, others remain latent in the gene bank of utopias, waiting for new moments of change.
Resumo:
Inom rttsvetenskap saknas grundforskning om kyrkoskatt. Det kan ha mnga orsaker. En renodlad skatterttslig forskning utan exkurser till andra vetenskaper r minst sagt otnkbar. Forskning inom ett grnsomrde mellan teologi och rttsvetenskap mste inkludera drag av sociologi, politologi och ekonomi. Etik frn teologi och moral genom lag kan vara sjlvklart. Frankrad i liberal rttsfilosofi kan ocks beskattningen frsts p ett annat stt om en frankring i ett historiskt perspektiv tas med. Den evangelisk-lutherska kyrkan och den ortodoxa kyrkan har skattertt i Finland. Hur har det kommit sig och vilken rtt har andra trossamfund? Detta frsker vi hr belysa genom skilda infallsvinklar. Laglig reglering av offentligrttsliga samfunds skatteintag, med kyrkans uppgifter med tydligt mindre lagbundenhet som utgiftsflt, ger de sociala aspekterna och barmhrtighet stort inflytande. En tidvis sekulr stat och de nationella bindningarna med historisk frankring ger ett konglomerat av skilda lsningsmodeller. Genom olika frankringar i skilda kulturer och sprk kan en nationell kutym uppst som skiljer sig mycket frn andra. Dessutom kan speciella juridiska egenheter upptckas. Vilken nationell modell man i en demokrati vljer, styrs av de politiskt stadfsta lagarna. Oberoende av kyrkans nationella stllning, kar en strre liberalism och frdragsamhet i en demokrati behovet av anpassning och nationell acceptans av andra religioner, vilket kan leda till ett behov av nya finansieringsmodeller fr trossamfund.
Resumo:
Den klassiska situationen dr konsumentinformationen p ett ensidigt stt tidigare har levererats av fretagen fr ge vika fr en ny situation dr dagens konsument aktivt sprider information fr att pverka andra konsumenters kpbeslut genom att prata med andra om kpupplevelser och specifika tjnsteleverantrer t ex genom diskussionsgrupper p Internet. Fr fretagen r situationen kritisk d de hller p att mista sina maktmonopol p informationen. Innehllet i pratet r mycket viktigt fr mottagarna av pratet eftersom de flesta kunder om de inte sjlva har upplevt fretaget, skapar sina sikter och frvntningar om fretaget samt om dess varor och tjnster p basen av vad andra berttar om saken. Man kan d sga att pratet har ftt en viktigare roll vid formandet av konsumtionsbeslutet. Syftet med denna studie r att skapa frstelse fr vilka faktorer som initierar och pverkar prat hos kunder i lngsiktiga relationer. P basis av de olika resultaten konstruerades en modell som frklarar sambandet mellan faktorerna. Modellens frsta del visar att prat initieras p basis av lngvariga upplevelser i relationer mellan tjnsteleverantr och kund. Modellens andra del visar att pratet pverkas av kundens personliga karaktristika och relationsrelaterade faktorer som upplevt engagemang i tjnstekategorin och i tjnsteleverantren samt i relationslngden. Modellens tredje del visar att kundernas prat varierar i aktivitet och omfng beroende p valensen av upplevelserna och beroende p om prataren har starka eller svaga band till pratmottagaren. Det r viktigt och mycket aktuellt att ka frstelsen fr kunders kommunikationsbeteende ur ett relationsperspektiv. Ur fretagsledningssynvinkel r det viktigt att frst hur kunders prat pverkar utvecklingen av verksamhetsmiljn. Ur praktiskt tillmpningsperspektiv kan en kad kunskap om pratet vidare hjlpa fretaget att fokusera p vad kunderna anser vara viktigt i en relation. Genom att veta vad kunderna pratar om kan fretaget frbttra svagheter i verksamheten, och drigenom minska p andelen negativt prat eller uppmuntra kunder att prata om frdelar som relationen med fretaget ger t kunden.
