From a Narrative of Suffering towards a Narrative of Growth: Norwegian History Textbooks in the Inter-War Period

The article discusses changes and revisions of the Norwegian official Grand Narrative, as portrayed in primary school history textbooks. The selected corpus of textbooks of 1885-1940 shows narrative and historiographical changes supporting a hypothesis of a development from a Narrative of Suffering towards a Narrative of Growth. The reconfiguration of the Norwegian Grand Narrative plot is illustrated by the Association Norden's pioneering history textbook revision, which aimed at removing old national enemy images such as the Swedish arch-enemy and antagonist in the Norwegian Narrative of Suffering. The Nordic textbook revision shows that a political call for more peaceable narratives between former enemies has to be addressed more comprehensively, respecting both narrative implications and time needed to reconfigure a grand narrative of collective memory.