Writing identity - A postmodernist study on how swedish identity was built through difference

Abstract: Today the word identity is filled with many different contents. Depending from which perspective one tries to examine a scientific research-question, there is a variety of interpretations of the problem. In this thesis the aim is to prove with help of postmodernist theory how the Swedish identity was built by the articulation of difference towards the other over decades. The analysis is conducted to explore how the Swedish identity was affected and self-constructed by the foreign policy of the state in the three decades after the end of World War two. According to the chosen theory, the gist of the matter is to focus on how differentiation was produced through discursive actions. Differentiation builds the basis for developing an identity and it is assumed that those differentiations can help defining a certain state-identity. A number of case studies are made to see if these assumptions are correct. Concretely the author chose some promising quotations and a picture and analyzed this material on the basis of if difference was articulated.