Resumo:
Under 1700-talets andra hlft hrde Sveriges nya fstningar i st (Helsingfors, Sveaborg, Lovisa och Svartholm) till rikets strsta satsningar. Fstningsprojektet leddes med undantag av ett par avbrott av Augustin Ehrensvrd (1710 1772). Nr arbetet tog fart namngavs de enskilda fstningsverken i s gott som alla fall efter samtida personer. Under Ehrensvrds tid tillmpades denna namngivning p omkring femtio av Sveaborgs och Helsingfors fstningsverk samt p Lovisas och Svartholms totalt aderton verk. Genom personerna de knts till berttar namnen en hel del om Augustin Ehrensvrds samtid och omvrld. Hur de gjorde det r denna avhandlings huvudfrga. Kllmaterialet utgrs av relationsritningar och brev, medan de teoretiska ramarna str att finna i ntverksteori och onomastiska teorier om namnmnster. Ehrensvrd frklarade sin namngivningspraxis fr sin verordnade, tronfljaren Adolf Fredrik, 1749 i samband med att Gustavssvrd med fstningsverk namngavs: tanken var att namnge bastioner efter de som bidragit till arbetets framgng och att namnge utanverk efter officerare vid fstningsbygget. Innebrden av Ehrensvrds ord framgr ur namnbestndet. De strsta grupperna bestr av mbetsmn och militrer. Med de som bidragit till arbetets framgng avsgs slunda den lokala eliten: landshvdingar som involverats i fstningsbygget samt hgre och lgre militrer som tjnstgjorde vid fstningarna. Redan frn brjan syns en klar hierarki i namngivningen. Medan landshvdingarna och de hgre militrerna tillgnades bastioner, fick de lgre officerarna se mindre fstningsverk namngivna efter sig, helt i enlighet med Ehrensvrds egen beskrivning. Utanfr de ovan nmnda grupperna, hedrades en hel del personer som inte konkret hade engagerats i fstningsbygget. Denna namngivning kan frklaras ena sidan inom ramen fr Ehrensvrds sociala ntverk och andra sidan mot bakgrund av riksdagspolitiken i frihetstidens Sverige. Av de tv frklaringsmodeller br Ehrensvrds personliga vnskaper ses som en bidragande orsak, medan de politiska motiven utgjorde en avgrande orsak. Som en del av Ehrensvrds ntverk kan de gynnare ses som hade stttat Ehrensvrd under hans karrir samt hans nrmaste medarbetare vid fstningsbygget, ofta officerer han sjlv handplockat. Namngivningens politiska aspekt syns i det stora antalet riksrd som tillgandes bastionnamn. Vid sidan om riksrden hedrades ocks talmn vid de samtida riksdagarna. En komparativ studie i namngivningen av fstningsverk vid samtida och ldre svenska fstningar framhver Ehrensvrd som en innovativ namngivare. Fstningsverk namngivna efter kungligheter verkar ha varit en norm, som ocks Ehrensvrd anknt till genom ett ftal namn. Dremot var namn efter personer inte vanliga, vilket gav den Ehrensvrdska namngivningen en frhllandevis stark anknytning till samtiden. Denna aspekt bekrftas om namnen ses mot bakgrund av 1700-talets uppfattning om ra och regirighetens samhlleliga nytta. I denna uppfattning syns bakgrunden till frekomsten av personer med bde hg och lg status i Ehrensvrds namngivning. Sammanfattningsvis speglar namnen p de finska fstningsverken sin samtid genom den byrkratiska, militra och politiska elit de representerar samt genom motiveringen till dem.
Resumo:
Forskningen utreder skillnader mellan finsk- och svensksprkiga skolor i en kommun i Nylands ln utgende frn elevvrdens synvinkel. Syftet r att kartlgga situationen i en kommun och synliggra de skillnader och faktorer som pverkar det sociala kapitalets mngd i skolorna. Skillnaderna betraktas utgende frn det sociala kapitalets inverkan p gemenskapen och frn ekologisk synvinkel. Sambandet mellan det sociala std och den sociala kontroll som srskilt de vuxna i skolan producerar, har betydelse fr skolelevers vlmende. Fr att kunna bilda en socialt stdande och socialt kontrollerande atmosfr krvs det funktionella frndringar i skolan. Srskilt de vuxna i skolan skulle behva mera gemenskap. Elevvrdsarbetet och skolarbetet riktar sig frmst mot elever i dag, fastn de vuxna skulle behva strka sina sociala frhllanden. Bris i uppkomsten av socialt std och kontroll beror frmst p problem i samarbete och kommunikation mellan de vuxna i skolan. Skolkuratorerna r de enda professionella inom skolan som i sitt arbete tar hela skolan som gemenskap i beaktande. Denna forskning r en abduktiv kvalitativ fallstudie som r tili sin karaktr beskrivande. Som data anvnds intervjuer av elevvrdspersonalen i kommunen och enkten Hlsa i skolan av Institutet fr hlsa och vlfrd frn r 2008. Viktigaste kllan fr forskningen r Noora Ellone (2008) forskning "Kasvuyhteis nuoren turvana".
