The aim of this study is to analyse the sexual power relations in contemporary urban Novels of Swedish female writers.I have identified a discourse in these Novels as a heteronormative matrix which power is ruled by norms and assumptions about normality in both the heterosexual and lesbian stories. For this purpose I have related to Ivar B. Neumanns theory that individuals always find a way to confront the discourse by three different strategies. These strategies are used in my study as tools to organise these Novels, because it is possible to see that the protagonists find at least one of these strategy?s to her protest.The first strategy I studied was the docile.

The purpose of this study is to analyze how homosexuality is portrayed in young- adult Novels. I use books published in Sweden from 1977- 2003. Three of the books have female main characters and the other three have male main characters. My purpose is therefore to compare the different results between the sexes.I will examine and discuss the homosexuality in the Novels with focus on the homosexual identity of the young characters and how it is formed. I relate the results to a queer discussion about identity.

The aim of this study is to examine marriage as something both desirable and normal in three popular Novels from the 1860s about marriage: Rosa Carlén?s Agnes Tell: en äktenskapshistoria (1860), Marie Sophie Schwartz?s Alma eller De moderna äktenskapen (1860) and Sara Pfeiffer?s Aurora Trampe (1867). Using a theoretical perspective from Michel Foucault and Judith Butler, I have analysed the Novels as being producers of, and resistance against, norms.The good marriage is partly depicted as a utopian vision in the Novels, which therefore functions as fantasies for the readers. But it is also depicted as a realistic possibility. Though difficult to achieve, the main characters reach the goal through individual improvement towards correct behaviour.The question for the main characters is not whether they are going to marry or not, but how to make their marriages good ones.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine how the image of the girl and her environment in the Swedish youth literature has changed during the 1980s to the 2000s. We have focused on how the girls creates gender in fiction. The introduction chapter in this essay covers a short history over Swedish youth literature and how the Swedish youth culture has developed, followed by a description of how the girl in the real world relates to gender. The books we have chosen are written by Swedish authors and the plot partakes in Sweden with female protagonists. We decided to do a close-reading of the Novels and analyse them by an analytical model, consisting of several questions.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine if the realistic youth Novels of today can provide support and inspiration for its readers with the purpose of dealing with own difficulties. I have examined four Swedish Novels from 2006 and studied in what way and from whom the young fictive women get advice and support. In the background section of the essay I have made studies of how it is to be a young woman in modern society. It also covers a historical perspective of the modern youth novel and presents studies based upon reading and reader-response theory of young people.

Lucie Lagerbielke (1865-1931) is a fairly unknown writer who lived and worked in Stockholm. All her life she was writing with a strong aim to tell her truth and she had an aspiration to change the world for the better.  Her main points of views in her authorship were; oneness, the power of love, a belief in a supreme purpose to be served, religious mysticism and the interest in understanding and to prove the transcendent on a scientific basis. In my discussion I relate to Rita Felski and her expression the popular sublime, a term she applies to illustrate a sublime way of writing that was common in women popular fiction in the late nineteenth-century. This romantic literature with escapist tendencies was popular among the ordinary readers but very seldom met with success with the professional critics.Focus in this BA thesis is the spiritual Lagerbielke and in what way she wants to change the society. I have analyzed two of her Novels, Daniel- ett lifsöde and En sällsam upplefvelse with intention to examine how she used her Novels to plead for her cause.By making such an analysis I come to the conclusion that both her Novels have the purpose to emphasize her philosophy of life.

The aim of this study is to compare the modernist Novels Astarte (1931) by the Swedish writer Karin Boye with Estación, Ida y vuelta (1930) by the Spanish author Rosa Chacel and the reception of these literary works in contemporary academic research. The theoretical ground of the study consists of feminist and critical theory, with traits of discourse analysis.Astarte and Estación were in large part forgotten and ignored by the Western Canon of literature during most of the 20th century, but have lately gained more attention as important modernist Novels by researchers (from the feminist, poststructuralist or hermeneutic theoretical fields) who primarily examine the experimental forms figured by the texts in relation to the deconstruction and shattering of human homogenous ?essence?.The results found in the study show that the literary forms of both Novels can be associated with a kind of illusion rapture, which relate to the modernist inclination to what Frederic Jameson calls artificial narrative; a form technique that points back at itself to emphasize its own characteristic of being a constructed and subjective illustration of reality. The contemporary interest in these artificial literary forms expressed by Astarte and Estación is therefore probably a consequence of the vibrant academic debates carried out during later decades concerning the conception of human gender and identity as construction and performance. .

