The purpose of this thesis is to analyse how the books The Case for God and 12 Steps to a Compassionate Life by the historian Karen Armstrong has been discussed and debated in swedish mass media. Very few academics in the discipline of the history of religions has had such a broad public success as Karen Armstrong, and it is therefore important to acknowledge how major themes and issues in her writings are discussed on the public arena. With the aid of reception theory developed by Hans Robert Jauss and by Stuart Hall, I present three conclusions about the mass media reception of The Case for God and 12 Steps to a Compassionate Life. First of all, I show that the reception of the two books by Armstrong is dependent on differences in expectations and experiences, and that it is possible to spot and acknowledge these differences in the actual texts that make up the reception. Second, I give evidence to how central binary constructions in the arguments put forward by Armstrong are used and developed upon in the reception. Third, I demonstrate how differences in perceptions about Karen Armstrong as a person plays a major part in the reception, and that Armstrong herself is an active part in the construction of her own media image.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-384640 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Hannfors, Henrik |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Religionshistoria |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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