Resumo:
This dissertation, based on material from Stenman s vast private archive, examines the role played by Swedish-speaking Finnish art dealer Gsta Stenman (1888-1947) and his art gallery, Stenmans Konstsalong, in the Finnish and Swedish art worlds from 1911 to 1947. This archive is examined here for the first time. The analytical framework used for this empirical study derives from Pierre Bourdieu s sociological theories. An art-sociological approach allows for the inclusion of more mechanisms at work in the art world than are typically embraced in such inquiries. This approach provides a fuller understanding of how Stenman attained his standing and central role in the art world in Finland as well as Sweden; enabling us to appreciate how he came to occupy such a prominent position in current art historical writing. All of these issues constitute new areas of research. Taking his cues from the contemporary art world of Paris, Stenman became the year 1914 a modern art dealer like no other in the Nordic countries. This dissertation represents the first academic investigation into his operations, strategies, and objectives, offering insight into not only the art dealer himself but also the functioning of the art market one of the most vital aspects of the art world. A by-product of this work, is that the modern art market in Finland is portrayed, including essential issues related to its growth and development as well as how it altered the conditions under which art could be produced, exhibited and promoted and what this entailed for the art world at large, artists and patrons alike. This first systematic analysis of the operations of Stenman s Konstsalong offers greater understanding of the art worlds of Sweden and Finland in the early twentieth century. The work also looks at how an agent of the art market could move between the fields of art in Sweden and Finland. The manner in which Stenman promoted individual artists, including his relationships with Tyko Sallinen, Helene Schjerfbeck, Juho Mkel, Jalmari Ruokokoski, Siri Derkert, Esther Kjerner, Eva Bagge, and many others, also falls within this purview. Stenman s contract with Sallinen from 1913 stands out as a new phenomenon in Finnish art promotion, whereby an artistic career became established via a far-sighted, strategic promotional program. The case study of Stenman s promotion of Schjerfbeck in Sweden provides evidence of the increasingly advanced nature of Stenman s strategies. The title of the dissertation, The Promoter of Modernism, attempts to convey that Stenman was the consummate modernist, modern in his thoughts, his actions, and his approach to art. Keywords: Gsta Stenman, Stenmans konstsalong, Stenmans dotter, art market, modernism, collecting, Novembergruppen, Helene Schjerfbeck, Tyko Sallinen, Juho Mkel, Jalmari Ruokokoski, Win Aaltonen, Siri Derkert, ke Gransson, Esther Kjerner, Eva Bagge.
Resumo:
This thesis examines the ruins of the medieval Bridgettine (Birgittan) monastery of Naantali (Vallis Gratiae, f. 1443) in Finland and the transformation of the site into a national heritage and a memory landscape. It was archaeologically surveyed in the 19th century by Professor Sven Gabriel Elmgren (1817 1897). His work was followed by Dr. Reinhold Hausen (1850 1942), who excavated the site in the 1870s. During this time the memories of Saint Bridget (Birgitta) in Sweden were also invented as heritage. Hausen published his results in 1922 thus forming the connection with the next generation of actors involved with the Naantali site: the magnate Amos Anderson (1878 1961), the teacher Julius Finnberg (1877 1955) and the archaeologist Juhani Rinne (1872 1950). They erected commemorative monuments etc. on the Naantali site, thus creating a memory landscape there. For them, the site represented the good homeland in connection with a western-oriented view of the history of Finland. The network of actors was connected to the Swedish researchers and so-called Birgitta Friends, such as state antiquarian Sigurd Curman (1879 1966), but also to the members of the Societas Sanctae Birgittae and the Society for the Embellishment of Pirita, among others. Historical jubilees as manifestations of the use of history were also arranged in Naantali in 1943, 1993 and 2003. It seems as if Naantali is needed in Finnish history from time to time after a period of crisis, i.e. after the Crimean War in the 1850s, the civil war of 1918, during World War II and also after the economic crisis of the early 1990s. In 2003, there was a stronger focus on the international Saint Bridget Jubilee in Sweden and all over Europe. Methodologically, the thesis belongs to the history of ideas, but also to research on the use of history, invented traditions and lieux de mmoire. The material for the work consists of public articles and scholarly texts in books or newspapers and letters produced by the actors and kept in archives in Finland, Sweden and Estonia, in addition to pictures and erected commemorative monuments in situ in the Western Finnish region. Keywords: Ndendal, Naantali monastery, Bridgettines, St. Bridget, use of history, lieux de mmoire, invented traditions, commemorative anatomy, memory landscape, Saint Bridget jubilees , S. G. Elmgren, R. Hausen, A. Anderson, J. Finnberg, J. Rinne, S. Curman, High Church Movement, Pirita, Vadstena.
