Five fan fictions based on the TV-series Shadowhunters are used to analyze the self-harming behaviors of the character Alec Lightwood, as a response to losing, and a method of regaining, control. In addition, this paper explores self-harm in relation to upbringing and culture, self-punishment, and the mental health disorders depression and anxiety. Furthermore, it employs a disability narrative perspective and utilizes two four-stage systems proposed by disability narrative theorist David A. Karp—the illness identity career and the process of adaptations—in order to demonstrate the similarities and differences between fictional and nonfictional disability narratives. The engagement in self-harm is posited to be driven by a desire to regain control, which inadvertently ends up providing the opposite: an increased loss of control, and a hindrance for recovery.

In 1912 Hjalmar Söderberg wrote what came to be a Swedish classic, The serious game, about the two young lovers Lydia and Arvid and their failed attempts to be with each other. 1973 Gun-Britt Sundström responded with her own novel, For Lydia, that tells the same story but from Lydia´s point of view.  This essay discusses if the macro perspective, Sundström´s tendency in giving Lydia an agency, can be seen in the structure of the language, the micro perspective. To enable this, the essay has been using parts of the narratology theory founded in the 1960’s that was partly produced by Gérard Genette and supplemented by Mieke Bal. Looking at focalization (from what angle the story is told), it is possible to investigate what kind of information the reader can assimilate of Lydia and her progress. Susan Lanser defined feminist narratology and in accordance to her theory the essay examines the context and author of the novel to fully understand the writings. Sundström in a higher degree than Söderberg includes intern focalization when it comes to Lydia, which gives the reader more information about Lydia and her agency. Söderberg focalizes Arvid rather than Lydia which gives the reader the impression that Lydia acts selfish and unaccountable. Both novels arose in circumstances characterized by female emancipation and by regarding that, a more prominent picture of Sundström´s intention to make For Lydia a feministic response to The serious game can be seen. In conclusion, the essay shows that, the tendency of Sundström, to make a feministic response to Söderberg´s novel, can be seen even in the micro perspective of the language.

Two French novels, La vie devant soi by Romain Gary and L’Amant by Marguerite Duras, are used to examine how mental illness in the parent, in this case the mother figures, influences the development of the children, Momo and “je.” As its points of departure, this paper employs attachment theory, developed by Bowlby and Ainsworth et al., as well as family systems theory by Murray Bowen and Michael Kerr. The impact of the mother figures’ behavior toward their children is analyzed based on three factors: the parent-child relationship, the child’s desire for closeness with the parent, and the child’s desire to distance him/herself from the parent. A comparison is made between La vie devant soi and L’Amant to identify the differences and similarities in how the mother figures’ conduct influence Momo and “je.”

This thesis is a study of femininity and womanhood in two Swedish contemporary novels by Ulla Bjerne, Ingen mans kvinna (No Man’s Woman) from 1919 and Lilla Jälm (Young Jälm) from 1922. By comparing the novels, I study differences and similarities between the genres children’s literature and adult literature based on an analysis of the themes friendship, home, work, body and sexuality. The period during which the novels were released are by previous research called a period of transition. Swedish women had just achieved legal right to vote aswell as extended opportunities of work. In Swedish interwar representations of the New woman figure. She breaks normative rules in both real life and literature. However, the normative way of being a woman according to traditional constructions remains. By using Yvonne Hirdman’s theory of the gender system and research about contemporary discussions I study how the author chose to produce and relate to the normative femininity and womanhood, and how the characters relate to these normative views and the formations of the New Woman. Both main characters pushes boundaries in their “gender contract”, but the difference is how it is received in the novel and therefore I make two conclusions; Rut Jälms socially forbidden femininity in Lilla Jälm is formed into a boundlessness, which leads to consequences she herself cannot control. Irma Borch in Ingen mans kvinna on the other hand has the power to make a living aswell as being the representative of a socially forbidden femininity based on the concept of the New Woman.

