The purpose of this study is to examine how women’s reading of the Harry Potter books can be understood on the basis of gender theory and reader-response criticism. The empirical data is gathered through qualitative interviews with six female Harry Potter readers between the age of 21 and 35, and is analyzed through several theories regarding gender and reading. The results show that the readers are critical towards many aspects of the books, especially when it comes to the stereotyped depiction of women and men. The books are said to reproduce the gender dichotomy, the gender hierarchy and the heteronormativity in society. At the same time, the readers deeply appreciate many aspects of the books. Not only are these positive opinions more than the negative ones, they also deal with the same things to a great extent. For example, the books are said to also challenge gender dichotomy, gender hierarchy and heteronormativity in many respects. The results further show that the readers oppose the books’ negative aspects, including the gender stereotypes, by their interpretations, ideas of heroes and identification during the reading. Finally, the study shows that the books serve several important functions for the readers, for example resistance to and compensation for the gender order. The study’s conclusions are that women’s reading of the Harry Potter books can be seen as an active transaction between reader, text and society, where the negative aspects are compensated by the positive parts of the reading experience. This means that the gender order affects, but does not determine, the women’s reading of these books.

The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to investigate issues concerning librarians’ view on three genres, (a) popular literature for women, (b) popular literature for men and (c) erotic literature, when choosing what to buy for their libraries. A qualitative method has been used and the empery consists of seven qualitative interviews with altogether eight librarians involved in choosing and buying literature. The theoretical framework is built on theories regarding concepts of hegemony and cultural hegemony; the male sex as norm; taste culture and quality. The results show that three of the libraries in the study have a written purchase policy and that the policies that exist are very general. Guiding elements when buying literature are quality, objectivity, diversity and availability. Many of the informants use the library service-lists when choosing what to buy, whilst others try to get away from this for economic reasons. The informants often get proposals from the library visitors. In the cases when they reject suggestions, it is often due to racist, offending, violent or narrow-minded content. All of the informants try to keep a quality perspective when choosing literature. Popular literature is bought as a consequence to high demand, but sometimes it is rejected on grounds of low quality. Earlier, several writers of the romance-genre have been rejected but are accepted nowadays. Popular literature for men is commonly bought and many of the informants confirm that they have been more liberal when buying this genre compared to love novels. Erotic literature was present in all libraries except one, and was bought on grounds of good reviews or for being classics. The study shows that erotic literature is not bought if it is regarded too violent, humiliating or of low quality. Humiliation and violence is accepted to a higher degree if it takes part in an erotic classic compared to a newer book of a less known author.

Swedish studies concerning children’s reading habits show that detective stories have become more popular in recent years. The aim of this bachelor’s thesis is to examine how the gender system is described in four detective stories written for children at the age of 9 to 13 years. Our main question is: How is the gender system reflected in the four selected detective stories for children? We also pose the question: How are femininity and masculinity described? Our study is based on three theories. First, Yvonne Hirdman’s theory about the gender system, primarily the two basic principles: the logic of the separation of the sexes, the dichotomy, and the logic of the male norm, the hierarchy. Secondly, the theory that claims literature to be a reflection of society, presented by the Sociology of Literature. And finally, Maria Nikolajeva’s theory that the sexes are described as opposites in literature. Our used method is text analysis. We have constructed several analysing questions that we have applied to the texts. Our results are not unambiguous; we can observe a lot of stereotype gender patterns but also more equal descriptions when it comes to the dichotomy, the hierarchy and the descriptions of femininity and masculinity. A conclusion that might be drawn is that literature is a reflection of the society where the consciousness of gender issues has increased. / Uppsatsnivå: C

