This essay examines the specific uses of literature and the implications of the expression det allmänmänskliga (what is common to all mankind) emphasized in the subject of Swedish in the curriculum for the Swedish upper secondary school, GY 2011. Using discourse analysis as a method, this essay shows that the phrase det allmänmänskliga suggests teaching literature as a way to emphasize universal experiences over time and place, thus revealing an implication of the nineteenth-century idea of World Literature. Furthermore, this essay shows that the challenges inherent in the phrase det allmänmänskliga, and its implications for World Literature, require new didactic strategies and approaches to designing courses and teaching literature. In relation to this, the essay examines theories that focus on approaches to teaching World Literature and the uses of narration as a means to understand and emphasize the specifics of World Literature and the universal experiences. The final part of this essay examines the recent use of the concept of narrativ kompetens (narrative competence) emphasizing interaction and key elements of the reading experience as a specific way to understand and approach fiction. This essay concludes that the inherent benefits of narrativ kompetens combined with approaches to teaching World Literature, seem to offer great possibilities fulfilling the obligations and the specific uses of literature suggested in the curriculum for the Swedish upper secondary school.

Studiens mål är att undersöka hur läroplanens hänvisningar om att demokratiska värden ska genomsyra undervisningen påverkar läroböckernas innehåll kring demokratibegreppet. Studien bygger på en diskursanalytisk metod och resultatet bygger på läroböcker för samhällskunskap på gymnasiet som material. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten i studien grundar sig i diskursteori men även teori kring begrepp demokrati. Chantal Mouffe, William Connolly och Mats Lundström har alla en del i den teoretiska bakgrund mot analysen är gjord. Resultatet påvisar att de analyserade läroböcker tenderar att använda sig av demokratiska fri- och rättigheter för att förklara hur en demokrati konstrueras. Genom detta kommunicerar läroböckerna de demokratiska värdena i termer av vilka fri- och rättigheter det demokratiska samhället ska ha. Det har även påvisats att de demokratiska värdena är odefinierade och därmed görs tolkningar av vad de kan innefatta. / This study aims to present how the democratic values in the curriculum are exposed in the education and content about the democratic concept in textbooks. The study is based on and uses a discourse analysis as a method. The results of the study is based on textbooks for social science in the upper secondary high school. The theoretical point of view for this study is based on discourse theory but also theories about democracy as a concept. Chantal Mouffe, William Connolly and Mats Lundström have contributed to the theoretical background for the analysis in the study. The result showed that textbooks have a tendency to use democratic right and freedoms to legitimize and explain how the idea of democracy is constructed. Through this the textbooks tend to communicate the democratic values in terms of which democratic freedom and rights a society will have. It has also been demonstrated that democratic values ​​are undefined and thus interpreted by what they can include.