The current paper is a study of the character Christian Grey in the EL James trilogy Fifty Shades of Grey. The main aim is to find out how masculinity, sexuality and gender are constructed in this erotic fantasy. More over terms as femininity, unmanliness and gender have relevance to the study. Several studies have been done on romance novels and Harlequin in particular from a gender perspective, but few of them from a masculine point of view. Hence, no earlier study has been done on Fifty Shades of Grey with masculinity studies as the main tool of masculinity, or with theories of romance. The novels have been read and analysed with studies of the romance literature and masculinity as the main tool of analysis. The result shows that the character Christian Grey is ambivalent towards femininity and has a fear of losing control. And from this point of view the novels problematize patriarchy, male control and superiority.

This qualitative study aims to study how sexuality is constructed in web articles on the movie Fifty Shades of Grey. The study is based on a social constructivist perspective where language is seen as constitutive of reality. The study is based on a Foucauldian discourse analysis which is used in order to see what is excluded and included in the articles’ construction of normal sexuality. The result shows that there are similarities in how the web articles produce normal sexuality. Firstly, sexuality is constructed as partner violence, where men are depicted as superior to women and heterosexual sexuality depicted as normal, resulting in homosexual sexuality being constructed as abnormal. Secondly, sexual subject positions are used to enhance sexuality and to construct the woman as subordinate. Thirdly, media tends to produce an inaccurate picture of BDSM practitioners, resulting in a depiction of these practioners as being abnormal. The conclusion of the study emphasizes the importance of examining how sexuality is produced by media, since sexual norms constructed in media discourses affect us humans and the prevailing norms existing in society.

This study has examined reader reviews that focuses on the novel Fifty shades of Grey. Through discourse analysis and the theories of Magnus Persson and Judith Butler the study has answered the question about why the readers read romance and erotica from their own point of view. The study aims to add tot he librarians ”critical look” based in gender theory and criticaltheory about literary taste when it comes to making selection choices. This study shows that the readers mainly verifies Butler`s heterosexual matrix by appealing to a heteronormative discourse and Perssons explanations as to why women read romance, i.e in a way more focused on feelings opposed to the more male and academically coded intellectual perspective, although there are some exceptions, for example interpretations that allows for a more disruptive gender reading. There are also examples of readers who have a more distanced and intellectual reading.

The Fifty Shades-trilogy by E. L. James has become a cultural phenomenon, and is widely debated as such. The main issue of the debate is often concerning the story’s relation to women’s position in society. Common standpoints are that it is either contributing to women’s sexual liberation or that it perpetuates violence against women. The story is also considered to be of poor literary quality. In my thesis, I seek for approaches to understand the story beyond polarisation. I am performing a reparative reading of the first novel of the trilogy, Fifty Shades of Grey, through Michel Foucault’s notions of knowledge, power and pleasure. The purpose is to examine how these work in relation to each other, and how they relate to the presentation of sexuality and subjectivity in the novel. Furthermore, I engage in dialogue with previous research on Fifty Shades in the feminist field. In my analysis, I illustrate how knowledge, power and pleasure are synergetic and under constant negotiation. They are woven together and move between characters, laying the foundation for the subjects and their sexualities. I demonstrate how the power relations operate in multiple directions between Christian, Ana and Ana’s friend Kate, which is something that Ana shows awareness of. Further, I find that a conflict between mind and body occurs. Ana assumes the position of the knowing subject, through which she approaches corporality, and thereby gains new independence. Finally, I reflect on corporality’s intrusion of language in relation to the (de)valuation of the literary quality of the novel. As a question to bring to future studies, I ask whether the reading of Fifty Shades of Grey might be understood as consumption of body rather than consumption of literature, sexism or heteronormativity. / Fifty Shades-trilogin av E. L. James har blivit ett populärkulturellt fenomen som omdebatterats kraftigt. Temat för diskussionerna gäller ofta berättelsens förhållande till kvinnors sociala position i samhället. Vanliga åsikter är att den antingen bidrar till kvinnors sexuella frigörelse eller att den normaliserar våld mot kvinnor. Berättelsen anses även vara litterärt undermålig. I denna uppsats söker jag efter sätt att förstå berättelsen utanför polariseringen.  Jag genomför en reparativ läsning av trilogins första del, Fifty Shades of Grey, genom Michel Foucaults begrepp vetande, makt och njutning. Syftet är att undersöka hur begreppen fungerar i relation till varandra samt hur de förhåller sig till framställningen av sexualitet och subjektivitet i romanen. Jag går även i dialog med tidigare forskning om Fifty Shades i det feministiska fältet.  I min analys belyser jag hur vetande, makt och njutning samverkar med varandra och är under ständig förhandling. De rör sig mellan karaktärerna och vävs ihop till ett nät som lägger grunden för subjekten och sexualiteterna. Jag visar hur maktrelationerna är verksamma åt flera håll mellan Christian, Ana och Anas vän Kate, vilket Ana genom berättelsen också är medveten om. Jag finner även att det uppstår en konflikt mellan sinne och kropp. Ana intar rollen som ett det vetande subjektet. Genom denna roll närmar hon sig kroppsligheten, i vilken hon finner ny självständighet. Avslutningsvis reflekterar jag över kroppslighetens inträngande i språket, i relation till (ned)värderandet av romanens litterära kvalitét. Inför framtida studier ställer jag frågan om läsandet av Fifty Shades of Grey skulle kunna förstås som konsumtion av kropp snarare än som konsumtion av litteratur, sexism eller heteronorm.

This thesis compares eroticism in the post-revolutionary work of the Czech prose writer Vladimír Páral with the bestseller Fifty Shades of Grey by the British writer E. L. James. From Páral's work, the works of Dekameron 2000 or Love in Prague, Playgirls, Book of pleasure, laughter and joy, and the Book about the whip are discussed. Also included is The Professional: Vladimír Páral about himself and other interesting things, which came out in the 1990s, but it is an autobiography. Therefore, this book will be included in the chapter on autobiographical connotations. The thesis is divided into three main parts. The first one is mainly terminological, it explains the terms sex, eroticsm, pornography, erotic and pornographic literature and love. The second part deals with the authors themselves and their body of work. It is organised into sub-chapters in which specific pieces are analysed. In the case of Páral, the parallel between the Book of pleasure, laughter and joy and Kundera's Book of laughter and forgetting is also taken into account. In the case of Fifty Shades of Grey, some similarities with the erotism in Milan Kundera's work are found. In the summary, the texts are compared in terms of the role of eroticism, sex tools, plot characters as well as author's intention and style. The subjective...