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Det här examensarbetet undersöker hur graden av ikonicitet i illustrationer hänger ihop med engagemang och intresse hos elever i årskurs 5. Studien syfte är att ta fram goda exempel på ett studiematerial med illustrationer (kopplat till Västmanlands läns museums utställning När då var nu) som är anpassade för målgruppen. Detta undersöktes genom kvalitativa metoder– intervju med en bibliotekarie respektive en barnboksillustratör samt en fokusgrupp med elever från årskurs 5. Studien visade att graden av ikonicitet inte var det avgörande i vad som skapar intresse hos eleverna utan känsla, karaktär och detaljrikedom var aspekter som stod över i relevans. / This bachelor’s thesis study how the degree of iconicity in illustrations and year 5 students’ engagement and interest is connected. The purpose of the thesis is to produce an example of study material with illustrations, in this case linked to Västmanlands läns museums exhibition “När då var nu” (eng ‘When then was now’), that is adapted for the targeted group. This was explored through qualitative methods– two interviews with one librarian and one children’s book illustrator as well as a focus group with students from year 5. The study shows that the degree of iconicity is not the most important aspect when illustrating images to create interest and engagement. To mediate a feeling, character and high levels of detail was aspects that weighed heavier.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the narrative in You are a bad man, mr Gum! to be able to understand and explain the intermedial aspects of the work. I assume an intermedial, narratological and reception theory perspective in my analysis. The method of close reading is used combined with a reader-oriented perspective. I examine the medial aspects of the chosen work through the pictures, the text, and the iconicity of the typographical pattern of the text. To reach my goal, the following questions are dealt with: What is the character of the narration? How do the various media interact in the production of meaning? What is the relationship between the text and the implicit reader? What is the narratological difference between reading the book aloud and silently?   The theoretical framework f the paper consists of narratological and intermedial theories. Its investigation demonstrates that the book gains from being read from an intermedial perspective. Reading the book aloud creates a synergy between the medial aspects of the book which is missed in sillent reading. The paper also shows that the iconic perspective helps interaction while reading the book; the typographical design of the book triggers interpretations in terms of similarity.

While the influence of the film medium on modernist literature has been well established along with the increase of intermediality studies, and although the new generation of Swedish authors in the 1930s expressed fascination for the moving pictures, the interrelation between film and literature within the Swedish literary context has gained surprisingly little scholarly attention. On that account, this study sets out to explore the early 1930s prose works of Erik Asklund and Josef Kjellgren, in relation to a film movement particularly admired by them and their Swedish contemporaries – namely, the Soviet montage cinema. Using a broad semiotic and narratological discourse, as well as incorporating the theoretical writings of Soviet filmmakers Sergei Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov, the study examines thematic and formal traits within the novels from an intermedial perspective. The aim is to formulate to what extent, and by which media specific means, the authors allude to and ‘imitate’ the characteristics of said film movement. Central to this discussion is the concept of iconicity – a phenomenon that, when present in literature, may function to modify the conventional semiotic ‘modes’ of the printed literary text, consequently creating a production of meaning that resembles that of the film medium. The results show that the authors’ respective prose works indeed employ medial and artistic conventions of the Soviet montage cinema, yet with different techniques and outcomes. Whereas Asklund, by way of experimenting with the signifying practices accessible to the prose genre, can be said to bring about a ‘film-like’ perception, Kjellgren – while showing distinct similarities to the Soviet cinema on a thematic level – does not to the same degree alter the customary semiotic constituents of the literary text. On the whole, the study contributes to a new and nuanced perspective on Swedish modernist literature.