I approach the subject of adult readers of young adult fiction through an analytical framework influenced by Cultural Studies, implicating that young adult fiction is caught up in a system of distinction between popular literature and high literature. I contrast this with theories that suggest that there has been a loosening of this hierarchy and that they now coexist, even borrowing features from one another. I also examine questions of ideology, namely the ideology of mass culture, the ironical attitude and the ideology of populism. I also use Andreas Huyssen’s theory of mass culture as a woman, seeing as popular literature often tends to be categorized with feminine traits. The empirical data is gathered through interviews and blogs, and the result gives us a complex image, where we can see both a quite strict hierarchy between high and low, as well as a loosening of this hierarchy. The informants all use the ideology of mass culture and the ideology of populism, which shows that seemingly opposing ideologies can coexist within the same individual. The informants also impose the characterization of young adult fiction as a woman, and many of them try to raise its low status. The result also shows that a discourse of age is working, a discourse that limits what is appropriate for an adult to read, and within this discourse there is little room for young adult fiction. But the main conclusion however is that the hierarchical system at least is beginning to lose its firm hold, which gives the individual greater potential to combine high and low.

The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to investigate the female reader of science fiction literature, a genre by tradition dominated by men. Through qualitative interviews with seven female science fiction readers, the relation between the reading and the readers’ lives, as well as their concepts of the science fiction genre and the community of science fiction readers, was examined. The main theoretical framework used for the analysis was Yvonne Hirdman’s gender theory, Judith Butler’s concept of identity and Louise M. Rosenblatt’s transaction theory. Science fiction literature offers the female readers an opportunity to consider ethical and political issues, but it also gives them entertainment and experiences beyond the ordinary. Even though science fiction generally is described as progressive, the female readers often find it stereotyped in its gender representations. Being a woman reading science fiction means being an outsider in the science fiction community, as well as to women in general. The choice to read science fiction is therefore highly conscious, reflecting the respondents’ identities and their views of themselves as independent, open-minded and intellectual individuals.

This master thesis deals with the Nobel Prize and highbrow culture as portrayed in Karin Alvtegen’s Skugga. From a sociology of literature perspective, it aims to analyze how these highbrow themes can be understood in relation to Alvtegen’s position in the literary field as a lowbrow crime novelist. The method used is hermeneutic, and the analysis is based on two theoretical models: Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural sociology, and the postmodern tradition where the distinction high/low and its traditional hierarchy is said to be decomposed. The analysis shows how Alvtegen gets inscribed in a detective genre she doesn’t really fit into, which is of great importance for our understanding and reading of Skugga. In relation to the history of the detective genre, this essay explains how Alvtegen uses both the whodunit’s integrating of highbrow symbols, as well as the social critique frequently used in more recent crime fiction. The conclusions drawn are that Alvtegen’s use of highbrow symbols illustrates the literary field, while they also discuss her own position on the very same field – text and context here operates closely intertwined. The highbrow theme in Skugga functions as both a dissociation from as well as a rapprochement to highbrow culture, while it also criticizes a contemporary commercialized culture. The Nobel Prize here plays a significant role, as it has become a highbrow symbol known to everybody. Skugga illustrates that intertextual markers in our contemporary post-modern culture is transformed in both directions in the cultural hierarchy – which doesn’t mean that it has vanished.

The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to investigate if there might be a possiblecorrelation between young women´s fascination with the vampire narrative andtheir search for identity in the late modern age. With the help of contemporarysociological studies in the field of the late modern man and today’s youth culture,I’ve chosen to do qualitative interviews with eight young women in order to examinehow today’s society affects their process of identification. Lately we’ve been ableto see an enormous interest for books that deal with the vampire saga, and while thereaders are mostly young females, it brought me to ask the question why the combinationof teenage drama and vampires seems to be such a winning concept.We live in a time where most young females experience a lot of pressure trying to addup to the demands of society, and as the media keep producing images of youngwomen being thin and looking like supermodels, most teenagers feel a lot of pressureand anxiety trying to live up to such unnatural ideals that in the long run might lead tovarious health issues and eating disorders.As a result of this thesis I’ve found that the vampire narrative answers to some ofthe existential needs we have as members of a late modern society. I’ve also discoveredthat most young women tend to seek comfort in subcultures that deal directlywith vampiric imagery as refuge from the demands of society. However, the identifycationwith vampires and their heroines isn’t something one should encourage since itcan be seen as a form of escapism making most women alienate themselves fromsociety while constructing an identity that is mostly based on otherness. Though thesubculture community does offer some relief from the restraints of society, as mystudies have shown, and aid most young women in their identity making, it is stillimportant to underline the fact that they cannot fully escape from the demands ofsociety since they are, as it is, a member of it. / Program: Bibliotekarie

