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This book investigates a unique collection of letters: the many thousands of letters to Selma Lagerlöf from the public. During 1891 to 1940 people from all layers of society wrote to the famous author about their lives, and about their reading of her narratives. How did these people use literature, and how did they view the author, Selma Lagerlöf, in a time of change?

In this open access book, seventeen scholars discuss how contemporary Scandinavian art and media have become important arenas to articulate and stage various forms of vulnerability in the Scandinavian welfare states. How do discourses of privilege and vulnerability coexist and interact in Scandinavia? How do the Scandinavian countries respond to vulnerability given increased migration? How is vulnerability distributed in terms of margin and centre, normality and deviance? And how can vulnerability be used to move audiences towards each other and accomplish change? We address these questions in an interdisciplinary study that brings examples from celebrated and provocative fiction and documentary films, TV-series, reality TV, art installations, design, literature, graphic art, radio podcasts and campaigns on social media.