År 2018 mottog 4,8 miljoner svenska hushåll broschyren Om krisen eller kriget kommer. Denna utformades av Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och beredskap [MSB] och ämnade göra svenska folket bättre förberett på följder från allvarliga olyckor, extremt väder, it-attacker eller militära konflikter. Detta skulle uppnås genom instruktioner och tips på hur man ska förhålla sig när en samhällskris vänder vardagen upp och ner. Det riktades emellertid en del kritik mot broschyren. Undersökningen Effektmätning av broschyren Om krisen eller kriget kommer gjord av Enkätfabriken vittnar om att trots att informationen gjorde ett intryck så kastades många exemplar. 31% av de tillfrågade uppger att de inte har sparat den (2019, 19). Enligt MSB:s sida Din Säkerhet.se (publicerad 2019) är det 64% av läsarna som vid tillfrågan hävdat att de har övervägt handling, men att bara 22% har inspirerats att utföra något konkret. Här uppkom bland annat de viktiga frågorna: hur kan man utforma en potentiell framtida version av broschyren så att mottagaren vill spara den och hur kan den bli mer till gagn för den tilltänkta målgruppen utan att för den delen upplevas som propagandistisk och militärförskönande? Genom undersökningar, enkäter och jämförelser med tidigare versioner, anammandet av önskemål och feedback görs en gestaltning som tacklar dessa frågor och sedan presenteras för respondenter för utvärdering. De prototyper som framtagits visar på ett ökat tilltalande, överskådlighet, läslighet och högre nivå av förståelse. Flera metoder användes för att försäkra sig att det slutgiltiga designförslaget uppfyllde målet att genom kognitions- och perceptionsregler och teorier framställa en prototyp som uppnår de behov som respondenterna sade sig ha. Examensarbetet har resulterat i: • Ett nytt omslag som i större grad upplevs som tilltalande. • Ett mer användbart mittuppslag där text omtolkats till multimodala illustrationer. • En extra sida där viktig information som givit knapphändig textbeskrivning mer utrymme för att gestalta och förklara via illustration och sekventiellt berättande. / In 2018, 4.8 million Swedish households received the pamphlet If crisis or war comes (Om krisen eller kriget kommer). This pamphlet was designed by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (Myndigheten för samhällssskydd och beredskap) [MSB] and sought to prepare the Swedish population for the consequences of serious accidents, extreme weather, Cyber-attacks, or military conflict. This was to be relayed through instructions and handy tips for when everyday life was turned upside-down. The pamphlet did however receive a fair amount of criticism. Research shows that despite making an impact on its readers, a large amount of the pamphlets was discarded. According to MSB themselves in a report on a survey published 2019, 64% of readers declared having considered acting upon the provided information, but only 22% declared having taken any concrete action. By some metrics that was a success, but for an official publication of this size and importance the results were not as favorable as expected. Something about the pamphlet seemed to have polarized the Swedish populace. The purpose of this work is to tackle the big question; how to design a pamphlet that begs to be kept for later, and how can information that has been described as propagandistic and military-promoting be redesigned to increase the appeal for the target demographic? Through research, surveys, and comparative studies of prior versions of the pamphlet, a consensus was founded based on feedback from respondents and a redesign is made. The new design-prototype is then tested and evaluated in a survey to see how it measures up against the original 2018 design and if it delivers on the expectations expressed in the first survey. The prototype design shows an increase in appeal, readability, and understandability. The methods used ensure quality and that the final prototype achieves its goal of adhering to cognition theory and principles as well as delivering the necessary aspects of the redesign. The results were: A new cover with increased appeal. A middle spread with improved usability, a transference of textual information into multimodal illustrations. A spill-over page with necessary information conveyed clearly through illustrations, as opposed to the original text instructions. / <p>Presenterades över Zoom</p>

