The aim of this Master’s thesis is to investigate the modern Swedishreader’s possibilities to understand the literary allusions in Jane Austen’sfirst three novels in light of young people’s decreasing readingand understanding of classic literature. This is done by examining historicaloverviews of literature written in Swedish, curriculums forliterature courses at three Swedish universities and library holdings inSwedish libraries, both public and academic.In the thesis three different elements are combined – informationabout the alluded authors and texts, a comparison between the Swedishand the English versions of the novels and the result from theabove mentioned investigation. The description of the alluded authorsand texts provide information about the connotations that can be madeby an allusion to them. The comparison between the English and theSwedish novels show whether or not the allusions still exists in thetranslated text and if there are any differences that might affect theunderstanding of the novels.The theoretical framework is based upon literary sociology, especiallythe work of Escarpit. His concept creative treason is an inspiration forthe thesis. The hermeneutic theory of understanding is also consulted.That previous understanding effect the interpretation of a text is afundamental idea upon which the importance of the three chosen resources(curriculums, historical overviews of literature, library holdings)are based. / Program: Bibliotekarie

This thesis explores the position of book blogs in the literary system through Robert Escarpit's socio-literary model of the book market. Simultaneously the thesis serves as a test for Escarpit's theory: by actively applying his theory and model to a very new and contemporary actor on the book market I hoped to reach or confirm new insights into the usefulness and validity of Escarpit's work for contemporary socio-literary studies. Three book blogs were selected for the analysis and interviews were carried out with the authors. The interview questions were formulated specifically for the purpose of extracting the kind of information necessary for an analysis using Escarpit‟s theory. As a complement to the interviews, statistics on the type of books reviewed on the blogs were also compiled. Together, both the interviews and the statistics led me to the conclusion that the book blogs could fairly easily be placed into the cultivated literary circuit in Escarpit's model; however there was also a possibility that the blogs could be a blockade-breaker in his model depending on certain factors. Regarding Escarpit's theory as a whole, the analysis illuminated an important issue: Escarpit's model of the book market presupposes that literature has a certain societal value, however it appears that this presumption is problematic because literature's status in society has changed. At the same time it was also revealed that Escarpit's concept of closed "literary circuits" in which books circulate is still current and very applicable to today's book market. As a result I do not discount Escarpit's theory altogether, but rather endorse moving forward from Escarpit's original book market model to the Danish literary sociologist Hans Hertel's revised and further developed version of it. / P6