Logotyp: till Försvarshögskolans hemsida

This study explores how the Soviet Union and “the Russian” are portrayed as enemy figures in Swedish military fiction from the 1980s. Drawing on a social constructivist and discourse-theoretical framework, the analysis focuses on how stereotypical enemy images articulate broader ideas of national identity, threat, and vulnerability during the late Cold War. Through a thematic reading of selected fictional works, three recurring enemy stereotypes are identified: the infiltrating subverter, the brutal invading soldier, and the cunning spy. Each figure embodies different aspects of the imagined Soviet threat in the fiction and reflects distinct security-political anxieties of the time. The study employs the concept of the stereotype as a signifying practice (Hall), combined with Edward Said’s theory of the Other – understood through Thomas Hylland Eriksen’s view of the stereotype’s constructive function. Furthermore, the analysis applies a dramaturgical perspective inspired by Marie Cronqvist, treating fiction not only as representation but as a cultural form of processing crisis and uncertainty. The findings show how these literary enemy figures serve both narrative and ideological functions, reinforcing symbolic boundaries between a rational, peaceful “us” and a dangerous, irrational “them”. The thesis concludes that such fiction not only reflects but actively participates in shaping the security-political discourse of its time.