The purpose of this text is to show how the mother motif is portrayed in four selected novels by Alfred Kämpe, but the thesis also serves the purpose of emphasizing the fact that the mother motif can be seen interacting with the class motif.This text will account for a new insight into the motifs in Alfred Kämpe?s Trälar. Known as one of the first authors to write in the genre of working-class literature in Sweden Kämpe?s texts provide motifs common for this genre such as class, identity and solidarity. As this thesis shows there is yet another motif that should be included among these typical Swedish working class literature motifs: the mother motive.

The aim of this essay is to see how various texts, both Swedish and foreign, have described the former Swedish colony of St. Bartholomew. The focus has been on the slaves on the colony, and here how they were treated and how the analyzed authors portray the slaves lives.The literature has been divided up into two different categories, based on when they were published. The distinction has been made by dividing them up into a contemporary cluster, that were published before the 1900?s, as opposed to the more recent literature, from after the 1900?s.

During the 21st century, Society has again begun to focus its attention on working class literature and on issues related to social class. In the media contemporary working class literature is often mentioned as a distinct phenomenon. I my view, the meaning of this phenomenon have not been adequately formulated. The aim of this Master?s Thesis is to reconstruct, using a discourse oriented text analysis, a picture of how the contemporary working class literature is described in today?s society.

This master thesis deals with reading and library habits among young male students at the vehicle engineering programme in an upper secondary school. Also their overall opinion of libraries has been looked into. For the completion of this study all of the 43 students in question took part in a questionnaire while 5 of them were interviewed. The result of this statistical survey complemented with more focused interviews show that at some time or another all the students read, but their preference lies within the news and engineering pages of daily newspapers and periodicals. Those who read books choose action and fantasy for content.

Thavenius (2009:23-122) and Dahl (1999:49-82) explains that literary education in school has gone from, in the 1800s, barely existed on receiving the fairly central location it has today. Fredriksson (2010:2-3) points out that there are several threats to the ancient writers and writings in danger of being forgotten. The purpose with this essay was to examine how to work with literary history in school, and whether and how to work with regional literature history. To fulfill the purpose of this paper three high school teacher in Swedish were interviewed.The survey shows that respondents working in various ways with the history of literature, either in the eras, themes or projects. The perception of what literature and the authors to be affected varies between respondents, particularly the perception of the work about authors from Värmland.

The purpose of this study is to examine how teachers and pupils experience the use of fictional literature as a tool for language development in the teaching of English as a foreign language. Through surveys and interviews and with Vygotsky?s theory on development in a social environment as a theoretical base, I examine which methods are used to promote language development and also which functions pupils and teachers consider fictional literature to have in the teaching of English. Results show that teachers consider fiction to be among the top methods to get pupils to learn English. Teachers and pupils both favour the use of fun and stimulating reading activities as well as group activities where learning is social to go along with the reading of fiction.

This study explores the selection processes regarding fictional literature in English as asecond language education. The aim is to illustrate the relationship between the knowledgeteachers seek to pass on to their students and how the governing documents and the Westernliterary canon affect which literature that is chosen. The study uses qualitative interviews withsix teachers from different gymnasial schools in Northern Sweden. The results show thatteachers use literature as a tool for teaching grammar, lexicon, language structure and storytellingskills. In the more advanced English courses, the teachers prefer to exert more controlover which literature is read, mainly due to the fact that the governing documents specificallyrequire a presence of older, culturally established works.

In this exam paper, a text analysis has been conducted in the context of ethnicity, examining the most popular library books borrowed by children between the ages of 9-12 years old. The bookshave been selected at two different libraries, located in two different socioeconomic areas. The aim is to examine whether ethnicity plays a role in the choice and content of literature in the two areas. The analysis takes into account class, sex and gender, all of which combine in the context of ethnicity. The framework within which I have based my questions are; In the context of ethnicity, is there a difference in the content of the most borrowed children's books at the two libraries located in areas of diverse socioeconomic background, is the choice of literature affected by the area in which library visitors live and is the content of the most borrowed books specific to what children is each particular area can identify with ? Having analysed the most popular books at both libraries, it has been concluded that there are differences in the two areas when it comes to children's choice of literature.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to investigate how librarians approach to the multicultural collection development and which methods they use in providing library materials in minority languages. The questions to be answered are: which methods the libraries use when purchasing library materials in minority languages, how the respondents experience that the minority user groups needs are met in the library and how the multicultural competence of the staff is used in the libraries. For this purpose the qualitative interviews with 6 librarians in Gothenburg are conducted, mainly from the libraries in the immigrant-dense parts of the city, while the study being concentrated on 6 language groups of library users. The study?s theoretical framework is based on theories of multiculturalism, culture, identity and bilingualism.