Syftet med denna studie är att få en ökad kunskap om lärares erfarenheter av användandet av populärlitteratur i gymnasieskolans litteraturundervisning inom ämnet svenska, med särskilt fokus på elevers läsutveckling. För att uppnå syftet används tre frågeställningar: Hur kan populärlitteratur gynna gymnasieelevers läsutveckling? Hur används populärlitteratur i gymnasieskolans undervisning? Vad innebär begreppet populärlitteratur för lärare? Genom halvstrukturerade intervjuer med fem lärare på tre olika skolor i Sverige kan studiens syfte uppnås och frågeställningarna besvaras. Studiens resultat analyseras och diskuteras sedan utifrån syfte, frågeställningar, studiens bakgrund och relevant teori. Studiens teoretiska ram är det sociokulturella perspektivet. Resultatet av studien visar att lärare anser att populärlitteratur kan gynna gymnasieelevers läsutveckling och speciellt framhålls elever med svenska som andraspråk. Med hjälp av scaffolding kan eleverna arbeta med läsuppgifter inom sin proximala utvecklingszon och på så sätt nå kunskapsmålen. Vidare visar resultaten att populärlitteratur används i gymnasieskolans undervisning, bland annat genom boksamtal och rollspel samt att lärarna har individuella förklaringar till vad populärlitteratur är. Vidare värderar lärarna begreppet populärlitteratur på delvis olika sätt. / <p>Svenska</p>

<p><strong>Bakgrund: </strong>Populärlitteratur har traditionellt inte haft någon stark ställning i svenskundervisningen. Detta har på senare tid ändrats till att populärlitterära romaner mycket väl kan förekomma som läsmaterial. Populärlitteratur är emellertid ett svårdefinierat begrepp, och studiens utgångspunkt är att även livsstilsmagasin ska räknas till populärlitteraturens sfär. För att kunna använda dessa texter i en undervisningssituation krävs att läraren vet vad dessa tidningar innehåller. Fokus i studien ligger dels på populärkulturens roll i samhället, dels på livsstilsmagasinens roll i populärkulturen.</p><p><strong>Syfte:</strong> Syftet med studien är att undersöka innehållet i ett antal livsstilsmagasin samt den bild av samhället de ger uttryck för. Vidare utforskar vi det språk som används i livsstilsmagasinen och vilket värde livsstilsmagasin skulle kunna ha i svenskundervisningen.</p><p><strong>Metod:</strong> Metoden som använts är Foucaultinspirerad diskursanalys som tillämpats på ett antal livsstilsmagasin. Vi stöder oss främst på teorier om populärkultur och genusteori. De livsstilsmagasin som valdes ut till studien är de som läses mest av ungdomar i 13-19 års ålder enligt SIFOs undersökning 2009.</p><p><strong>Resultat: </strong>Livsstilsmagasin beskylls ofta för att vara ytliga. Vi hävdar att de har ett budskap som ofta förbises och att livsstilsmagasinen både avslöjar och upprätthåller de rådande normerna i samhället. Bland annat syns i livsstilsmagasinen att det finns strikta regler för vad som kan skrivas i dem. Dessutom bidrar magasinen till att förstärka stereotyper och uppmuntrar till konsumtion. Livsstilsmagasinens syn på relationen mellan kvinnor och män är traditionell med kvinnan underordnad mannen. Detta gör livsstilsmagasin till värdefulla och intressanta texter att använda i svenskundervisningen som underlag för analys och diskussion.</p>

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