The aim of the essay is to investigate how the historical societal context is presented in curricula and textbooks. The studied material consists of the curricula Lpf 94 and Gy 11, and four textbooks on literature intended for teaching the subject of Swedish in upper secondary school. The literary eras that are studied are the Enlightenment and the Romantic period. The study of the textbooks proceeds from the analytical schema of the historian Niklas Ammert. Theories of literary and social conceptual worlds are applied to analyse the textbooks and a curriculum-theory perspective is used to analyse the steering documents.     The analysis shows that there is a greater focus on the relationship between literature and societal development in Gy 11 and that there are stricter learning requirements. One difference between the textbooks is the approach they have chosen to get at the historical societal context. Den levande litteraturen and Texter och tankar från antiken till 1900 do this chiefly through a type of presentation that uses explanations and sometimes simple statements of fact. Svenska impulser 2 establishes connections with the present day in a reflective way. Människans texter – litteraturen gives the biggest allround picture based on different societal contexts. This textbook is also the one that most clearly corresponds to the current subject plans for teaching Swedish.