After the Spanish civil war broke out, thousands of international volunteers travelled to Spain to help fight the fascist forces. Among these were over five hundred Swedes, of which around a third perished. Even though they are considered heroes in Spain and in the Swedish left, they are not greatly represented in Swedish history writing. Based on these assumptions, the primary aim of this essay has been to examine memory culture and history use in relation to the Swedish volunteers. First and foremost, I have studied their experiences in relation to Swedish society after the war. While there is great variance in their experiences, a few common and relevant factors have been made visible. These are primarily regarding difficulties getting jobs, persecution, abuse, and veterans being put in detention camps. Secondly, I have examined the memory culture in the Swedish left regarding the volunteers. Here, we can clearly see a tendency to use their stories to inspire modern activism and relating their fight against Spanish fascism to the contemporary struggle against similar tendencies.

The aim of this master's dissertation is to examine the use of history in relation to Gustav III (1746-1792). A notable historic figure in Swedens history who ruled as king from 1771 until he was murdered in 1792. The artifacts and material used in this study ranges from a movie, biographies, theatre plays, an opera, newspapers, novels, a poem, a ballet, historical landmarks and textbooks. With this material and by applying a theoretical framework of a three categorization: educational, popular and commemorative, made by the Swedish historian Anders Dybelius, the ways in which Gustav III has been used in the time period of 1895-2014 is examined. Through the applyed theoretical framework and the analysis of the material, a distinct and evenly use of Gustav III memory from the time he was still alive and until our days is revealed. This is shown by the poem written by the Swedish poet Carl Michael Bellman mere days after Gustav III coup d'etat in 1772, and that movies, tv shows, biographies and theatre plays based on his memory are still being made in the 21st century. Further, the study has shown that his memory and symbolic figure is higly adaptable. This is shown by the wide range of new assignments his memory and symbolic figure have been assigned over the studied time period. The study also points to the fact that the use of Gustav III:s memory have been influenced based on the direction and era of the Swedish society. During his regin and until early 20th century, his memory was often used as a cultural or national symbol, both in a negative or positive light. When you arrive in late 20th century and the 21st century his memory have new assignments, such as a symbol for tough parenting, open borders or a symbolic figure for people in the hbtq community.

Hur historia brukas är i min mening idag ett viktigt fält att undersöka. Vi lever i en allt mer sammankopplad värld med internet och sociala medier. Källkritik har genom detta blivit ett brinnande ämne. Dels beror det på spridandet av falska nyheter, men även att skolans nya läroplaner understryker vikten av att undervisa elever i att ha ett kritiskt tänkande mot källor. Här kommer även historiebruket in. Syftet och frågeställningarna med studien är att undersöka bruket av historia i relation till den svenska drottningen Kristina (1626-1689), en starkt omtalad monark ur den svenska historien som regerade över Sverige 1644-1654. Materialet som används i studien är allt från film, teater, pjäs, minnesmärken, nyhetsartiklar, läromedel och biografier. Utifrån detta material och den teoretiska grunden som är skapad av den tyske historikern Jörn Rüsen, sedermera omarbetad av den svenska historikern Anders Dybelius, undersöks det hur Kristina har använts främst från starten av 1900-talet till 2017 med hjälp av kategorierna utbildningskultur, populärkultur och minneskultur. Genom analys av materialet så ser man en tydlig utveckling med bruket kring Kristinas minne och som symbolgestalt, uppdrag ändras och nya ges beroende på vilken riktning samhället tar. Under 1900-talet och även innan det, så beskrivs hon oftast kortfattat i läroböckerna. Det är få resta minnesmärken efter henne i Sverige, där Rom och den katolska kyrkan har uppemot lika mycket. Under det tidigare 1900-talet försökte många hitta en mer biologisk förklaring till hennes sociala beteende och ovilja att gifta sig. När man anländer till 2000-talet har det ändrats. Med intåg av jämlikhet och jämställdhet i det moderna samhället började Kristina ses i ett annat ljus. Olika delgrupper har börjat symbolisera henne som en person vars liv drabbades hårt av att hon behandlades och uppfostrades till en man. En kvinna som kämpade mot dåtidens patriarkat och en kvinna som ville hitta och gå sin egen väg i livet.

The aim of this study is to analyze the botanist Elias Magnus Fries legacy between 1970 until today. The focus is on the Swedish medias interest in Fries, as well as how he and his name has been utilized during this period. Departing from theories on history culture and uses of history, the Swedish national newspapers Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter, Expressen and Svenska Dagbladet are analyzed. The study shows when and how the memory of Elias Magnus Fries has been activated and portrayed in Swedish media, as well as if they used Fries as a kind of national symbol. During the 1970’s the interest was at its peak but dwindled after the 90’s probable due to the lack of jubilee celebration. Indeed, the interest of Fries peaked during the 70’s and 90’s because of celebrating the 100-year celebration of his death in 1878 and the 200 anniversary of his birth in 1794. Although, the general view of Fries persona always has been positive, rather scant attention har been devoted to Fries during the entire period and he was often only mentioned briefly. The interest was in general primarily on mushrooms rather than Fries, and it was always the mushrooms that spurred an interest in Fries rather than the other way around. This might indicate a rather weak position in the history of science within Swedish media. Nevertheless, the newspapers also depicted Fries as a kind of national educator, scientist and a person with a great an evolutionistic mind for his great interest in mushrooms and its introduction in the Swedish cuisine.

The aim of this study is to show how the former secretary general for the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjöld, has been portrayed by Swedish media during the 21th century. The analyzed newspapers are Svenska Dagbladet, Expressen and Jönköpings-Posten, two nationwide newspapers and one local. This is done through a content analysis and the theory used for this study is a memory-cultural perspective, in order to show how media has shaped Hammarskjöld’s memory. The content analysis is structured with a code scheme consisting of nine different code units representing different themes; three themes of symbolism, three themes of characteristic, and three themes of qualification. The result of the analysis shows that the newspapers mainly focus on portraying Hammarskjöld as a symbol for the United Nations and moral values, as a person representing determination, and as a qualified politician and diplomat. There are also no visible patterns in the content analysis that would imply differences between how the nationwide and local newspapers portray Hammarskjöld.