Pågående forskning • Current research

Här kan man hitta forskare och läsa om aktuell forsking kring Gustaf III och hans tid. För att anmäla Ditt projekt, skicka ett meddelande till oss här och lägg in namn, institution, lärosäte och en projektbeskrivning.

Here you can find researchers and read about current research on Gustavus III and his time. To contribute, send us a message here and enter your name, department, university, and a project description.

KANDIDATUPPSATSER • BACHELOR THESES
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MASTERUPPSATSER • MASTER THESES
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AVHANDLINGAR • DISSERTATIONS

Sara Ekström, Department of Culture and Aesthetics, Stockholm University

In my dissertation, I will examine the cultural projects launched by the Swedish Gustavian state (1772–1809) as part of its national identity politics. A premise for the analysis is that the Gustavian state was an absolute and self-proclaimed enlightened state, resulting in specific ways of viewing and governing the population.

During the 18th century, a new interest for the population emerged. A prosperous population was seen as the foundation of a flourishing state, and to govern the thoughts and behaviour of every individual became of utmost interest to the state. Michel Foucault has termed this way of thinking gouvernementalité, in English governmentality, and a keystone is that the government works through the free will of the individual.

In my research, I connect this new governmentality to the nationalism of the state, and thus view nationalism as a political technology for mobilizing and governing the thoughts and feelings of the population, and thereby their behaviour. This will be done by analysing different national cultural projects of the Gustavian state, directed towards different categories of the population.
http://www.su.se/english/profiles/saeks-1.341242

BOKPROJEKT &C • BOOK PROJECTS &C

Jennie Nell, Department of Culture and Aesthetics, Stockholm University

Monograph: A King Among the Muses: A Study of Dramaturgy, History, and Pedagogy in Gustavus IIIs Plays, Operas, and Carousels

Gustavus III (1746 – 1792) is known as the “theater king”, and his reign – the Gustavian Era – is among scholars frequently deemed to be “a brilliant epoch in the history of the Swedish stage” (Gustavian Opera, 1991). Previous research has shown that the king was deeply invested in the creation of a national Swedish theater (using international talents from the Continent) and that he employed a hands-on approach to the arts, especially drama, opera, and literature. He was also a playwright himself, writing fifteen plays and operas that came to fruition, of which the majority, albeit not all of them, were staged during his lifetime, another eighteen that today only exist in fragment form, as well as four plays written during his formative years as a child and adolescent, neither of them ever staged. He is well-known for having founded The Royal Swedish Academy of Music, The Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, The Royal Dramatic Theater, The Royal Swedish Opera, and the Swedish Academy – all with the objective of the amelioration of the Swedish language and the establishment of a national artistic output and a national stage.

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The purpose and aim of this project is to investigate plays and operas of Gustavus III from three angles: dramaturgy, history and pedagogy of exemplum and thereby examining the role of Gustavus III in the formation of the Swedish national stage. This will be achieved by seeing him, in Bourdieusian terms, as an important agent on the cultural field. Thereby it will be possible to re-evaluate the overarching purposes with his playwriting, his works not only alluding to domestic political issues, but also dealing with fundamental ideas of the Enlightenment.

Being both king and playwright as well as the founder and protector of most of the major academies concerned with the arts, Gustavus III is central to the development of the arts in Sweden from the mid to late 1700s. His literary and dramatic output, including the carousels (tournaments), are important historical documents due to the King’s personal involvement in the literary and dramaturgical ideals of the time, which had a direct influence on other contemporary artists’ work. Studies have shown that he himself competed anonymously in eloquence competitions arranged by The Swedish Academy, both quietly subjecting to the reviewer’s critique, and challenging the rules and tastes of French Classicism that he himself had set the Academy to safeguard (Hillman 1962), thus opening up for new aesthetic influences both for himself and others.

Whilst previous research has chosen to view Gustavus IIIs plays mainly as means of political persuasion, I intend to investigate his plays and operas both as contributions to the larger Enlightenment debate regarding moral and philosophical issues, and as aesthetic products in their own right, mirroring the diverse development of dramaturgical and literary ideas in Sweden over a period of some thirty years.