Den här uppsatsen har sitt fokus på identitet inom skönlitteraturen och jag har studerat tvåskönlitterära texter. De texter som har analyserats är en roman av Jonas Hassen Khemiri och ennovell av Alejandro Leiva Wenger där olika uttryck för identitet har studerats och identifieratsmed diskursanalys. Huvudfrågorna har varit hur identitetsfrågor och relaterade fenomenkommer till uttryck i texterna och med vilka medel författarna skildrar dem. Detsammanfattande resultatet visar att litteraturen skildrar identitetsarbetet som i form av dialogmed ett inre jag och i form av kampen mot omvärlden. Litteraturen ger en mängd olikatolkningsmöjligheter och diskussionsunderlag till frågor om identitet.

<p>The aim of this essay is to examine the attitudes towards publication of short stories, carried by the employees of Bokförlaget Forum, a randomly chosen Swedish publishing house. The study seeks to investigate the causes behind and consequences of the attitudes, as well as their generality. Through qualitative interviews, carried out with five of the company’s employees, the short story is defined as a problematic genre, mainly due to its low commercial success. The conclusions drawn from the interviews are put into a historical perspective, where the developments of the short story-genre, as well as that of the modern Swedish book market, are discussed. By putting Forum into the context of Pierre Bourdieu’s theories about cultural fields, the company’s behaviour in connection to the short story is further analyzed. The main finding of the study is that the Swedish short story of today is viewed as a difficult, high qualitative literary genre. A commercial publishing house like Forum therefore has an impossible task when trying to win success by launching short stories. Due to the genre’s low expected gains the publishers of Forum only accept short story manuscripts with an extremely high literary quality, and thus reinforces the role of the short story as a “difficult” genre. The study defines this profile as the consequence of a combination of increased commercialism and dislocation of power in the book market, altered publishing conditions for short stories, and an experimental literary label that clings on.</p>

The aim of this essay is to examine the attitudes towards publication of short stories, carried by the employees of Bokförlaget Forum, a randomly chosen Swedish publishing house. The study seeks to investigate the causes behind and consequences of the attitudes, as well as their generality. Through qualitative interviews, carried out with five of the company’s employees, the short story is defined as a problematic genre, mainly due to its low commercial success. The conclusions drawn from the interviews are put into a historical perspective, where the developments of the short story-genre, as well as that of the modern Swedish book market, are discussed. By putting Forum into the context of Pierre Bourdieu’s theories about cultural fields, the company’s behaviour in connection to the short story is further analyzed. The main finding of the study is that the Swedish short story of today is viewed as a difficult, high qualitative literary genre. A commercial publishing house like Forum therefore has an impossible task when trying to win success by launching short stories. Due to the genre’s low expected gains the publishers of Forum only accept short story manuscripts with an extremely high literary quality, and thus reinforces the role of the short story as a “difficult” genre. The study defines this profile as the consequence of a combination of increased commercialism and dislocation of power in the book market, altered publishing conditions for short stories, and an experimental literary label that clings on.

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This master thesis aims to identify and interpret alienation-related situations in two novels by the German-Romanian author Herta Müller, "The Land of Green plums" (Herztier) and ''The Appointment" (Heute wär ich mir nicht lieber begegnet). The events presented in the novels take place during the time of the communist dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania, with some references to the time before the Second World War. Alienation is considered a central theme in both novels. The thesis uses the six dimensions of alienation as described by the American sociologist Melvin Seeman (University of California), and is based on the following research questions: 1) What literary descriptions of alienation-related situations can be found in Herta Müller’s two novels?; and 2) How do these literary descriptions emphasize the concept of alienation as defined in Melvin Seeman’s theory? In analyzing the novels, two aspects were taken into account: 1) what kind of society the protagonist lives in; and 2) what types of situations highlight the protagonist’s alienation. The process of identification and evaluation of texts describing alienation-related situations are based on a mixed method of thematic and biographic text analysis. The method of interpreting a written text rest on hermeneutics as described by Hans Georg Gadamer. The thesis identifies several descriptions of alienation-related situations in both novels. These situations are all various expressions of the protagonists’ experiences of living in a non-democratic society. Most of them relate to extreme situations causing fear and anxiety to the protagonists. The thesis studies the relationship between protagonists and society. The protagonists describe not only their own police interrogations, but also those of their friends. Alienation is also represented in the childhood memories of the protagonists.

This thesis aims to investigate the role of literature in the Ugandan society. It uses Bourdieus field theory and the book The Rules of Art to analyze a handful of interviewes with people on different positions on the literary field in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. The interviews were collected by the author of this thesis in the beginning of 2015. The thesis examines the overall conditions on the literature market, the hierarchies and the character of the literature. In addition to field theory, it uses post-colonial theory, and Ngûgî Wa Thiong'os' Decolonising the mind to investigate the languages and styles of the literature.  To investigate the literature outside of the educated circles and intellectual spheres, the concept of the literature as merely printed and publicated needs to be questioned, since there is also an existing body of oral literature in the country. Amongst the actors on the literature field there is an ambition for the literature to be a progressive force in the society. However the study shows that hierarchies on the literature field pushes the written and publicated literature further away from the general person. This also due to the limitations of the written literature, since the possibilities to access the literature is highly dependant on the income, literacy and educational level of the receiver.

The aim of this Master’s thesis is to examine boys’/young men’s forming of masculinity and gender identity and how discussions around gender stereotypes and conceptions represents themselves in contemporary youth novels. Gender theory based upon R.W. Connell’s theoretical framework which discusses masculinities in plural is used. The theory helps to analyse forming and change in gender patterns and masculinities. The method used is idea analysis and my supply for analyse is constructed on the basis of Connell’s four ideal types. The main question is: How is forming of masculine identity illustrated in contemporary youth literature and how does this image position towards conceptions of gender stereotypes? The material comprises eight novels published in Sweden 2005 and 2006. The selection of material is made from the internet source www.boktips.net a cooperation between public libraries in Sweden, coordinated by the Swedish Arts Council (Kulturrådet) and Västra Götaland Regional Library (Regionbibliotek Västra Götaland). The investigation reveals the complexity and the main characters’ ambivalence in forming of masculinity. Gender stereotypes and discussions occur in the material often in relations to body and appearance. The results distinguishes from earlier research were the homosocial relations appeared as a significant component for forming of masculine identity. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to examine how the gender system is described in chick lit. The analysis is based upon seven chick lit novels. The primary theoretical point of departure is Yvonne Hirdman’s theory about the gender system, the hierarchical order and the separation of the sexes. Also Carin Holmberg’s theory about how gender is constructed and the asymmetrical role taking among young couples and Anna G. Jónasdóttir’s theory about the distribution of love power in relationships are part of the theoretical framework. The method used is a textual analysis. A model of analysis has been constructed based on the theoretical points of departure mentioned above. The themes of the model are the separation of the sexes, the creation and maintenance of the gender system and the asymmetrical role taking. The result shows that the gender system is very distinct in chick lit, which is shown in particular in the separation of the sexes and how the women’s self-esteem is depending on men’s approval, thus making women subordinate to men. The conclusion is that chick lit describes a traditional gender system where the hierarchical order of the sexes is evident. / Uppsatsnivå: D