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No thank you for the music: Abba out in the cold as Sweden creates 'cultural canon'
The Guardian
|September 03, 2025
The Gustav Vasa 1541 bible, Pippi Longstocking, Ikea, the right to roam, paternity leave, Sámi joiks, the Nobel prize and multiple works by Ingmar Bergman and August Strindberg have all made it into Sweden's long-awaited, much-criticised proposal for a "cultural canon".
Notable omissions from the list of 100 works and references that have formed Sweden's culture and history - intended, its creators said at its unveiling in Uppsala yesterday, to establish a "shared map and compass" for Swedish citizens and new arrivals to Sweden - however included Abba and anything from after 1975.
Critics have accused the canon of being a "nationalist education project", to which its committee chair, historian Lars Trägårdh, has replied that Sweden needs to embrace "democratic nationalism".
He said last week that since the second world war, Swedish culture had been characterised by modernism, internationalism and multiculturalism. "They have turned their gaze away from Swedish culture and the Swedish nation," he said.
This story is from the September 03, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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