| Summary: | This thesis is a postcolonial feminist discourse analysis of Sweden’s Feminist Foreign Policy. Sweden’s Feminist Foreign Policy is unique to the world, but it is not the only case of incorporating a gender perspective as a central part of national or international politics. Feminism and gender perspectives are increasingly receiving attention and space in global politics. The Swedish case could therefore inform us about where politics are heading. Previous research on the Feminist Foreign Policy has aimed mainly at examining what it means and what challenges it likely will face. The aim of the analysis is to examine whether and to what extent the discourse of the Feminist Foreign Policy interrelates with gendered postcolonial narratives. Feminist scholars have for decades argued for the need to recognize the ways in which gendered and postcolonial structures are interrelated. Excluding either a gender or postcolonial analysis will convey only part of the problem. The method used is discourse analysis, or more specifically, critical discourse analysis. Discourse is an essential part of our social world. It is both constituted by and constitutive of how we understand our surroundings. Critical discourse analysis in particular is a useful method to illuminate power relations in society and how they are reproduced or countered through discourse. Two opposing ideal types are developed based on ideas from postcolonial theory and postcolonial feminist theory: gendered postcolonial discourse and fully feminist discourse. The ideal types are used in order to measure whether, how and to what extent the Feminist Foreign Policy interacts with gendered postcolonial discourse. The analysis looks at official documents, statements and speeches of different forms issued or produced by the foreign office. Using several texts, with varied aims and settings, the material will arguably be representative of the Feminist Foreign Policy. The results show that the Feminist Foreign Policy cannot be placed exclusively in either ideal type. The texts interrelate with gendered postcolonial discourse, reproducing unequal relations of power. Conversely, other parts of the texts are fully feminist, both transforming discourse and contributing to knowledge about what it can look like when discourse manages to avoid gendered postcolonial narratives.
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