This essay argued the importance of literary theory in the classroom. As a teacher, it is possible to achieve the empathetic goals of the English curriculum and Judith A. Langer’s ambition of literate thinking by using poetry and literary theory in school. The essay demonstrated this with a Lacanian reading of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poems “To a Skylark” and “Ode to the West Wind.” The analysis focused on readable and unreadable aspects of the poems. The readable aspects centred on the role of the Imaginary in “To a Skylark” and the representation of the fragmented body in “Ode to the West Wind.” Furthermore, the unreadable elements of the poetry demonstrated the discrepancy between the performative and declarative dimensions and the role of the pathetic fallacy in the signifying chain. Finally, this essay argued that, although all aspects of psychoanalytic literary theory should not be used in the classroom, elements of Lacanian thought can be used to combat the prevalence of individualism in Swedish upper secondary schools.

The purpose of this degree project has been to examine the implications of the provision of certain methodological support mechanisms, what has often been referred to as "instructional scaffolding" in literary didactics, to assist students in the ESL/EFL classroom in their interaction with the various literary texts into which they come into contact during their English language education at the upper secondary level in Sweden. My primary interest has been to gauge the response of the students involved in this study to the particular types of literary didactic methods utilized, for example, regarding their effectiveness in aiding the learning process as well as their impact on the literary, or aesthetic, experience itself. An analysis of student responses to a literature instruction module based on a reading of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness will demonstrate that certain forms of literary didactic methods in general, and significantly, particular forms of what can be conceptualized as instructional scaffolding, play a crucial role for both the learning process and the student's aesthetic experience of literature.

This study aims to develop knowledge about the teaching of literary history in upper secondary school. Sub-study I explores: What content is foregrounded when upper secondary school teachers of Swedish introduce literary history? And what significance can different teaching content have for sparking interest? Sub-study II explores: What teaching content sparks students’ interest in literary history? And what other aspects of the teaching spark their interest in literary history according to the students themselves? The study is framed by didactics and curriculum theory and also theories about interest and teaching. The material consists of video recordings from ten different lessons when upper secondary teachers were introducing literary history in the course Swedish 2. The experiences of upper secondary school students of the teaching were collected using questionnaires and interviews. All students were enrolled in university preparation programmes in a medium-sized Swedish city. The results of the analysis in Sub-study I show a wide range of potential literary history teaching content. The study thus contributes new empirical knowledge about what forms (in terms of its content) literary history can take in its teaching. In the past, Swedish as a subject has been discussed to a large extent in relation to the conceptions of the subject of Swedish as a skills subject, as a cultural heritage subject, and as an experience-based subject. The results of the study are discussed in relation to these conceptions but make further contributions by concretizing the variety of teaching content that occurs in classrooms. The results of the analysis in Sub-study II show that upper secondary school students’ interest in literary history can be sparked in relation to different content in the teaching such as students experiences; intertextuality; similarities and differences between different periods; epochs, authors and works, and aesthetic elements. The analysis also revealed aspects that could be linked to the teachers’ ways of leading and organising the teaching. These were passion and engagement; content legitimation; interaction and participation; variety; structure and delimitation and grades or de-emphasis on performance. The many themes identified in Sub-study II contribute to revealing different ways of sparking interest in literary history. This is an important result in view of the fact that previous research has shown that students lack interest in literary history teaching. Together, the two sub-studies contribute to revealing new empirical knowledge about literary history teaching. Finally, there is a reflective discussion which illuminate the study in relation to different perspectives on classroom management.

This ethnographic study is located in the field of literary didactics, covering an intersection of the subjects of Swedish and theatre. It investigates construction of text understanding while its participants work with staging Molière’s The affected ladies (Les précieuses ridicules, 1659). Studies of classroom interaction connected to reading drama text are rare in the Swedish field of literary didactics. The main research interest is the participants’ use of interwoven semiotic resources, including spoken language, body, voice and various artifacts. Based on a general need to understand how Swedish students develop reading skills (related to decreasing results internationally) and a growing research interest in the field for embodied knowledge connected to literacy competencies the study sets out to answer the following questions: How do the participants construct text understanding using semiotic resources with a focus on: a) matching of repertoires b) in-role re-presentation c) negotiations. The first aspect draws on theories used in literary didactics including McCormick’s (1994) literary and general repertoires and Langer’s (1995) envisioning literature. The second aspect draws on aesthetic learning and embodied knowledge  (Molander, 1996; Saar, 2005) and theatre semiotics (Heed, 2002). The third aspect draws on sociocultural theory (Vygotskij, 1978; Säljö, 2014) and sociocultural theory applied in the field of drama and theatre (Davis, Clemson & Ferholt, 2015). Seven upper secondary school students, a teacher of Swedish and a teacher of theatre were observed over a period of seven months, starting with the students’ first encounter with the drama text, lasting to the final performance of a one-hour theatre production. The researcher occasionally became participant in the creative process. Analyzed data include field notes, video and sound recordings. Major findings are that: a) Students continuously match their own repertoires with the repertoires of the drama text by references to popular culture, language and body expressions, thereby gradually constructing new understanding. b) By becoming co-creators of a fictional text in a process of aesthetic learning the students developed several perspectives on the literary text, which is one of the main goals in studies of literature in the subject of Swedish. c) The participants’ negotiations involving a number of semiotic resources showed a development of text understanding on an advanced level. It also showed knowing as something emerging out of social interaction where teachers play an essential role by providing aesthetic as well as traditional scaffolding. A central conclusion is that exploring ways of learning where various semiotic recourses are given focus in the process of shaping a final product, e.g. a theatre show, host potential for students’ development of text understanding. The potential for learning seems to relate to producing knowledge rather than reproducing. Verbal and physical expressions of text understanding form new understanding in an on-going spiral. A contribution of the study to the field is showing the potential of embodied knowledge in literary didactics without a master-servant relationship between school subjects. It is suggested that increased focus on embodied knowledge and aesthetic learning might help students to develop reading skills.

Uppsatsens undersökning är en foucauldiansk diskursanalys av hur gymnasieelever talar om praktiken litteraturläsning där datainsamlingsmetoden är fokusgruppsintervjuer. Syftet med uppsatsen är att bidra med kunskap om hur gymnasieelever talar om praktiken litteraturläsning genom att undersöka vilka mönster som framträder i intervjuerna och hur dessa kan förstås gentemot dominerande diskurser i samtiden. Motiven till undersökningen är bland annat att debatten om ungas läsande har aktualiserats det senaste decenniet, att det finns få granskningar av dominerande uppfattningar som omgärdar praktiken litteraturläsning och att perspektivet hur elevers uppfattningar är konstruerade saknas i forskningen. Två mönster går att urskilja i fokusgruppsintervjuerna. Det ena mönstret är att litteraturläsning som praktik anses ge flera goda effekter såsom större ordförråd och förmågan att se saker ur olika perspektiv. Att läsa anses nyttigt och boken som artefakt äger hög status. Detta mönster utgör en reproducering av den dominerande diskursen om praktiken litteraturläsning där läsning som fenomen och läsande som praktik ses som något oproblematiskt gott. Det andra mönstret som framträder under fokusgruppsintervjuerna är att en motdiskurs etableras. Motdiskursen grundar sig på upplevelsen att läsandet som praktik är kopplat till press, tvång och prestation, och därför något olustigt. Enligt eleverna bör läsandet dels utgå från frivillighet, dels utgå från andra former av läspraktiker, såsom att läsa från mobiltelefonen. Undersökningens didaktiska implikationer är att en inkluderande litteraturundervisning förutsätter ett perspektivtagande där det omkringliggande samhällets värderingar om litteraturläsande diskuteras. Om så görs, kan en fördjupad förståelse nås om hur eleverna ser på litteraturläsning och vad som formar deras uppfattningar. / This master essay is a Foucauldian discourse analysis of how students in the Swedish upper secondary school talk about the practice of reading literature where the data collection method is focus group interviews. The purpose of the essay is to contribute to how students talk about the practice of reading literature by examining what patterns emerge in the interviews and how these can be understood in relation to dominant discourses in the society. The motives for the study are, among other things, that the debate about young people's reading has become more intense in the last decade, that there are few reviews of dominant perceptions that surround the practice of reading literature and that the perspective on how students' perceptions are constructed is lacking in research. Two patterns can be distinguished in the focus group interviews. One pattern is that the practice of reading is considered to have several good effects such as greater vocabulary and the ability to see things from different perspectives. Reading is considered useful and the book as an artifact has a high status. This pattern can be understood as a reproduction of the dominant discourse about the practice of reading literature, where reading as a phenomenon and reading as practice are seen as something unproblematically good. The second pattern that emerges during the focus group interviews is that a counter-discourse is established. The counter-discourse is based on the experience that reading as a practice is linked to pressure and achievement, and therefore something unpleasant. According to these students, reading should instead be based on free will and om other forms of reading practice, such as reading from a mobile phone. The didactic implications of the study are that an inclusive literature teaching presupposes a perspective-taking where the surrounding society's values ​​of literature reading are discussed. If this is done, an in-depth understanding can be reached about how the students view reading literature and what shapes their ideas.

Cette thèse traite du potentiel interculturel de la littérature en cours de langue à l'exemple de la section Abibac en France, créée en 1994 dans le contexte de la coopération franco-allemande. Permettant l'obtention simultanée du baccalauréat français et de son équivalent allemand, l'Abitur, son objectif principal est le développement de la compétence interculturelle.La première partie présente un aperçu historique de la section Abibac, l'arrière-plan conceptuel de notre recherche dans les domaines interculturel, didactique et littéraire, et nos choix méthodologiques.Dans la deuxième partie, nous analysons le contexte théorique et institutionnel de l'enseignement de l'allemand en France. Nous discutons le statut de l'élève en tant que lecteur et présentons une étude empirique concernant la place de la littérature et de l'interculturel dans les textes-cadre institutionnels en France et en Allemagne, ainsi que dans les supports pédagogiques.La troisième partie démontre par des études de terrain les pratiques dans les sections Abibac en France. Une enquête menée auprès des professeurs concernant leurs choix de supports pédagogiques ainsi que leurs approches et objectifs est approfondie par des observations participatives menées dans quatre sections Abibac. Une expérimentation d'enseignement basée sur la lecture croisée de littératures de minorités mène à un modèle didactique permettant l'exploitation du potentiel interculturel des textes littéraires en classe.L'approche interdisciplinaire et interculturelle ainsi que l'association de la recherche théorique et de l'expérience pratique sur le terrain sont les clés de cette recherche. / The cross cultural potential of literature in foreign language teachingThe example of Franco German bilingual departments of French High-SchoolsThis thesis deals with teaching German literature in the bilingual department in French High-Schools: “Abibac”, created in 1994 in the field of Franco German cooperation, enables the students to pass the German and the French Secondary School examination simultaneously. The priority is to develop intercultural skills through the reciprocal knowledge of the two cultures.In the first part of this thesis, the development of the bilingual departments “Abibac” of French High-Schools is described in the historical context. Then the basic concepts of intercultural research, literary didactics and foreign languages didactics we refer to are reflected and the methodology of the thesis is presented.In the second part of our research, we present the theoretical and official context of German literature teaching in France. The theoretical analysis of pupils as readers is completed by an empirical study of the official instructions of German and French High-Schools. There is also an analysis of the way literature is introduced and intercultural skills are developed in textbooks.The third part of this thesis deals with the daily teaching practice in “Abibac”-departments in France. A survey of teachers on their teaching material, teaching practices and objectives is analysed and deepened by the presentation of observations in four “Abibac”-departments. A concrete teaching experience with books by multicultural authors will show how to study intercultural questions in literature.The interdisciplinary and intercultural approach of this project, the association of university research and practical experience in high-schools are the keys of this thesis.

This thesis investigates the construction of role models, more specifically literary didactics and constructions of subject positions, in literary works with exemplary stories in Swedish 1400–1750, from the perspective of literature for children and young adults. Childhood concepts, didactic concepts and subject positions presented to the reader are analyzed from the point of view of dominance and dissonance between different characters and messages. A number of themes have been chosen for a comparative study, for example: ideas about identification, the construction of subject positions and ideals for girls, the responsibility of adults, subversive tendencies, obedience or autonomy, the immoral role model as exemplary, conflicts between different childhood concepts, adults and children as role models. A central conclusion is that there is variation when it comes to the subject positions that are constructed for children and young adults, mainly through role models. There are examples of authoritative teachings that demands the subordination and obedience of the reader/recipient, as well as encouragement of questioning and even contra conventional subject positions. One conclusion is that premodern literature for the young does not just have an authoritative tone towards the reader, but the texts also negotiates with the reader. The messages are not just about obedience and religious fidelity, but also about learning, questioning and personal, moral responsibility. A critical perspective on adults is encouraged through critizism of adults and exemplary role models. Subject positions for girls also vary in the texts. Some texts convey conventional, passive gender roles while others present active subject positions, where chastity, wisdom and manliness are presented as ideal virtues for girls.