Diss. Umeå : Univ., 2003.

The aim of this master’s thesis is to examine how Swedish public libraries approach and regard lesbian pulp fiction as a genre, from both a historical and modern perspective, and also to visualize and critique the surrounding discourses that influence the perception and reception of the genre. The method is twofold and consists of qualitative interviews as well as discourse analysis inspired by Foucault. The data consists of interviews with three librarians responsible for library collections, selection and purchase of new library materials which is combined with a survey reading of Biblioteksbladet, the periodical of Svensk Biblioteksförening, from 1945–1990. Michel Foucaults theories on discourses and the principles and mechanisms of exclusion, and Pierre Bourdieus theories on taste and distinction, guide the analysis. The analysis focuses to a great extent on discursive patterns, especially concerning the relationship between popular and quality fiction, and components of Bourdieus field theory and how this contributes to the creation of taste through distinction. Throughout the analysis possible explanations regarding the position of lesbian pulp fiction are given which covers areas from classification and interpretation of literary genres to quality assessment, selection and purchase of literature. The results of the study shows that lesbian pulp fiction is quite invisible in Swedish public libraries which is mainly seen as an effect of discursive practices that surround and influence the genre such as the societal and historical view of homosexuality but also the view on popular literature. Conclusions are that librarians are not making conscious exclusions of lesbian pulp fiction per se, they are if anything quite unaware of the genre’s existence, but that the practices that shape the field of public libraries has contributed to the genre’s position. The study is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science written at Uppsala university.

Female characters in novels by Virginia Woolf and E.M. Forster are studied in their relationships as wives, mothers, daughters and prospective brides. The novels selected are those where the writers are concerned with families dominated by Victorian ideals. Virginia Woolf: The Voyage Out (1915), Night and Bay (1919), Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927). E.M. Forster: Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907) , A Room with a View (1908), Howards End (1910).The socioeconomic, religious and ideological origins of the Victorian ideals are traced, esp. as they are related to the writers' family background in the tradition of English intellectual life. The central theme of the four novels by Woolf is the mother-daughter relationship which is analyzed in its components of love and resentment, often revealed in an interior monoloque. Forster's novels usually present a widowed mother with a daughter and a son. It is shown how the plot, dialogue and authorial intrusions are used to depict a liberation from the constraints of the Victorian ideals of family life. The mothers in the novels of both writers are shown to be representative of various aspects of the Victorian ideal of womanhood. The attitudes of men towards women vary from those typifying Victorian conceptions of male superiority to more modern ideals of equality and natural companionship. / digitalisering@umu

Denna uppsats analyserar och tolkar Kerstin Thorvalls roman Det mest förbjudna (1976) komparativt i ljuset av begrepp från Epikuros (341 f. Kr. - c:a 270 f. Kr.) hedonistiska och materialistiska filosofi framställd i dess mest betydande kvarstående källa, Lucretius (c:a 95 f. Kr. - c:a 55 f. Kr.) lärodikt De rerum natura. Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka om/hur motiv ur Epikuros etik förekommer i Thorvalls roman; och att utforska om hedonism medverkar/motverkar feminism i romanen. Metoden är en tvärvetenskaplig komparativ analys och tolkning mellan Thorvalls roman och Epikuros filosofi i Lucretius dikt. Metoden inspireras av Pierre Machereys i boken À quoi pense la littérature (1990). Undersökningsresultat struktureras tematiskt efter några av de jämförda verkens motiv: religionens ondo, behovet av att avlägsna rädslan för döden, njutningen som det högsta goda, kritiken av tvåsamma kärleken, synen på kunskap. Min teoretiska utgångspunkt är Epikuros och Lucretius hedonistiska filosofi; och, i mindre utsträckning, ett intersektionellt perspektiv (med fokus på kategorierna kön, genus och sexualitet). Resultatet visar huvudsakligen att trots skillnader gällande begärens begränsning, kan slutsatsen dras att Thorvall gör en feministisk omtolkning av hedonistiska motiv och vägleder läsaren mot ett feministiskt och hedonistiskt etiskt mål.