Abstract

Whilst the colonial practices of child removal outside of Europe are (in-)famous, similar practices within Europe have received less critical attention. This paper examines novels and short stories set in Sweden, Finland, and the border area known as the Torne Valley. It analyses the literary portrayal of the forced removals of children, almost exclusively from the Sámi- and the Finnish/Meänkieli-speaking minorities, into workhouses or boarding schools in the Arctic regions of Sweden and Finland in the twentieth century. These stories are set against the historical background; our focus is on modalities of the trauma experienced. The discussion reveals recurring themes regarding the direct and indirect violence experienced by children, and highlights the inadequacies in the theorisation of coloniser-colonised situations developed in other contexts for describing European Arctic literature.