This bachelor’s thesis is an ethnological study with focus on examining conditions for and navigation between different subject positions in Swedish everyday life. The study problematizes the nature of Swedishness and examines the relationship between Swedishness, whiteness, and Jewishness. Who is Swedish and when is examined, and in which situations Jewishness is brought to light and made note of. The essay discusses the boundaries of the act of passing and what strategies Jews in Sweden use to navigate between Swedishness and Jewishness and adaptations to live as smooth a daily life as possible. Based on the theory derived from phenomenology and post-structuralism as well as interviews with six Jews resident in Sweden, the paper highlights the complicated ways in which norms interact and how identifications arise through deviation. Whiteness is examined in relation to Jewishness and Swedishness and appears, similarly to other social positions, depending on context, time and place. The empirical evidence shows how Jews in Sweden try to pass as (white) Swedes while at the same time trying to keep their Jewish identity. That Jewish bodies act differently and feel at home dependent on place is made clear by an account of the importance of the diasporic experience for Jewish life in Sweden.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:sh-37418 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Welin Grossman, Naima |
| Publisher | Södertörns högskola, Etnologi |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
Page generated in 0.0022 seconds