When the Others Other: Images and Representations of Transnational Adoptees of Color Among Non-Adopted Swedes of Color as Reflected in Contemporary Swedish Minority Literature

Abstract

ABSTRACT:This article examines images and representations of transnational adoptees of color within contemporary Swedish minority literature and tries to understand how the adoptees are portrayed and perceived by non-adopted non-white Swedes in relation to issues of class and race, and not the least in relation to the question of who is counted as a Swede or not. The article looks at and accounts for a selection of Swedish minority literature wherein non-white transnational adoptees turn up as characters, and finds that the adoptees are sometimes seen as "race traitors" towards minority Sweden and sometimes used by non-adopted authors and their non-adopted characters to highlight issues of race, class, and Swedishness.