Resumo:
The study analyses the prevention or endorsing of the crime of infanticide in Finland 1702 1807, rather than the result. Also the impacts of the female body, biology of childbirth and experiences of pregnancy are examined, together with insights from modern medical research. Circumstances are reconstructed by a critical reading of judicial records on all levels of the judicial system. In all 269 cases of infanticide and 142 accessory crimes within the jurisdiction of the Turku court of appeal are studied, with particular focus on exceptionally well recorded cases of 83 accused women and 41 women and men accused of being party to the crime. Secondary sources are medical and jurisprudential writings, the public debate on infanticide, broadsheets and letters asking the King for pardon. Infanticide was considered murder by law. Unmarried women were predetermined as the main culprits. Nevertheless, deliberate infanticides were rare and committed mostly in accomplice. The majority of the infanticides studied were cases where inexperienced and unmarried women accidentally had given birth alone and usually to a dead child. Unaware that the pain they were experiencing was in fact a labour, the accused women instinctively sought solitude to push out the child. Some misunderstood the birth as an urgent need to defecate. The unexpected delivery ended in hiding the baby without remorse. This crime was promoted by several factors in Finnish rural culture, amongst others that also married women hid their pregnancy. The immediate household members did not necessarily know about the childbirth and failed to help the woman. This typical pattern in most cases of infanticide in 18th century Finland is also recorded in modern cases of unknown pregnancies. Fear of accountability prevented witnesses testifying to the actual course of events. The truth remained elusive. With only a few exceptions, the women were sentenced to death or imprisonment. The majority of those accused of accomplice were acquitted. However, too harsh sentences for accidents affected the reporting of the crime. Criminal politics failed to curtail infanticide as the crime was unsatisfactorily addressed by law, society and the judicial system.
Resumo:
This dissertation explores the role of the German minister to Helsinki, Wipert von Blcher (1883-1963), within the German-Finnish relations of the late 1930s and the Second World War. Blcher was a key figure and certainly one of the constants within German Finland policy and the complex international diplomacy surrounding Finland. Despite representing Hitlers Germany, he was not a National Socialist in the narrower sense of the term, but a conservative civil servant in the Wilhelmine tradition of the German foreign service. Along with a significant number of career diplomats, Blcher attempted to restrict National Socialist influence on the exercise of German foreign policy, whilst successfully negotiating a modus vivendi with the new regime. The study of his political biography in the Third Reich hence provides a highly representative example of how the traditional lites of Germany were caught in an cycle of conformity and, albeit tacit, opposition. Above all, however, the biographical study of Blcher and his behaviour offers an hitherto unexplored approach to the history of the German-Finnish relations. His unusually long tenure in Helsinki covered the period leading up to the so-called Winter War, which left Blcher severely distraught by Berlins effectively pro-Soviet neutrality and brought him close to resigning his post. It further extended to the German-Finnish rapprochement of 1940/41 and the military cooperation of both countries from mid-1941 to 1944. Throughout, Blcher developed a diverse and ambitious set of policy schemes, largely rooted in the tradition of Wilhelmine foreign policy. In their moderation and commonsensical realism, his designs indeed his entire conception of foreign policy clashed with the foreign political and ideological premises of the National Socialist regime. In its theoretical grounding, the analysis of Blchers political schemes is built on the concept of alternative policy and indebted to A.J.P. Taylors definition of dissent in foreign policy. It furthermore rests upon the assumption, introduced by Wolfgang Michalka, that National Socialist foreign policy was dominated by a plurality of rival conceptions, players, and institutions competing for Hitlers favour (Konzeptionen-Pluralismus). Although primarily a study in the history of international relations, my research has substantially benefited from more recent developments within cultural history, particularly research on nobility and lites, and the renewed focus on autobiography and conceptions of the self. On an abstract level, the thesis touches upon some of the basic components of German politics, political culture, and foreign policy in the first half of the 20th century: national belonging and conflicting loyalties, self-perception and representation, lites and their management of power, the modern history of German conservatism, the nature and practice of diplomacy, and, finally, the intricate relationship between the ethics of the professional civil service and absolute moral principles. Against this backdrop, the examination of Blchers role both within Finnish politics and the foreign policy of the Third Reich highlights the biographical dimension of the German-Finnish relationships, while fathoming the determinants of individual human agency in the process.
