This study deals with the new curriculum GY11 in Swedish and Swedish as a second language, the first course at “Swedish Gymnasium”. The subject is the status and aims of teaching literature and its contents. Eva Hultin’s thesis (2006) Samtalsgenrer i gymnasieskolans litteraturundervisning. En ämnesdidaktisk studie about Swedish and Swedish as a second language in the curriculum before (Lpo94) this new one serves as a frame of my study. I use her concepts of the old curriculum in order to find out whether these are present in the new one or not. To do so I use a qualitative, thematic and textanalytic method. Since there is not much research done on Swedish as a second language as a subject in school I use some of the most common theories about second language acqustion to make my study scientifically relevant and to link my discussion with the readers preunderstanding of it. This study was initiated by my hypothesis, the new Gymnasium as a part of right-wing politician ideas of different education for different purposeses and its reflections in the new curriculums of the subject Swedish. My results show that Swedish as a second language first and foremost is about basic skills in Swedish and not so much about interculture and bringing the students experiences forward for discussions in the classroom when dealing with literature. Or to use Eva Hultins concepts; the formerly known ideal of Swedish as a second language as a democratic and life skills-developing subject has been replacded by a skillorientated concept more to be compared to what students at practical programmes at Swedish Gymnasium traditionally do whereas Swedish still is about cultivation and making students prepared for democratic skills in life outside school. The study of the new curriculums in Swedish compared to Eva Hultins analysis of the older ones also leads to the conclusion that the new gymnasium to greater extent than before means two separated ways of handling literatur teaching Swedish as a second language and Swedish.

The purpose with this essay is to investigate how different theories about literary competence can help us understand why Sven Delblanc’s novel Änkan and Mara Lee’s novel Ladies have generated so many various interpretations as they have. To fulfill this purpose a comparative study of book reviews about the two novels Änkan and Ladies has been made. The theories about literary competence that have been used in this study are Joseph Appleyard’s theory about reader-roles, Judith Langer’s theory about imaginary worlds and Magnus Persson’s theory about genre perspectives. The results that are presented in this study are that those book reviews that express expectations about the novels as being genre-typical are often more disappointed about the reading experience than those readers who have expectations about the novels as being genre-transgressing and with deeper meaning. The discussion about genres has therefore given an interesting perspective about the correlation between the readers’ expectations and the many, various interpretations that follow.