This master thesis is aiming to find out how school libraries work towards children in school years 1-6. The mainfocus is how the school librarians and teachers work with literature and reading. The theoretical viewpoints aremainly the sociocultural theory and the child perspective.The study was conducted with participants from five different schools in Uppsala, in the form of qualitativesemi-structured interviews. The results show that schools work with literature first and foremost in a pragmaticway, with reading-strategies and activating discussions. Very little time is spent on reading for its own sake.

The aim of this thesis is to expand the understanding of 16th century Flemish art by approaching paintings by artists Pieter Aertsen (1508-1575), Joachim Beuckelaer (1533-1574) and Pieter Bruegel (c. 1525-1569) from a different perspective. This is done by extending the discourse of art history, into a discourse of literary history and primarily 16th century novels by authors such as François Rabelais and Miguel de Cervantes. The paintings are studied in relation to these 16th century novels, by comparison and as a testament of this specific time period. A widening contextualization is also constructed in which a connection to the expression of the carnivals ambivalent form, as well as the notion of lower classes is explored.

The aim of this thesis is to expand the understanding of 16th century Flemish art by approaching paintings by artists Pieter Aertsen (1508-1575), Joachim Beuckelaer (1533-1574) and Pieter Bruegel (c. 1525-1569) from a different perspective. This is done by extending the discourse of art history, into a discourse of literary history and primarily 16th century novels by authors such as François Rabelais and Miguel de Cervantes. The paintings are studied in relation to these 16th century novels, by comparison and as a testament of this specific time period. A widening contextualization is also constructed in which a connection to the expression of the carnivals ambivalent form, as well as the notion of lower classes is explored.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att utröna vilka genusnormer som förekommer inom det skoldiskursiva fältet och huruvida skönlitteratur är en del i detta. Utgångspunken i min uppsats är att genuskodat språk inverkar på flickors och pojkars möjliga språkutveckling och identitetsskapande. De frågor som ställdes var: Uppfyller dessa texter de krav som läroplanen ställer på att ge flickor och pojkar stimulans i den språkliga utvecklingen oberoende av kön, vilka beskrivningar av genus återfinns i de skönlitterära böckerna samt har de i böckerna ingående karaktärerna olika handlingsmöjligheter och egenskaper ur ett genusperspektiv? Genom en diskursanalys av sex skönlitterära böcker läst av en år 4 har jag utkristalliserat de meningar som beskriver pojk- respektive flickprotagonister. En intervju med läraren gjordes för att ringa in hur dessa elever valt sin litteratur.

This study examines how the American comic book industry?s output is addressing the issue of Islam and in which manner the portrayal of Islam in the great American comic book universes have changed since 2001. The comic books are examined from the postcolonial perspective as formulated by Chandra Mohanty and the power and resistance-perspective as formulated by Michel Foucault. Examination of the comic books reveals far greater focus on universal values, orthopraxy and inclusive perspectives than it does on dogmatic teachings, orthodoxy and sectarianism while at the same time partly relying on generalizations and archetypes concerning Islam. To change the power balance requires what I call intervention from the objective, that is to say that ambiguity regarding Muslim characters has to be eliminated by the narrative.

The Sami people are a national minority in Sweden, but are also considered as native citizens of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia. The world has however a very limited knowledge about the Sami?s and their cultural background.The aim of this proposal is to examine six different history schoolbooks which depict the Sami people in Sweden. In addition, one of the key elements of this proposal is to understand how the selected literature represents the Sami people.Lastly, the proposal also seeks to review if the literature in the schoolbooks represents the elementary curriculum goals (Lpo94).The selected method was to do a text analysis of the literature and to illustrate that is presented in the reviewed schoolbooks. The text analysis is completed with an analysis of the illustrations and pictures that are presented in the selected schoolbooks.The key findings were that the review in majority of schoolbooks has stereotypical descriptions of the Sami people. The Sami people are generally depicted with the hut and the reindeer management in majority of the reviewed schoolbooks.The research about the Sami people is inappreciable in majority of the reviewed literature. In addition, the Sami people are often presented in connection with ?other? history, such as the silver ore in the mines or the territory dispute with settlers from the south of Sweden.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine library users experience encountering exposed literature. Shops and stores expose the products they most of all want to sell, a kind of marketing strategy that influences our inclination to buy. By conducting a quantitative study, at two minor public libraries, and using theories from the marketing area this thesis intended to investigate the subject further. Eighty library visitors, between age 10 and XX filled out a questionnaire asking how the users experience or register exposed literature and what makes users borrow or not borrow exposed literature. The respondents find exposed literature helpful in directing them to new interesting suggestions of books they otherwise wouldn?t have borrowed.

