“Women Became Free!” Activism, Feminism, Race, and Political Poetry of the Second Degree in Henrika Ringboms Händelser ur Nya Pressen 1968-1974

Abstract

ABSTRACT Author Henrika Ringbom’s collection of poems entitled Händelser ur Nya Pressen 1968–1974. Prosadikter (2009) is a rare piece of Finland-Swedish literature. Rewriting news from a Finland-Swedish evening press paper during the 1960s and 1970s, it offers a view on the colonial mind-set of the Nordic countries. The poems not only depict political events from various parts of a global world, they also open up an unmarked category in Nordic literature, that of race and whiteness. An essential part of Finland-Swede’s self-understanding goes back to its status as a minority. This applies even to Finland-Swedish literature. It also has a notable tradition of female feminist writing that runs through the 20th century. Finland-Swedish literature, however, belongs also to a majority when it comes to Western ideas of race and whiteness in a Nordic context. In my analysis, I show how Ringbom scrutinizes events from a phase Tobias Hübinette and Catrin Lundström (2014) call the “white solidarity” (1968–2001), characterized by antiracism, anti-apartheid, social justice and gender equality, but also of color-blindness. I show how Ringbom contributes to the current discussions of political Nordic literature with a rich, complex, ambivalent and defamiliarizing way. The poems actively remind us how both political events and political poetry are complex and contradictory. Rather than offering a clear-cut poetic activism, Rinbom writes political poetry of the second degree, one that examines and reflects upon the conditions of politics, popular media, and political poetry.