Home to the Village – The politics of domestic migration represented in Swedish TV-fiction in the 1960s and 1970s

• The longest-running TV-drama serial in the history of Swedish television is Hem till byn (Home to the village). The first episode was shown in November 1971, and the last one was aired in October 2006. Hem till byn was originally intended as a mini-series of six episodes, but popularity gave it seven more seasons during more than three decades. The broad historical context of Hem till byn was the urbanization of Sweden in the 1960s and early 1970s. With the national project “miljonprogrammet” [the million programme], a mass housing public program, the Swedish government intended to put an end to the housing shortages. About one million new dwellings were built during a ten-year period (1.005.578 dwellings 1965-1974). The suburbs of the three largest cities – Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö – are the most usual examples of this huge project, but most Swedish cities were subject to a massive change concerning the design of the cityscape. During all seasons of Hem till byn, the centre of the story is a small rural village in the south-west of Sweden, and its inhabitants. Domestic migration and urbanization are main themes all through Hem till byn, especially during the first three seasons 1971-1976. A narrower historical context of Hem till byn is the production strategy of Swedish Television during the late 1960s and early 1970s. With influences from foremost recent developments of semi-documentary narration in British TV-drama, Swedish public service broadcasting company Sveriges Radio radically changed the drama production policy in the late 1960s. Swedish TV-drama was now focusing social issues. Rural depopulation was one such issue. In this paper I will discuss and analyse this theme in the first three seasons of Hem till byn, as well as in other contemporary drama productions. Key concepts are among others urbanisation, (anti-)modernism, environmental critique and realistic drama.     

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Konst -- Filmvetenskap (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Arts -- Studies on Film (hsv//eng)

Keyword

television

urbanisation

modernism

environmental critique

realistic drama

inget Strategiskt forskningsområde (SFO)

no Strategic Research Area (SFO)

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)