Den mångtydiga svenskheten : En studie av det svensk-amerikanska föreningslivet i Kalifornien utifrån en etnisk aspekt 1910 & 1915.

Abstract Title: Den mångtydiga svenskheten: En studie av det svensk-amerikanska föreningslivet i Kalifornien utifrån en etnisk aspekt 1910 & 1915. (The multiplicity of Swedishness: A study of the Swedish-American society’s associations in California from an ethnic point of wiew 1910 & 1915. Author: Joakim Fransson Master Thesis in History (10p) Växjö University The purpose of this thesis is to examine the Swedish-American associations in San Francisco and Los Angeles and how they withheld or/and formed a Swedish or American ethnic identity. The primary source for obtaining that objective is the newspapers Vestkusten and California Veckoblad were the announcements from the associations are analysed. The thesis main questions are as following: Which ethnic aspects appears in the announcements from the Swedish-American associations in the newspapers Vestkusten and California Veckoblad 1910 and 1915? And What similarities and differences in the ethnic expressions appears in the primary sources during these periods? The conclusions can be briefed as there was a great variety of Swedish-American associations during the examined periods, there was a frequent occurrence in both religious and secular movements. The activities arranged by the societies can in general be divided into groups, for example dance masquerades and theatre or literature and lectures. The purpose of these gatherings were mainly ethnic, the Swedish population were often gathered at these activates to take part of for example lectures of Swedish heroes, kings like Gustav II Adolf or when Sweden was a great power. Thus, there is evidence in the material that indicates that the Swedish associations also get hold of American influences which indicates that the formation of a Swedish-American identity was an integration of partly Swedish and partly American cultural heritage. There is also debated in the empirical study that an ethnic identity not necessarily have to be the main reason for attending to the Swedish-American association activates, there is argued for that the individual or the group in the first hand identify themselves on gender, working, age or class basis. There is also of importance that the primary sources, the Swedish newspapers was an ethnic institution in the Swedish-American society and had a great influence on the Swedish population