In this thesis, the usage of iconic expressions, or sound symbolic expressions, is investigated in Swedish child-directed speech during the first two years of life. Furthermore, it is explored whether there is an effect of the usage of sound symbolism on productive vocabulary at 2;0 years. Ten monolingual Swedish and typically-developing children and their parents were selected at the ages of 0;3, 0;6, 0;9, 1;0, 1;3, 1;6, 1;9 and 2;0 years. The sound symbolic expressions were extracted, classified and analysed. One finding is that sound symbolic expressions are used by all parents in varying degrees from sparsely to abundantly. On average 0,9 sound symbolic expressions were used per minute by all parents. There was no significant effect of the usage of sound symbolism on productive vocabulary. Nevertheless, this work shows that iconicity is used in early childhood and might be a part of the register child-directed speech. Further studies should investigate more thoroughly the effect of iconicity on language acquisition. / I denna studie undersöktes ikoniska, eller ljudsymboliska, uttryck i svenskt barnrikat tal under barnets första två levnadsår. Utöver detta testades det om det fanns någon effekt av användning av ljudsymbolik på barnets produktiva ordförråd vid 2;0 år. Tio enspråkiga svenska och typiskt-utvecklade barn och deras föräldrar valdes ut vid 0;3, 0;6, 0;9, 1;0, 1;3, 1;6, 1;9 och 2;0 år och de ljudsymboliska uttrycken extraherades, klassificerades och analyserades. Ett resultat var att alla föräldrar använde sig av ljudsymboliska uttryck; varierande från lite till mycket. I genomsnitt användes det 0,9 ljudsymboliska uttryck per minut av alla föräldrarna. Ingen signifikant effekt på det produktiva ordförrådet kunde hittas. Trots detta så visar detta arbete att ikonicitet används under den tidiga barndomen och att ikonicitet kanske är en del av talstilen ‘barnriktat tal’. Framtida forskning kan undersöka ikonicitetens påverkan på språkinlärning mer ingående. / Modelling infant language acquisition from parent-child interaction (MINT)

This thesis synthezises theories from intermedia studies, semiotics, Gestalt psychology, cognitive linguistics, cognitive psychology, cognitive poetics, reader response criticism, narratology and possible worlds-theories adjusted to literary studies. The aim is to provide a transdisciplinary explanatory model of the transaction between text and reader during the reading process resulting in the reader experiencing a mental, virtual world. Departing from Mitchells statement that all media are mixed media, this thesis points to Peirce’s tricotomies of different types of signs and to the relation between representamen (sign), object and interpretant, which states that the interpretant can be developed into a more complex sign, for example from a symbolic to an iconic sign. This is explained in cognitive science by the fact that our perceptions are multimodal. We can easily connect sounds and symbolic signs to images. Our brain is highly active in finding structures and patterns, matching them with structures already stored in memory. Cognitive semantics holds that such structures and schematic mental images form the basis for our understanding of concepts. In cognitive linguistics Lakoff and Johnsons theories of conceptual metaphors show that our bodily experiences are fundamental in thought and language, and that abstract thought is concretized by a metaphorical system grounded in our bodily, spatial experiences. Cognitive science has shown that we build situation models based on what the text describes. These mental models are simultaneously influenced by the reader’s personal world knowledge and earlier experiences. Reader response-theorists emphasize the number of gaps that a text leaves to the reader to fill in, using scripts. Eye tracking research reveals that people use mental imaging both when they are re-describing a previously seen picture and when their re-description is based purely on verbal information about a picture. Mental spaces are small conceptual packets constructed as we think and talk. A story is built up by a large number of such spaces and the viewpoint and focus changes constantly. There are numerous possible combinations and relations of mental spaces. For the reader it is important to separate them as well as to connect them. Mental spaces can also be blended. In their integration network model Fauconnier and Turner describe four types of blending, where the structures of the input spaces are blended in different ways. A similar act of separation and fusion is needed dealing with different diegetic levels and focalizations, the question of who tells and who sees in the text. Ryan uses possible worlds-theories from modal logic to describe fictional worlds as both possible and parallel worlds. While fictional worlds are comparable to possible worlds if seen as mental constructions created within our actual world, they must also be treated as parallel worlds, with their own actual, reference world from which their own logic stems. As readers we must recenter ourselves into this fictional world to be able to deal with states of affairs that are logically impossible in our own actual world. The principle of minimal departure states that during our recentering, we only make the adjustments necessary due to explicit statements in the text.