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to examine the portrayals of class in four Swedish contemporary Novels that have been mentioned as working class literature in the literary public sphere. During the 20th century, society has undergone vast changes due to globalization and technology development. The rise in standards of living for most people in the Western societies has led to changed consumption patterns. In consequence, there has been increased emphasis given to cultural rather than materialist explanations of social stratification.

There can be a gap between the author and the reader. This gap is especially remarkable when the author is an adult and the reader is a young person. The librarian has an important role as an intermediary of literature when it comes to selecting literature for young people. From this perspective the purpose of this paper has been to investigate how young people comprehend the problems and the stories of youth Novels, first published in 2001, and to investigate to what extent descriptions of problems occur in this literature and what kind of problems that are described. The investigation consists of three parts: an examination of reviews of youth Novels written by editors from Bibliotekstjänst and an examination of a number of youth to examine a number of youth Novels that have been read, and sixteen interviews with college students in the first and third grade have also been done.

This thesis is a study of spatial practice and literary depictions of homes in Novels by Elsie Johansson, Kerstin Thorvall and Kristina Sandberg. The theoretical perspective is based on Henri Lefebvre´s view on social space, and on the concept of spatial practice. Research questions are: What homes are depicted? How does spatial practice function in the texts? How does the depictedspatial practice relate to norms and ideals?The Novels, published 1993-2014, depict an interesting period in Swedish history (cirka 1920-1970) when politics and society at large was deeply involved in reshaping the homes and lives of Swedish citizens. The aim was to turn the citizens into new, healthy and rational parts of the new and rational society.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how contemporary attitudes towards death andsexuality is made visible and connected in the vampire Novels Interview with the Vampire andDead Until Dark. The aim is to investigate why the vampire novel has reached today?samount of popularity and if it can be explained by theories of death and sexuality in modernsociety and in popular culture.The most important theories in this examination are Zygmunt Bauman?s theories aboutmodern society, Jean Baudrillard?s thoughts about death in the postmodernity and MichelFoucault?s studies regarding sexuality in the Western societies. The conclusion presented isthat sexuality and death are well connected in the examined Novels and in popular culture as awhole and death?s popularity in popular culture could be a result of repressed emotionsregarding death and sorrow, which can be helped by us working on handle death more visiblyand with higher regard..

The aim of this Master's thesis is to study how generational identities are conveyed in the reception of two debut Novels, Jack by Ulf Lundell and Allt by Martina Lowden. Both Novels have been considered literary and social expressions of their generations. The empirical material consists of 14 reviews in Swedish daily press from the time of publication of Jack and Allt, respectively. The thesis revolves around the following questions: How is the generational identity defined in terms of lifestyle practices, milieus and other social circumstances? To what extent are structured factors such as gender and class considered? How are the critics considering the reflexive project of the self? I base the theoretical framework on Anthony Giddens' theories about identity creation in the late modern society.

In this essay, I make a queer feminist analysis of four Novels written by the Swedish author Sigge Stark. The Novels are: Uggleboet, Manhatareklubben, Cirkus Demonio och Baskerflickan. Using Judith Butler's theories I examine the relations between sex/gender and sexuality in the four books and show how the construction of gender is performed and the heterosexual normativity is jeopardized. I also examine whether, and if so how, Sigge Stark uses the romantic and the gothic genres to include transcending gender identities and sexualities in her work. The essay also includes a contextualisation of her prerequisities as an author and the necessity in performing a critical analysis of mass produced romantic literature..

This study focuses on romantic friendship between women in three Swedish Novels written between 1836 and 1857: Sophie von Knorring?s (1797?1848) Illusionerna (1836), Fredrika Bremer?s (1801?1865) En dagbok (1843) and Marie Sophie Schwartz? (1819?1894) En fåfäng mans hustru (1857). Also, the connection between women and passion as well as the interesting occurrence of step- and foster mothers is looked upon in the study.The romantic friendship is freely expressed in these Novels; love between women is neither presented as unnatural or unchaste. It both challenges the heterosexual matrix? claim on intelligibility and its rules for how desire should be expressed.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to examine the debate concerning Agnes von Krusenstjernas Fröknarna von Pahlen-Novels from a ideological analytic perspective. This debate came to be called The Krusenstjerna feud Krusenstjernafejden and was most intensive in the years 1934-35 after Porten vid Johannes and Älskande par had been published. We examine 8 articles using a text analytic method. We have limited ourselves to public material that is available in Swedish press and Swedish magazines. Our ambition is, through this, to determine the articles authors political point of view and ideas of preference.