Utopia Unsettled: The Politics and Poetics of Contemporary Swedish Dystopian Fiction

The purpose and aims of this project are twofold: 1) to investigate the contemporary Swedish dystopian imagination through analyses of a large selection of Swedish dystopian novels written since the turn of the millennium, focusing on the ways in which they represent threats and challenges to the Swedish welfare state and its progressive politics while obliquely promoting utopian impulses or calls for hope; 2) to question and problematize, on the basis of this analysis of Swedish dystopias, the validity of Anglocentric theories of dystopia as a genre or mode.

The project thus integrates analytical and theoretical aims.The main theoretical perspectives of the project stem from the partially overlapping traditions of science fiction studies and utopian studies.

As Sweden and the other Nordic countries have often been seen as almost utopian model societies, with strong beliefs in progress and social justice, dystopian depictions of a future Sweden are especially intriguing, particularly from an international perspective.

Through this project we will gain vital new knowledge of contemporary Swedish dystopian fiction, its particular characteristics, and how it comments on urgent topics such as climate change, gender equality, increasing class divisions, and xenophobia.

Critically engaging with the internationally established theories, and questioning many of their suppositions, it will also be a major intervention into the Anglophone discussion on dystopias.