Performances of Swedishness in the Movie Queen Christina 1933: Intersections of National Identity, Stereotypical Ideas of Swedishness, Sexuality, Gender, and Class
This article analyzes how Queen Christina (1933) constructs Swedishness at the intersection of national identity, gender, sexuality, class, and whiteness. Through Greta Garbo’s star persona and performance, the film merges seventeenth-century mythologies with twentieth-century cultural ideals to cre...
שמור ב:
| הוצא לאור ב: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ejas, |
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| מחבר ראשי: | |
| פורמט: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| שפה: | Anglais |
| יצא לאור: |
European journal of American studies
2025
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| נושאים: | |
| גישה מקוונת: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| סיכום: | This article analyzes how Queen Christina (1933) constructs Swedishness at the intersection of national identity, gender, sexuality, class, and whiteness. Through Greta Garbo’s star persona and performance, the film merges seventeenth-century mythologies with twentieth-century cultural ideals to create a modern, regal, and gender-transgressive Swedish femininity. Using intersectionality to trace overlapping forms of privilege, and drawing on the concepts of Hyperboreanism and hegemonic whiteness, the study shows how Garbo’s Christina embodies cultural superiority, cosmopolitan modernity, and female masculinity. In contrast, the film frames Swedish commoners through North American stereotypes of rustic foolishness, reinforcing internal hierarchies within whiteness and class. Ultimately, the article argues that Queen Christina reconfigures Swedish identity into an elevated, migrant femininity that exceeds national boundaries. The film thus becomes a key site where historical myth, Hollywood star iconography, and 1930s cultural politics converge to reshape the modern cultural imagination of Swedishness. |
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