Berättelser om Sverige. En narrativ analys av nationellt identitetsskapande på Dagens Nyheters insändarsidor

Sammanfattning: Abstract In this essay I discuss narrative in the reconstruction of national identity. I discuss exclusion as a side effect in thick identities. That means that thick national identities always exclude another part. From this I´ve discussed the Swedish identity and its effects in the European co-operation. Identity is a discourse that reconstructs linguistically. Therefore I?ve analysed 92 letters to the press that all comment five articles published in the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter 2005 and whose theme was Sweden and the Other in European change. The articles discussed a Swedish case - the ?Vaxholm case? in which a conflict between national and European interests took place. Since discourses always appear in the language I founded that these letters to the press was a good material in the study of national identity. The majority of the writers were using some sort of storytelling in their messages. In the following narrative analysis six different themes in the writer's storytelling appeared. All these stories were telling something about ?Swedish? characteristics. These characteristics expressed symbolic codes in the reproduction of national identity.