Scholarly research on comical popular theatre is rare in the Swedish context even though the genre has attracted large audiences throughout the 20th century. Nils Poppe is one of the greatest Swedish actors in the comical genre and he is famous for his playful acting style. With my Master?s dissertation I aim to shed some light on both the genre and this great actor. Another aim of this Master?s dissertation is to gain understanding of what causes the audience?s laughter experiencing Nils Poppe?s comical acting.

The aim of this thesis is to accomplish a user study on how e-book users experience the electronic book, the e-book, as an instrument for reading fiction. The study is based upon qualitative interviews with twelve e-book users and a small survey carried out at the Stockholm City Library. The purpose is to identify the users' incentive for choosing the e-book as a medium for reading fiction, elucidate if and how the interface of the e-book affects the reading experience, and distinguish if there are any factors common to the users in their choice of reading e-books. How the users look upon the future of the e-book is also discussed. Among the people asked in the survey we note little if any demand for the e-book as an instrument for reading fiction.

This essay examines the narrative aspect of interactive fiction. The study uses Janet H. Murrays analysis of the digital environment and the properties of it as procedural, participatory, spatial and encyclopedic. From this, her three characteristic pleasures in digital narratives - immersion, agency and transformation - are examined from the perspective of interactive fiction. The study also examines Nick Montforts analysis of interactive fiction as a potential narrative and a simulated world or environment.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an idea about geography in literature and through the study of science fiction literature examine the ?future city?. With the perspective that the city is a social construction and through the use of discourse theory, I have tried to emphasize how the future city is a representation of cultural discourses and in what way geography in literature can be used to increase our understanding of urban places. My intention with this paper has also been to find a way to connect the fictional future city with today?s urban planning discussion about the future city.

The view on which kind of fiction that should be mediated to the public through the Swedish public library system has since the late 60´s been dominated by what in this Master?s thesis is called: ´the discourse on quality of literary fiction´. The aim of this thesis is to examine to which extent this discourse still plays an active role in the Swedish public library system or if that discourse has been replaced by a more market-led, demand responsive view, where the features of ´quality´ and ´culture´ have been downplayed and replaced by a ´customer?s service view´ on how and why fiction should be mediated to the public. The methodological and theoretical perspective in this thesis is led by the understanding of the discourse analysis in Michel Foucault?s ´The Archaeology of Knowledge´.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to study how public librarians? view mediation of fiction: the knowledge needed, the thoughts expressed about their own and other adults reading of fiction and how the informants define their roles as mediators of fiction. The method used was qualitative interviews with six librarians at main libraries in Swedish cities of different sizes. The theoretical starting points are Louise M. Rosenblatt?s reader-response theory, Michail Bachtin?s theory of speech genres and Åse Tveit?s and Jofrid Karner Smidt?s theories about mediation of fiction.

Mediation of fiction has always been one of the main tasks of the public library. The focus on information technology is often seen as a threat and competitor to this task. But technology can also offer new ways to mediate fiction, and the aim of this thesis is to examine how library websites and blogs can be used for this purpose. The research questions are:? What forms of fiction mediating material exist on library websites and blogs?? How is the fiction mediating material presented?? Are there any differences between the fiction mediating working methods on websites and blogs compared with those in physical libraries?The thesis is based on a qualitative content analysis of eight Swedish public library websites and three blogs, and on a theoretical frame work including literature and research on mediation of fiction, library websites and blogs, web design and usability.

The purpose of this Master's thesis is to study how children's and youth librarians mediate non-fiction books in public libraries. Our overarching research question is as follows: to which extent, how, and for what reasons do children's and youth librarians mediate non-fiction? We have chosen to limit our study to the practice of booktalking.In order to answer questions on extent we conducted a quantitative survey of booktalking children's and youth librarians in Skåne. To answer our other questions on behaviour and attitudes we conducted observations and interviews with six librarians who include non-fiction in booktalks for children in primary school. As a way to study behaviour we examined librarians' selection criteria and methods.