Doktor Glas by the Swedish author Hjalmar Söderberg, was published over a hundred years ago, in 1905 in Sweden. Söderberg received both praise and criticism, the latter getting more attention because of the novel's unethical plot about a doctor that murders his patient to save the woman he secretly adores. The aim of this essay is to examine the novel's character description in terms of narrative approach, and the effect it is likely to have on the reader. My theory is that Söderberg "plants" affect and emotion into the character description of the protagonist Glas, and I use narratology as a method to support this theory. In my analysis I present different approaches and techniques that Söderberg uses to portray the novel's main character in order to ensure that Glas will be impossible to categorize psychologically – is he evil, is he good? The description of him makes it impossible to know and it challenges the readers perception of him. My conclusion is that Glas, due to Söderberg's narrative techniques, has become an insoluble riddle that still, a hundred yars after the publication of the novel, fascinates the Swedish literary world.

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This essay offers a thematic analysis focusing specifically on antisemitic motifs, in Jascha Golowanjuk’s novel Främmande fågel (1944). The Jewish identity of the protagonist is analyzed as a parallel development to his other identity processes, in which his artistry as a violinist is especially emphasized. This analysis is mainly achieved by using Jean-Paul Sartre’s theory of the anti-Semitic Jew, as well as Frantz Fanon’s writings about racism. By reason of the insufficient previous research on Jascha Golowanjuk, a brief introduction to the author and his Swedish authorship is provided, along with its reception during the 1930s and 40s. I argue that the protagonist’s development of a Jewish identity is essential to his artistry. Finally, this essay explores the contrast between the discussion of Jewish identity within Golowanjuk´s novels, and the complete disregard the literary establishment had for this very same discussion.

Syftet med följande uppsats är att undersöka vilka typer av intertextuella inslag som kan identifieras i låttexter av Kent och hur dessa eventuellt kan användas för att tolka låttexterna i fråga. För att besvara uppsatsens frågeställningar används närläsning och intertextualitet som metod. Materialet som undersöks är de tre låttexterna: ”Romeo återvänder ensam” (2005), ”Sjukhus” (2009) och ”Allt har sin tid” (2014). Samtliga texter är skrivna av Joakim Berg. Såväl de skrivna texterna som de uppförda verken undersöks. Vid analys av de tre låttexterna identifieras intertexter som tillhör genrerna: religiösa skrifter, skönlitterära verk i form av dikter, barnböcker, konstsagor och dramer, men också andra låttexter. Dessa intertexter kan till viss del vara brukbara vid tolkning av de valda låttexterna.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman has several characters who in many ways break gender norms. The main protagonist of the novel, Coraline, acts more in accordance with masculine gender norms, and the mother figures are mothers who do not fully conform to the traditional mother role. The purpose of this study is to look at how Coraline and the mother figures perform their gender, and in which ways this breaks with or aligns with traditional gender norms. The analytical approach is based on Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity, and on masculine and feminine gender schemas defined by John Stephens. For the analysis of motherhood, gender performativity has also been used, and works by Adrienne Rich and Einat Natalie Palkovich. This study shows that the protagonists challenge traditional gender role norms of masculinity and femininity, whereof motherhood is part. The study also shows that there is a lack of female role models for the young protagonist, and that acting according to masculine gender norms is desirable and necessary in the novel. But for the mothers, breaking gender norms is undesirable, dangerous, and even punished. A conclusion of the study is that even though Coraline appears to be a feminist novel, the underlying message is not entirely so.

ABSTRACT This paper contrasts J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series in the English original with its Swedish translation, by Lena Fries-Gedin. After an initial presentation of related research, some concepts such as implied narrator, implied reader, as well as intertextuality in translation and dual audience in children’s literature are explained. These concepts are applied to the two bodies of text to examine if they are identical in both the English and the Swedish versions. Some translational strategies are presented, and looking at examples from the texts it is discerned which strategies are being used. The Swedish translation’s use of formal ‘you’ to reflect the quality of inter-character relationships is discussed and examined, and the portrayal of sociolects in the original and translation are compared, concluding that the dialects are transformed into average spoken Swedish, and that adolescent speech is only partially transposed from the English original. There is also a comparison of differences in register, where the mentioned examples show that there is a loss of fluidity in style, and that the tone of the Swedish text is more dated than the English text. Some comparisons to other translations of Harry Potter are made, citing examples from other research, to view the Swedish translation in an international context. A brief comparison of the graphic design differences of layout is discussed, concluding that the Swedish design is likely more appealing to children.