Selected South African high school students’ perceptions of stereotypes in William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” are the center of attention in an attempt to establish or refute the existence of a uniform interpretation in the interpretive community. The textual reader responses were collected by using a questionnaire. The results show that the respondents use stereotypes to understand encounters with literary texts and as tools to connect the content of the text with their own experiences. The stereotypes also provide a framework for the readers to position themselves with or against the text and the depicted characters. Consequently, the female respondents are more inclined to distance themselves from sexist values than the male readers. Next to all the readers condemn racist values and racist language detectable in the text. Overall, the readers distance themselves from negative values and identify themselves with positive values. The results show that readers use a variety of stereotypes as aids to interpret the characters, events, values and structure of society in “A Rose for Emily”.

How can a character from a children’s book become so divisive that he causes arguments amongst adults? This essay uses transactional reader response theory to explain the reason why the character Severus Snape from the Harry Potter book series by J.K. Rowling is so controversial. Applying notions from reader response theorists such as Rosenblatt and Iser together with earlier research on Snape will show how the reader’s opinion is affected by both the text itself and their own personal experience. A poll was created and posted on Facebook with over a thousand replies. This data is analysed and used to apply the theory on real examples. The conclusion of the essay is that Snape is both good and bad. He acts heroically but is also vindictive and petty. Snape is perhaps the most human of all Rowling’s characters and each reader recognises a little of themselves in him that they can relate to. Because of ongoing arguments regarding Snape readers have to constantly defend their opinion. As the opinion is re-evaluated it is also strengthened each time readers reconsider the story of Snape and, like Snape himself once asked Professor Quirrell to do, decide where their loyalties lie.

Detta är ett examensarbete baserat på en etnografiskt inspirerad studie som har syfte att undersöka hur lärare motiverar och utformar undervisningen av äldre texter på gymnasiet samt hur elever på olika gymnasieprogram upplever denna undervisning. För att utföra studien har använt mig av källor som bidragit till att samla in, bearbeta och analysera den empiri som intervjuerna och observationerna resulterat i. Frågeställningarna är baserade på syftet med studien och lyder: 1. Hur använder sig svensklärare av äldre texter i klassrummet idag? 2. Hur motiverar svensklärare undervisningen av äldre texter i klassrummet idag? 3. Skiljer sig litteraturundervisningen av äldre texter åt mellan de olika programmen och i så fall hur? 4. Hur upplever eleverna undervisningen av äldre texter? För att besvara mina frågeställningar utfördes tre lärarintervjuer, tre fokusgruppsintervjuer med elever ur respektive klass samt observerade två av tre klasser under ett lektionstillfälle. Som metod för analys valdes en innehållsanalys där teman vaskades fram. Detta innebar att intressanta träffpunkter valdes ut efter transkriberingen av intervjuerna som därefter formade tre teman. Resultatet delades sedan upp i tre delar baserat på dessa teman. Dessa tre teman är: Läsning för att öppna dörrar, läsning för igenkänning och läsning för läslust. I varje tema presenteras vad som utläses vara hinder och möjligheter med den olika tillvägagångssätten för undervisning av äldre texter.

The concept of art experience among beholders is well-known but lacks empirical studies on everyday art experiences among laypersons. In this bachelor thesis, the appearance of layperson beholders’ art experience is explored by a qualitative interview study method. Eleven chosen responders are individually interviewed at Härnösand Art Gallery beholding the same assorted visual artwork. Descriptions and narratives are compared to artists’ intentions as shown in a separate interview. The theoretical approach leans on psychology and perception in art, focusing on the aesthetics of reception. Although a small-scale investigation in a rather narrow context, the investigation shows interesting findings: It highlights the frequency and intensity of everyday art experience in laypersons and the easiness of defining pictorial art from other informative or commercial pictures. Further, it highlights that the process of art experience perception has a strong hold of autonomy and is perceived as very personal and part of own personality. It also shows the rapid perception and endurance of mood as response and interpretation in contrast to the continuous processing of details and meaning. Lastly, the comparison of the artist’s intention and the beholders’ experience shows concordance.These properties of everyday common art experience can be a causal factor for the general prevalence of art in society.

This essay analyses John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars (2012) with a theoretical approach of reader-response theory to show how the potential interpretations of the gaps in the novel make it a relevant choice of literary work for EFL education. The essay also examines whether the concept of gaps can be used as a tool in literary analysis. The concept of gaps stem from Wolfgang Iser’s ideas on the individual reader, which in turn is one of the perspectives, together with Stanley Fish’s interpretative communities, from which the gaps found in The Fault in Our Stars are analysed. The results are connected to a list of criteria, created by applying the criteria of English syllabuses for upper secondary school by the Swedish National Agency for Education to a revised version of Janice Bland’s list of what constitutes a good literary work for the classroom. The result is that The Fault in Our Stars covers difficult and relatable topics and emotions, which enables productive discussions that challenge students’ world views and help develop their interpretative skills. The findings also show that the novel bears literary complexity, with its prevalent use of metaphors and similes, as well as clear intertextuality with typically canonical works. The analysis also shows how the concept of gaps are an effective tool for interpretation in literary analysis. In conclusion, The Fault in Our Stars is a suitable and comprehensive choice of YA literature in the upper secondary school EFL classroom.

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This study explores the effects of engaging with contemporary dual language texts, specifically Cree texts, as a non-Cree educator intent on using the literature classroom as a place in which to explore cross-cultural communication. It considers how the in/accessibility of meaning when reading across cultural boundaries may be read as a challenge or a bridge for non-Cree readers. An interdisciplinary approach was employed as a research methodology to explore the potential interstices and intersections of Aboriginal epistemologies, decolonizing pedagogies, literary theories, and contemporary dual language texts. In order to begin defining the manner in which one perceives the significance of the code-switching and the varied translation practices within dual language texts, a reader response theory was developed and termed construal inquiry. As a decolonizing pedagogy that employs dialogic engagement with a text, construal inquiry is undrepinned by a self-reflective approach to meaning-making that is grounded in Luis Urrieta, Jr.'s (2007) notion of figured worlds, Jerome Bruner's (1991) model of narrative inquiry, and Mikhail Bakhtin's (1981) concept of heteroglossia. The research explores a collaborative approach to meaning-making with an awareness of how forms of subjectivities can affect reading practices. Texts that range from picture books to junior novels to autobiographical fiction are examined for the forms in which code-switching, culture, and identity can shape reader response and the dialogic discourse of cross-cultural communication. The research proposes experiential and contextual influences shape reading and interpretation and seeks to engage with how subjectivities affects pedagogical perspective, which negates a singular approach to linguistic and cultural representations and their interpretation. The research suggests that the complexities of negotiating meaning cross-culturally necessitiates relationship building with community members of the culture represented in a text and that engaging with code-switching in dual language texts using construal inquiry as a decolonizing pedagogy offers an opportunity to transform one's own subjectivity.

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