This essay aims to understand how meaning and materiality work in four picture books from the 00s and 10s; Gittan och gråvargarna by Pija Lindenbaum, I skogen by Eva Lindström, Vem ser Dim? by Maria Nilsson Thore and Vi blåste bort ibland by Viveka Sjögren. The essay uses two theoretical works about picture books: Bilderbokens pusselbitar by Maria Nikolajeva and Modernismens bilder – Den moderna bilderboken i Norden by Elina Druker. Questions to lead the analysis are: How can text and picture be understood as materiality? How can meaning be understood as a material-discursive phenomenon? How can reading and meaning be understood as performative processes? The chapter “Diffractions: Differences, Contingencies, and Entanglements That Matter” from Karen Barad’s book Meeting the Universe Halfway – Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning provides help to understand diffraction as a metaphor and methodological attitude. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s understanding of knowledge as performative in the book Touching Feeling – Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity is used to understand the picture book as an act of knowledge and meaning, and reading as a performative process where human involvement cannot be overlooked. The essay problematizes the theoretical texts about picture books by taking on different parts of the picture book’s form and drawing examples from the four chosen picture books. Parts that are examined are divisions of signs in semiotics (and in the picture book theory), the picture book’s limits between for instance framework and content, fiction and reality, and book and reader, mimesis and the analytical problems with looking for truth, the impact of the picture book’s size and shape, and lastly illustration techniques and the influence that illustrator, materiality and reader have on the book. The essay shows how different involvements affect the meaning that is created in the picture book, how solid delimitations of different kinds can be problematic, and how words such as picture, text, paratext and content should be treated gently and consciously. Different ways of breaking with methods and thoughts of habit are presented, for instance by using Barad’s concept of diffraction. The essay ends by emphasizing the complexity that follows meaning, materiality and reading, the responsibility it demands of us and how picture book theory sometimes simplifies analysis. This essay stresses the importance of questioning how the methods and words we use affect what is possible to understand, but not in the sense that we should read in a paranoid and closed way, but rather open minded and with room for failures, reconsiderations and other ways forward. / Syftet med denna uppsats är att förstå hur mening och materialitet hänger ihop i fyra bilderböcker från 00- och 10-tal; Gittan och gråvargarna av Pija Lindenbaum, I skogen av Eva Lindström, Vem ser Dim? av Maria Nilsson Thore och Vi blåste bort ibland av Viveka Sjögren. Uppsatsen går i dialog med de bilderboksteoretiska verken Bilderbokens pusselbitar av Maria Nikolajeva och Modernismens bilder – Den moderna bilderboken i Norden av Elina Druker. Frågor för att leda undersökningen är som följer: På vilket sätt är text och bild materialitet? Hur kan mening förstås som materiellt-diskursivt fenomen i bilderböckerna? Hur kan läsning och mening förstås som performativa processer? Avsnittet ”Diffractions: Differences, Contingencies, and Entanglements That Matter” ur Karen Barads verk Meeting the Universe Halfway – Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning fungerar som hjälp för att förstå diffraktion som metafor och metodologisk hållning. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwicks förståelse av kunskap som performativ i verket Touching Feeling – Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity används för att förstå bilderboken som ett görande, och läsningen som en performativ process där mänsklig inblandning inte kan förbises. Uppsatsen problematiserar de bilderboksteoretiska verken genom att ta sig an olika aspekter av bilderbokens form samt exemplifiera detta med hjälp av det skönlitterära materialet. Områden som vidrörs är semiotikens (och bilderboksteoretikernas) indelning av tecken, bilderbokens gränser mellan bland annat ramar och innehåll, fiktion och verklighet samt verk och läsare, mimesis och sanningssökandets analytiska problem, bilderbokens påverkan av storlek och format, samt slutligen illustrationstekniker och den inverkan illustratör, materialitet och läsare har på verket. Uppsatsen visar på hur olika inblandningar påverkar den mening som skapas i bilderboken, hur fasta gränsdragningar av olika slag kan anses problematiska, samt hur begrepp som till exempel bild, text, paratext och innehåll bör behandlas varsamt och medvetet. Olika sätt att komma runt upptrampade metodologiska tillvägagångssätt och tankespår presenteras, bland annat med hjälp av Barads diffraktionsbegrepp. Uppsatsen avslutas med att betona den komplexitet som följer med mening, materialitet och läsning, det ansvar detta avkräver oss och hur bilderboksteorin ibland fungerar förenklande i analyser. Denna uppsats lyfter vikten av att ifrågasätta vad de metoder och ord vi använder egentligen gör med vad som är möjligt att förstå, men inte i den mening att vi bör läsa misstänksamt och stängt, utan snarare öppensinnat och med utrymme för misslyckanden, omprövningar och andra vägar vidare.