The aim for my thesis has been to investigate how literature, or fiction, is used in management education. What books are used ? is there a literary leadership canon? What do the educators and the writers on this subject suggest that these books can teach the leaders? What are the philosophical foundations of this education? And ? last but not least ? does what the educators and writers offer respond to the needs of the businesses? My investigation shows that there is a canon in the area of management and fiction, where realistic 19th century novels, alongside with Shakespeare?s plays are dominant. Female writers and non-western writers are very underrepresented. The positive outcomes of reading and discussing these literary works that the educators and writers suggest do substantially correspond with the needs of the businesses, as presented by my sources.

The main focus of this study is to describe how, and for what reasons teachers use literature and fiction as a pedagogic tool. A qualitative study was made by interviewing four teachers about their language teaching. Working with fiction as a teaching-aid in school can in many ways be favorable to both teachers and pupils. In terms of children?s language development, research shows that using fiction as an educational tool can stimulate pupils? well-being as well as their linguistic improvement.

Adapting the concept of the ?popular cultural memory? and its necessary ?context knowledge? established by Karin Kukkonen, this bachelor thesis seeks to examine how this memory is ?at work? and expresses itself in contemporary fiction, by doing an intertextual reading of the swedish author Amanda Svensson's debut Hey Dolly. Within the intertextual structures of Hey Dolly the reader encounters allusions and references that address almost everything from contemporary popular culture to established authors in the swedish canon, mainly as means for the characters to help them express their emotions and thoughts, by ?choosing? from already available content of popular culture to use and modify. The intertextuality alluding to the popular cultural memory does at the same time address the concept of the ideal reader throughout the novel.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the English writing activities of young Swedes on the site FanFiction.net to determine what type of differences were perceived between this activity and the writing activities taking place in upper secondary English courses, what effects fan fiction had on their English skills as well as what possibilities were perceived in regards to using fan fiction as a tool of learning. Methods used include an interview study along with a textual analysis to determine changes in grammatical complexity, errors and mistakes. Results indicate that partaking in fan fiction-related communities of practice in English can potentially improve language skills. Results also showed that informants valued interaction and practical language use, largely perceiving the formal teaching of English as lacking in opportunities for practical, contextually relevant and creative language use. However, introducing fan fiction and its practices of peer-reviewing in a formal educational setting was also perceived as risky, at the same time as there existed a sense of optimism that the fan fiction format and its practices could both be used to facilitate learning..

This work is about popular culture in leisure. Teachers at leisure, on the basis of Education's governing documents working with developing an activity for students when applying the students' own interests. Although these councils are posted, several teachers around the country rejects certain activities or products that the students want to do or play with during their free time at the leisure time. Therefore the purpose of this study is to try to understand what teachers in leisure attitude to popular culture is and if they integrate the popular culture in there activities. To understand this, a qualitative study of interviewed teachers in various leisure was used.

The aim of this thesis is to study social tagging in an OPAC by looking at the tags of Ann Arbor District Library?s catalogue. In this thesis I analyse the possibilities of social tagging. The main questions to be answered are what is the distribution of tags in different categories, what are the differences between fiction and non-fiction and how do the social tags differ from the terms of the professional indexing practice. Studying 500 tags I find that subject matter was the most frequent category for tags assigned to fiction and non-fiction.

The purpose of this paper is to examine teachers' approach to popular culture in preschool. The questions we want answered are: What approach do educators have to popular culture in preschool and what underlies that approach? Is there a high - and low culture in preschool? If educators bring popular culture into the preschool, how then is it used? Do children?s culture influence everyday life in preschool? We have employed qualitative methods to seek answers to our questions. We conducted seven interviews with educators from four different preschools. The starting point for our study was the socio-cultural perspective because we examined people's cultures and how the meeting between them unfolds. We concluded that educators have a very ambivalent attitude towards popular culture in preschool.