Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Concrete Possibilities: The High-Rise Suburb in Swedish Children’s and Young Adult Literature

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Literatures of Urban Possibility

Part of the book series: Literary Urban Studies ((LIURS))

Abstract

Wistisen examines representations of the Swedish Million Programme high-rise suburb in children’s and young adult literature from the 1970s. The chapter demonstrates how picture books and YA participate in the creation of the image of the suburb, on the one hand by reinforcing the representation provided by mass media and on the other by challenging and deconstructing stereotypes. The representations of the suburban environment are marked by a critique directed towards the city planning of the capitalist society, as well as by a constant tension between the dystopic and utopian.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    My translation. All following translations from Swedish into English are mine.

Works Cited

  • Andström, Bobby, and Ingvar Björk. Nu blommar det i Blomlunda. Rabén & Sjögren, 1970.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bergström, Gunilla. Vem räddar Alfons Åberg. Rabén & Sjögren, 1976.

    Google Scholar 

  • Debord, Guy. ‘Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography.’ 1955. The Situationists and the City: A Reader, edited by Tom McDonough, Verso, 2009, pp. 77–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. Society of the Spectacle. 1967. Translated by Ken Knabb, Rebel Press, 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edström, Vivi. Barnbokens form. En studie i konsten att berätta. Stegelands, 1980.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ericsson, Urban, et al., editors. Miljonprogram och media. Föreställningar om människor och förorter. Riksantikvarieämbetet, 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finch, Jason. ‘Modern Urban Theory and the Study of Literature.’ The Palgrave Handbook of Literature and the City, edited by Jeremy Tambling, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, pp. 27–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Forsell, Håkan. Urbana infantil. Stadsmiljö, pedagogik och kunskapssamhälle i metropolernas tidevarv, ca 1900–1930. Sekel, 2012.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Translated by Alan Sheridan, Penguin, 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  • Franzén, Lars-Olof. ‘Riv Skärholmen!’ Dagens Nyheter, 19 Sept. 1968.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grundström, Karin, and Irene Molina. ‘From Folkhem to Lifestyle Housing in Sweden: Segregation and Urban Form, 1930s–2010s.’ International Journal of Housing Policy, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 316–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, Stanley. Adolescence: Its Psychology, and Its Relations to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion, and Education II. 1904. D. Appleton and Company, 1931.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, Tomas, and Sonja Vidén. ‘The Million Homes Programme: A Review of the Great Swedish Planning Project.’ Planning Perspectives, vol. 20, no. 3, 2003, pp. 301–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hedén, Birger. ‘Det jämlika tilltalet: Ungdomsboken från 40-tal till 90-tal.’ Läs mig, sluka mig!, edited by Kristin Hallberg, Natur och Kultur, 1998, pp. 161–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hultberg, Ulf, and Behnn Edvinsson. Lotta och daghemmet. Rabén & Sjögren, 1975.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacobson, Gun. Hela långa dagen. Bonnier, 1973.

    Google Scholar 

  • Isakson, Börje. ‘Fixa nåt…’ ‘Vaddå?’ Bonnier, 1974.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kjersén Edman, Lena. I ungdomsrevoltens tid: Svensk ungdomsbok och dess mottagande åren kring 1968. Umeå universitet, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kåreland, Lena. Inga gåbortsföremål: Lekfull litteratur och vidgad kulturdebatt i 1960- och 70-talens Sverige. Makadam, 2009.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lefebvre, Henri. Le Droit á la ville. Economica-Anthropos, 1968.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. The Production of Space. 1974. Translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith, Blackwell, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. Writings on Cities. Blackwell, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lundqvist, Ulla. Tradition och förnyelse. Svensk ungdomsbok från sextiotal till nittiotal. Rabén & Sjögren, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mählqvist, Stefan. Böcker för svenska barn 1870–1950. En kvantitativ analys av barn- och ungdomslitteratur i Sverige. Gidlund, 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peterson, Lars. Snöret. Gidlund, 1978.

    Google Scholar 

  • Purcell, Mark. ‘Excavating Lefebvre: The Right to the City and its Urban Politics of the Inhabitant.’ Geo Journal, vol. 58, 2002, pp. 99–108.

    Google Scholar 

  • Svensson, Ulla. ‘Dödspolare, skuggmän och förlorade fäder. Idyllfobin i ungdomsboken.’ Förankring och förnyelse. Nordiska ungdomsromaner inemot år 2000, edited by Eli Flateval et al., Cappelen Akademisk Forlag, 1999, pp. 107–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Söderqvist, Elisabeth. Att gestalta välfärd. Från idé till byggd miljö. Formas, 2008.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tambling, Jeremy. ‘Prologue: City-Theory and Writing, in Paris and Chicago: Space, Gender, Ethnicity.’ The Palgrave Handbook of Literature and the City, edited by Jeremy Tambling, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, pp. 1–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vestin, Frances. Handbok i barnindoktrinering. Wahlström och Widstrand, 1969.

    Google Scholar 

  • Widhe, Olle. ‘Counter-Indoctrinations: Radical Childcare Books, Children’s Literature and Children’s Rights in Sweden around ‘68.’ Strenæ: Recherches sur les livres et objets culturels de l’enfance, special issue Le ’68 des enfants/The Children’s ’68, no. 13, 2018, pp. 1–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, Peter Lamborn, and Bill Weinberg, editors. Avant Gardening: Ecological Struggle in The City and The World. Autonomedia, 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wischmann, Antje. Verdichtete Stadtwahrnehmung. Untersuchungen zum literarischen und urbanistischen Diskurs in Skandinavien 1955–1995. Berliner Wissenschafts-Vlg, 2003.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wistisen, Lydia. Gångtunneln. Urbana erfarenheter i svensk ungdomslitteratur 1890–2010. Ellerströms, 2017.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Culture and Aesthetics, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Lydia Wistisen

Authors
  1. Lydia Wistisen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Tampere University, Tampere, Finland

    Markku Salmela

  2. Tampere University, Tampere, Finland

    Lieven Ameel

  3. Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

    Jason Finch

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Wistisen, L. (2021). Concrete Possibilities: The High-Rise Suburb in Swedish Children’s and Young Adult Literature. In: Salmela, M., Ameel, L., Finch, J. (eds) Literatures of Urban Possibility . Literary Urban Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70909-9_9

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation