The aim of this Master’s thesis is to examine how representations of identity construction are performed through the characters in the novel Snabba Cash by author Jens Lapidus. I examine what means the characters are using, and how the identity construction processes are related to the idea of modern society. For a theoretical background I use sociologist Anthony Giddens’ theories regarding modernity and self-identity, to study general identity construction. Due to the fact that the three main characters of the novel are all men, I also examine the construction of masculine identity using sociologist R.W. Connell’s theories about hegemonic masculinity. Lastly, I use theories about representations by mass communication professor Stuart Hall, in order to examine the representation of reality presented in the novel. The study is performed within a Sociology of Literature framework, and the method used is a form of ideology analysis.The result shows that the three characters have a lot in common regarding how they define themselves as men. They tend to use the same features in order to appear masculine, with a few divergences. I found that the criminal life style that they are all embracing is a fruitful means in their work of construction and re-construction of their masculine identity, but that criminality is not essential in this process. Modernity is also a key factor to the reflexive project that is elementary in construction of a self-identity, and its wide range of possibilities is more or less the key to identity construction and re-construction. / Uppsatsnivå: D

This study is a text analysis of 30 master’s theses, written by students at the Swedish School of Library and Information Science in Borås 2005-2008, concerning the subject sociology of literature. The aim is to twofold; to show how the subject sociology of literature manifests itself within these LIS theses and to produce discourse arguments concerning sociology of literature as an LIS subject. The theorists I refer to in my study are Thomas. S Kuhn, Frickel & Gross and Richard Whitley, who devoted themselves to the theory of science. Their theories are used to explain how and why a subject, in this case sociology of literature, develops and why it is important to be able to justify and define limits vis-à-vis other academic subjects. Since LIS is an interdisciplinary based subject, it is interesting to try to find out what purpose and field of application the subject sociology of literature in specific has within the LIS field. This study has found that there are some common denominators in the analyzed theses concerning perspective, empirical material, theory and method. For example, a number of the authors used a gender perspective in their theses. If you choose to believe the authors of these theses, sociology of literature within Library and Information Science is necessary in order to remember the deeper meaning in literature.

The aim of this study is to examine views of picture books for children that reviewers in Swedish daily press express in their reviews in 2009 and 2010. The following questions were posed in the study: Are picture book reviews based on pedagogical criteria and/or aesthetic/literary criteria? Are picture books reviewed from an adult perspective and/or from a child perspective? Which elements of positive and negative criticism are to be found in picture book reviews? This qualitative study is based on 45 reviews of picture books in Swedish daily press. The theoretical approach is developed from four ways of looking at children literature that professor Maria Nikolajeva has compiled. The method used is idea analysis, which is a form of text-analysis. The results show that most of the reviews mainly were based on aesthetic/literary criteria, but many of them there were also based on pedagogical criteria. A common pedagogical criterion was if the book showed a desirable view or not. The results also show that there were both an adult perspective and a child perspective in the reviews. Positive and negative criticism indicated that a good picture book has an important message, provide a desirable view, and maintain high aesthetic/literary quality. In addition, it suits all ages, or is adapted to children.

Debates about suitable content in children's literature occur regularly. In spring 2010 such a debate took place in Sweden. The purpose of this Bachelor's thesis is to analyse the debate to identify ideas concerning the role of children's literature in society. A second aim is to examine how children's literature is described and which concepts are used by the debaters. The empirical material used for the analysis consists of ten articles, blog posts, radio- and TV- features published in March 2010. The combined theory and method applied is the discourse analysis described in Ernesto Laclau & Chantal Mouffe's discourse theory. In the theories of Laclau & Mouffe concepts like nodal points, equivalence chains, antagonism and subject positions play a dominant role in the production of objectivity. Three nodal points are identified in the analysis: 'censorship', 'children's needs' and 'parents of today'. The nodal points are connected to subject positions and acting space. They are also related to questions of power and the cumulative effects of media. It is my conclusion that there is a divergence between aesthetical and didactical outlooks in the debate. Another opposition in the debate concerns children's needs versus parents’ comprehension about children and childhood. The study also shows that authors and representatives from publishing houses are given particular acting space in comparison to representatives from the culture sphere and parents.

The aim of this Master’s thesis is to examine how six fantasynovels reflects or breaks the heteronormativity in society bylooking at how gender roles and sexuality are described.The theoretical framework is based on Judith Butler's theoryabout the heterosexual matrix which requires two separategenders and a compulsory heterosexuality and YvonneHirdman's two principles about dichotomy and hierarchy.The method used was idea analysis where dimensions basedon the theoretical framework were constructed. Thesedimensions were: behaviour, tasks, relationships and roles.The result shows that all of the books both breaks andreflects the society's values on gender and sexuality. Thereare some stereotypes present, for example that intuition isassociated with femininity and physical strength withmasculinity. However, the books also offer characters ofboth sexes that break the gender stereotypes, such asstrong women and emotional men. This is consistent withwhat previous research has shown. The relationships offersome examples of norm breaking but the nuclear family andheterosexual couple is a clear norm. Some of the writersseem to have a more conscious approach to normssurrounding gender and sexuality and these books also offermore character variation. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The aim of this Master’s thesis is to investigate the modern Swedishreader’s possibilities to understand the literary allusions in Jane Austen’sfirst three novels in light of young people’s decreasing readingand understanding of classic literature. This is done by examining historicaloverviews of literature written in Swedish, curriculums forliterature courses at three Swedish universities and library holdings inSwedish libraries, both public and academic.In the thesis three different elements are combined – informationabout the alluded authors and texts, a comparison between the Swedishand the English versions of the novels and the result from theabove mentioned investigation. The description of the alluded authorsand texts provide information about the connotations that can be madeby an allusion to them. The comparison between the English and theSwedish novels show whether or not the allusions still exists in thetranslated text and if there are any differences that might affect theunderstanding of the novels.The theoretical framework is based upon literary sociology, especiallythe work of Escarpit. His concept creative treason is an inspiration forthe thesis. The hermeneutic theory of understanding is also consulted.That previous understanding effect the interpretation of a text is afundamental idea upon which the importance of the three chosen resources(curriculums, historical overviews of literature, library holdings)are based. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to examine posts on bookblogs about the book, Cirkeln by Mats Strandberg and Sara Bergmark Elfgren and see how it has distributed amongst readers through social media and reader response. We want through this examine whether bookblogs have a place in the literary society, and in such cases, how this may take place. The Swedish Online bookshops Adlibris and Bokus is being used to find the blogposts to be examined in this thesis. The analysis is being implemented using content analysis and constructed encoding schemes. Interdisciplinary topics, like LIS and sociology of literature may have similar points of contact, which we want to highlight with this thesis. It is also possible to extract understanding of their own research topic by taking advantage of each other's knowledge. This is done in our paper by using Lars Furuland´s model, den litterära processen, as a starting point. The interlocking of posts on bookblogs, reader response and Online book shops, we believe demonstrates that bookblogs have a place in the Swedish literary society.

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Denna kandidatuppsats syfte är att presentera diskussionsfrågor i samband med läsfrämjande verksamhet ur ett genusperspektiv. För att arbeta fram dessa frågor innehåller uppsatsen även en analys av bärande karaktärer i samtida populär ungdomslitteratur med avseende på framställningar av manlighet och kvinnlighet. Analysens resultat visar att både traditionella och utmanande gestaltningar av de kvinnliga och manliga karaktärerna förekommer i den analyserade skönlitteraturen, vilket således innebär att läsarna av dessa verk får ett differentierat utbud av genusframställningar genom den analyserade ungdomslitteraturen. Baserade på den här uppsatsens litterära analys har en rad genusrelaterade diskussionsfrågor arbetats fram och dessa diskussionsfrågor är tänkta att fungera som utgångspunkt för att lyfta fram genusperspektivet vid exempelvis läsfrämjande aktiviteter för ungdomar.