This essay explores how and why the memory of the Baltic extradition in 1946 has been shaped and used in relation to the social democratic Swedish identity, trough the theory of cultural history. The method utilized is a qualitative content analysis of the 71 articles in Aftonbladet that discuss the term “baltutlämningen” between 1947-2022. Here, a theoretical and methodical device is presented and applied. The device outlines the Swedish identity by examining how the articles negotiate guilt to avoid shame, thus preserving the self-image.       The findings show that the remembrance of the Baltic extradition serves to cement an image that upholds the identity of the social democratic group as rational, humanitarian, and anti-fascist. Consequently, when Aftonbladet brought the memory to life in 1966 it was shaped to avoid anything that would cause shame by contradicting those values. Thus, the narrative came to portray the political right as guilty for the extradition, and the Balts’ unnecessary suffering during it. Later, the memory was used to reinforce the progressive and humane self-image by being used as a cautionary example, legitimizing current social democratic stances regarding questions of asylum, international relations, and war crime policies.           In the 2000’s a new discussion emerged alongside the previous narrative, as historians started questioning the facts and reassessing the feelings of guilt and shame. With the admission that fascist sympathizers may also have infiltrated the social democratic group, the historian debate joined the European narrative: promoting the international cause for democracy, through national self-evaluation, to combat intolerance and fascism globally. Thus, the memory of extradition of the Balts has come to connect the Swedish cause to the European one, maintaining the rational, humanitarian, and anti-fascist self-image.      From an identity perspective the recurring guilt-shame complex shows that the humanitarian and democratic values are desired, but not innate, aspects of Swedish identity. Furthermore, the study shows that guilt and shame have consistently been used as educational tools to shape the Swedish people, inside and outside the classroom.

The student thesis Nationalism and Norrientalism: A Discourse Analysis of the Norrlandic Independence Debate of Late Summer 2016 and Beyond aims to examine the style and content of the recent secession debate in the Swedish and Norrlandic printed press. From the late summer of 2016 to the beginning of 2017 the question of Norrlandic sovereignty was a prioritized topic in the legacy media debate, as well as in social media. It commenced after the Swedish government enterprise Vattenfall planned to relocate forty employment opportunities from Jokkmokk, raising the question of Norrlandic independence based on a post-colonialist view of the region. This thesis examines how the framing of Northern Sweden as a colony has been established, re-established or refuted in the different discourses of the printed debate, through a faceted lens composed of various theories of Orientalism and nationalism. Rooted in the discourse theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, merged with the critical discourse analysis of Norman Fairclough, and leaning against media theories of inoculation and framing, the study takes aim at the myths, metaphors, articulations and antagonisms which constituted the polemics in the printed press of the period. The results conclude that the debate revolved around independence, resources, and the myth regarding Norrland—often described as a barren landscape, marked by vast distances and a lack of social services. The term colony was used to describe Norrland as marginalised and robbed of its natural resources, whereas the term was met by opposition from the objecting side, who emphasised the historic and present representation of Norrlanders in high politics. The colonial identity was constituted in the press through internal Orientalism by Stockholm writers and self-Orientalisation by Norrlandic ones. The most distinct patterns of difference between the objecting side and the advocating side of independence was the determination of the real economic loser of a Norrlandic secession from Sweden.