The purpose of this essay is to examine progression in user education atprimary and secondary school levels, specifically the role played byschool libraries, librarians and strategy documents in securingeducational progression. Progression is examined in the user educationprovided by the five schools, part of the same municipal schoolmanagement area which share the same strategy plan. The area, NorraFäladen, was awarded School Library of the Year in 2011 for its work,making it particularly interesting for this essay's purpose. The studycombines interviews with the area's three school librarians, who dividetheir time between the five schools, with an analysis of the strategydocuments that regulate user education within Norra Fäladen. Theanalytical framework is based on: AASL's model of progression in usereducation (Standards for the 21st-century learner); Ekström's model forsuccessful and active strategy documents; Kuhlthau's theory of thelibrarian's role in the information search process; and Limberg'staxonomy of the role of the school library.The study shows how a number of concurrent factors and prerequisitesinfluence how goals for progression in user education are met.

The main purpose of this Master´s thesis is to examine how Swedish librari-ans manage and relate to social problems within the service to young visitors. To reach understanding in this subject, qualitative interviews with six Swedish public librarians have been conducted. As a theoretical framework the ideas of interactions and identity have been used. These concepts together with attitude and behavior, form the theoreti-cal model upon which the analysis of the material is based. The outcome of the study shows that social problems exists and affect the library staff?s daily work.

The aim of this Master's thesis is to examine the theories and visions of five futuristic projects at children's libraries in Sweden and Denmark to investigate if these projects have approaches that are significantly different from today's best practices of the libraries and the current theories behind the children's sections.More specific questions are also asked:Are the projects taking advantage of the children's perspective or is it the adult vision of children's needs that is governing?Are the projects promoting collaborations with other actors, thereby facilitating a future development of the children's library by others than librarians?The comparisons reveal that new methods and tools are beeing developed, while the traditional ambitions and views on children and children's needs are essentially unchanged. The role of the library as a social room and meeting place has increased, while its role as a place for finding and transferring information has been challenged by Internet and home computers. The library can still compete as a public place offering relevant contents and assistance by attentive, well-educated adults.In conclusion, the futuristic projects are expected to promote greater variations between children's libraries, by presenting literature, media and information in many different and more innovative ways. Such greater diversity and multiplicity would allow the libraries to market themselves with a clearer message in order to compete with other (commercial) activities for children..

This text aims to examine how teaching in literature can contribute to the schools work with creating an antidiscriminating environment. When it comes to the Swedish schools antidiscrimination plans, this essay focuses especially on those sections that concerns pupils and student right to their own gender identity and expression.The main theories in this examination are Judith Butler?s theory on gender and performativity, queer theory defined by Fanny Ambjörnsson and theories concerning adolescent psychology with focus on the adolescent identity and it?s forming. Together with Mikhail Bakhtin?s carnival theory the text examines how Jessica Schiefauer?s novel Pojkarna (The Boys; 2012) describes a young adolescent girl?s journey to finding and forming her own gender and sexual identity.

This Master's thesis discusses the freedom of speech, the right to freedom of opinion and expression, freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas in the context of public libraries in Sweden. The scope of this thesis is to examine the acquisition and maintenance of the literature about the killing of Sweden's Prime Minister Olof Palme 1986. This literature will serve as an instrument to measure the extent to which Swedish public libraries adhere to the rules set by the Swedish parliament, United Nations' universal declaration of human rights article 19, UNESCO's public library manifesto and the principles of the Federation of Library Associations and Institutions..

The purpose of the present study is to investigate mindfulness as a New Age phenomenon in the modern western society. Since a religious phenomenon does not exist in a vacuum, but is dependent on its historical and cultural context, my aim is to give a broad depiction of mindfulness and New Age in its wider context, the historical background and the societal implications of common values, themes and concepts that are frequent in the literature, how mindfulness is presented by the authors of popular literature and also how it is presented in science. In order to bring forward a deeper understanding of New Age and mindfulness? role in the modern western society, my intention is to see how the authors of mindfulness claim validity of their doctrines in the discourse. Mindfulness attracts a wide range of perpetrators and is used in many areas in the society today.