Resumo:
Idyll or Reality? Albert Edelfelt, Gunnar Berndtson and the ambivalent breakthrough of modernity Albert Edelfelt (1854-1905) and Gunnar Berndtson (1854-1895) have much in common. In this dissertation, I study their paintings of local peasants and fishermen and of the gentrys summer in the county of Uusimaa in southern Finland, in the context of Nordic history of ideas. The breakthrough of modernity, with its attention on debating social problems, provides a novel angle into the oeuvres of the two artists. My focus is on the paintings which emerge in the collision of the public discussion of social matters and the values of the artists manorial milieu. The artists relation to the public discussion is scrutinized through two of the main topics: the question of the common people and democracy, and the question of equality between men and women. My dissertation is a contextual study which is based on the analysis of the artworks of Edelfelt and Berndtson, on their letters, and on the study of drama and fiction of their time. The notion libert, egalit, fraternit is linked to the breakthrough of modernity. Both artists were aware of the ideal of equality. They used the means and the themes of contemporary art in their presentations, but their pictures contain the ideal of an earlier epoch: the hardworking, but still complacent common people. This conception of the common people is also reflected in the poems of J. L. Runeberg. Women of the late 19th century challenged womans primary role as wife and mother. In Edelfelts and Berndtsons depictions of the gentry enjoying summer, women and children have the main role. Notwithstanding the debate of the breakthrough of modernity they depicted women almost without exception as good mothers. Their paintings often depict lazy days in the sunshine, which were, in reality, rare moments for the mistress of the house. Edelfelts and Berndtsons subjects from the Uusimaa countryside coincide with the topics of the breakthrough of modernity, but both the pictures of the common people and the depictions of the gentry enjoying summer, are a retouched picture of reality, often an idyll, in which the public discussion of social matters is evident only materially or not at all.
Resumo:
The dissertation analyses the political culture of Sweden during the reign of King Gustav III (1771-1792). This period commonly referred to as the Gustavian era followed the so-called Age of Liberty ending half a century of strong parliamentary rule in Sweden. The question at the heart of this study engages with the practice of monarchical rule under Gustav III, its ideological origins and power-political objectives as well as its symbolic expression. The study thereby addresses the very nature of kingship. In concrete terms, why did Gustav III, his court, and his civil service vigorously pursue projects that contemporaneous political opponents and, in particular, subsequent historiography have variously pictured as irrelevant, superficial, or as products of pure vanity? The answer, the study argues, is to be found in patterns of political practice as developed and exercised by Gustav III and his administration, which formed a significant part of the political culture of Gustavian Sweden. The dissertation is divided into three parts. The first traces the use and development of royal graces chivalric orders, medals, titles, privileges, and other gifts issued by the king. The practice of royal reward is illustrated through two case studies: the 1772 coup d tat that established Gustav III s rule, and the birth and baptism of the crown prince, Gustav Adolf, in 1778. The second part deals with the establishment of the Court of Appeal in Vasa in 1776. The formation of the Appeals Court was accompanied by a host of ceremonial, rhetorical, emblematic, and architectural features solidifying its importance as one of Gustav III s most symbolic administrative reform projects and hence portraying the king as an enlightened monarch par excellence. The third and final part of the thesis engages with war as a cultural phenomenon and focuses on the Russo-Swedish War of 1788-1790. In this study, the war against Russia is primarily seen as an arena for the king and other players to stage, create and re-create as well as articulate themselves through scenes and roles adhering to a particular cultural idiom. Its codes and symbolic forms, then, were communicated by means of theatre, literature, art, history, and classical mythology. The dissertation makes use of a host of sources: protocols, speeches, letters, diaries, newspapers, poetry, art, medals, architecture, inscriptions and registers. Traditional political source material and literary and art sources are studied as totalities, not as separate entities. Also it is argued that political and non-fictional sources cannot be understood properly without acknowledging the context of genre, literary conventions, and artistic modes. The study critically views the futile, but nonetheless almost habitual juxtaposition of the reality of images, ideas, and metaphors, and the reality of supposedly factual historical events. Significantly, the thesis presumes the symbolic dimension to be a constitutive element of reality, not its cooked up misrepresentation. This presumption is reflected in a discussion of the concept of role , which should not be anachronistically understood as roles in which the king cast himself at different times and in different situations. Neither Gustav III nor other European sovereigns of this period played the roles as rulers or majesties. Rather, they were monarchs both in their own eyes and in the eyes of their contemporaries as well as in all relations and contexts. Key words: Eighteenth-Century, Gustav III, Cultural History, Monarchs, Royal Graces, the Vasa Court of Appeal, the Russo-Swedish War 17881790.