The purpose of this study was to find out what different groups of visitors do when they are at Borås City Library. Three issues were formulated from the purpose and they were: What do users do when they visit the City Library in Borås? What occupations do those who visit the library have? What similarities and differences are there in the use of the library depending on the visitors? occupations? To answer these questions a questionnaire was handed out among the visitors at Borås City Library. The theory that was used when the material was analyzed comes from the book?Gør biblioteket en forskel?? and the book is written by Henrik Jochumsen and Casper Hveneegaard Rasmussen.

The aim of this study has been to, through a couple of chosen theories, examine in what way Japan as a nation can be said to have dealt with its dark past - concerning their crimes of war just before and during World War II. To do so, I have placed two chosen war crimes, namely the Nanjing Massacre and the matter of the Comfort Women, in the context of remembrance and commemorating of war, through different kinds of aspects. Those aspects are: the textbook conflict, official apologies, ruthless/unnecessary comments, and visits and commemorations at the Yasukuni shrine.I have found during this study that the nation of Japan has not been able to generate a broadly accepted dominant cultural memory of the war. Henceforth a couple of rival cultural memories are competing and becoming an issue of national division rather than national unity. I have come to the knowledge that there are both domestic and international political factors at play, resulting in this division..

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine subject positions of masculinity in the fantasy novels by Michael Moorcock, spanning from the sixties to the present. Questions are: Which positions of masculinity dominate in four fantasy works by Michael Moorcock? How do these positions differ from each other or are there similarities? Do they strengthen or undermine the hegemonic masculinity? How do these positions of masculinity relate to historic configurations of masculinity? In order to find feasible answers to these questions I have used a theoretical and methodological approach rooted in the sociology of literature, mens studies and discourse analysis. Different masculinities are defined as subject positions. The hegemonic masculinity is defined as the image of masculinity that dominate and that every man has to relate to, in one way or another.

This thesis sets out to examine how feminist struggle can be negotiated, defined and motivated. By using Oral history as a theoretical and methodological framework, three persons narrative are being constructed, explored and discussed throughout the thesis. All the interviewees define themselves as women and feminists and have all practised music in different separatist rock and pop-groups from 1970 to present. Themes as music as political action, and separatism for persons who define themselves as women are discussed. The tree informants agree about some feministic goals such as equality and the right to be able to play and perform music regardless of gender identity, although the means to reach these goals are formulated differently. .

This essay in Art History treats the former Central Post Office in Gothenburg, Sweden, and its recent transformation into a luxury hotel. The magnificent original building in neo-classical style, inaugurated in 1925, has been supplemented by a twelve stories high tower in postmodern style containing hotel rooms and suites, creating a complex architecture. The approach of this essay is that of ?lived architecture?, that is, how people experience and act in relation to the building. It is argued that the history of the building is rewritten in the marketing of the hotel and the management?s concept of creating a comfortable ?mini-world?for its guests.

The purpose of this master's thesis is to describe and analyse the origin and development of the library of Workers´ Educational Association in the community of Oskarström. This library is special because the organisation run it much longer than usual, until 1977, and to find an answer to why, we have the following questions: Why does the library of Workers´ Educational Association start their activity in Oskarström, and how does it develop, in relation to premises, librarians, financing, the stock of books and the numbers of books out on loan? What is the reason that the library in Oskarström is municipalized as late as 1977? The methods we use are hermeneutics and evaluation of the sources. The library is founded in 1914 and become important for the workers. Important sources of income are the subventions given by the state, municipality and other associations.

The main objective of this paper has been to construct a way to measure the level of social capital in a society. Based on a theory which describes the ideal society have I herein tried to find out to what extent the Swedish and Danish communities correspond to this model. The theoretical foundation consist of several different levels of analysis, and I have indeed found there to be consideral differences between the two nations on these different levels. The paper however conclude that these differences even out to add up to a Social Capital Index that is remarkably similar. A result which is to be interpreted as one nation being about as close to the ideal situation from a social capital point-of-view as the other..

The aim of this thesis is to expand the understanding of 16th century Flemish art by approaching paintings by artists Pieter Aertsen (1508-1575), Joachim Beuckelaer (1533-1574) and Pieter Bruegel (c. 1525-1569) from a different perspective. This is done by extending the discourse of art history, into a discourse of literary history and primarily 16th century novels by authors such as François Rabelais and Miguel de Cervantes. The paintings are studied in relation to these 16th century novels, by comparison and as a testament of this specific time period. A widening contextualization is also constructed in which a connection to the expression of the carnivals ambivalent form, as well as the notion of lower classes is explored.