Aus den Tälern zu nationalen Höhen. Dalarna als schwedische Ideallandschaft im 19. Jahrhundert

Abstract

In the 19th century, Sweden, as many other European countries, discovered itself as a nation. Part of this process was a concentration on Swedish particularities including the exploration of the “Swedish landscape”. This meant not only to emphasize certain characteristics and typic phenomena of the Swedish landscape in general, but even an assertion of the one Swedish landscape, i.e. a model of the Swedish nation itself, symbolized by a distinct region. This region-landscape became Dalarna (i.e. “The valleys”). The article deals with the process of the nationalization of Dalarna and vice versa, the “dalarnization” of the Swedish nation, It starts with the discovery of the region by artists and writers in the 18th century and follows the evolution of a regional and national conscience in Dalarna through the 19th century up to its consequences and changes in the 20th century. This process not only had implications for the Swedish national self-image, but also for foreign perceptions of Sweden as a cultural nation-landscape.