This thesis is based on qualitative text analyses of four works of fiction, used as teaching materials in the school subject of Swedish, from a queer theoretic perspective. The purpose of the study is to examine how sexual identities and expressions are being presented, as well as what positions are offered a reader, in relation to the heterosexual norm. Basis for this thesis are the schools fundamental values, which highlights the importance that intolerance be confronted through both knowledge and active measures, and the syllabus, which states that fiction should be viewed as a tool for identity development as well as an understanding of the outside world.The analyses reveals a distinct connection between the generally accepted heterosexual norm and a professed (or taken for granted) heterosexuality which is being carried out by the characters or the books as a whole. Out of the four titles only one disputes this norm, by offering a wide range of sexual identities and expressions. These expressions, however, are being invalidated ? through insufficient ability to relate to the norm ? or made invisible ? through an imagined heterosexuality which, by superiority over other expressions, excludes them..

In this essay, I make a queer feminist analysis of Mats Strandberg?s and Sara Bergmark Elfgren?s teenage novel ?Cirkeln?, which is about six teenage girls who learn that they are witches with a mission to save the world from demons. Using Judith Butler's theories, I examine the norms of sex/gender, ethnicity, class and sexuality found in the text and how these standards are created. I also analyze whether, and if so how, these standards may change when the magical elements enter the text.I also discuss the fact that older Gothic novels with magical elements often have been regarded as queer through history. .

Detta arbete undersöker hur homosexuella killar skildras i ungdomslitteraturen. Syftet problematiserar dikotomin maskulint/feminint och män/kvinnor. Målet är att införa ett icke heteronormativt perspektiv i ungdomslitteraturforskningen kring genus och queer. Detta görs utifrån teorier av Judith Butler, Tiina Rosenberg och R. W.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the female experience as it is spoken of in the novel Sindhia written by Rut Hillarp (1954) and how the main character in the book violates the experience from a queer perspective. My aim is to through a close reading highlight a number of discourses that underpin the book's imminent theme of love and submission.According to Norman Faircloughs critical-discourse analysis, the text one reads produces a certain amount of discourses that one consumes. This way there is a dialectical interaction that can be set into a practical analysis together with a suitable academic perspective. This is the method I use in this thesis.The academic perspective I add isJudith Butler's queer theoriessupported by Michel Foucaults social genealogyin order to understand/analyze the woman?s position in relation to a social empirical history.I came to the conclusion that Sindhia produces the woman's discourse from an ancient biblical/ mythological time up to modern time.

The aim of the essay is to explore how so called ?safe spaces? are built, and the part that creativity can play in this construction. The essay also explores the duality of idea-based social work that at the same time strives to support vulnerable groups and strives to make social and political changes. The essay has its empirical base in the RFSL Ungdom project ?Tusen bilder, tusen ord? (A thousand pictures, a thousand words).

Religious phenomena, such as prayer, have more or less always interested and engaged people, but most likely for different purposes. Since the early 20th century, starting notably with Edmund Husserl and especially Martin Heidegger, phenomenologists have taken an interest in understanding and expounding the meaning of religious phenomena. The attention of such a discourse have not ceased but is rather current, and also of importance seeing that religious themes, such as prayer, still occupy a great extent of human life and practice.Phenomenology of religion is not a science of religion: the former approaches religion in terms of its meaningfulness, whereas the latter as an object of inquiry and in the same manner as an economist approaches economical indicators in order to understand and explain how the whole economy functions. In other words, phenomenology of religion expounds religion, as it were, from within, while science of religion does it from without or externally.When approaching prayer phenomenologically, it shows itself to be a process or structure through which the one praying empty himself in order to be able to receive the valuable presence of the other. The value that is received from the other will also be reflected by the one praying and in that sense effect his surroundings and fellow humans..

The purpose of this essay is to examine how same-sex couples experience the second-parent adoption process. To assist us, we have used our questions: how do the couples describe their experiences of the adoption process? Which are the couples? stories about the experience of contact with the involved professionals? What are the opportunities and barriers for same-sex couples to start a family? How do the couples describe their experience of reactions from the community and society, and how do they think the future will look like for same-sex couples? This study has been achieved through a qualitative approach. The empirical data is based on seven semi-structured interviews with same-sex couples or pair members that want to or have had a second-parent adoption. The theory we have used for analyzing the results is phenomenology with focus on queer theory, heteronormativity, and power.

The phenomenology of Gaston Bachelard holds that readers, or viewers, relate to spatial imagery through the use of age-old archetypes. These archetypes form a collective image-memory that is employed when reading space. One such image is the house. The house for Bachelard is, however, never solely an image, but constitutes a familiar space that becomes inscribed in our bodies through the repeated physical contact with this domestic space. The house teaches us to interact with space, and comes to inform the way that human beings understand images of space.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how same-sex couples experience the second-parent adoption process. To assist us, we have used our questions: how do the couples describe their experiences of the adoption process? Which are the couples? stories about the experience of contact with the involved professionals? What are the opportunities and barriers for same-sex couples to start a family? How do the couples describe their experience of reactions from the community and society, and how do they think the future will look like for same-sex couples? This study has been achieved through a qualitative approach. The empirical data is based on seven semi-structured interviews with same-sex couples or pair members that want to or have had a second-parent adoption. The theory we have used for analyzing the results is phenomenology with focus on queer theory, heteronormativity, and power.

Studien har syftat till att skapa förståelse för hur verkligheten kan upplevas för personer som identifierar sig som homosexuella, bisexuella, transpersoner och/eller queer (H/B/T/Q), idag i Sverige. Vi hade en explorativ ansats utifrån detta syfte och använde oss av Grounded theory som kvalitativ metod för datainsamling och databearbetning. Vi intervjuade 11 H/B/T/Q-personer i Örebro, och vi fann ett antal centrala teman som var återkommande i intervjuberättelserna. Dessa handlade om hur sociala interaktioner med omgivningen påverkade den egna processen mot ett öppet liv som H/B/T/Q-person eller ett mer dolt. Det framkom också att det fanns en koppling mellan öppenhet i detta avseende och psykiskt välbefinnande.

This paper examines in what way the heterosexual matrix is challenged by Stephenie Meyer in Breaking dawn (Så länge vi båda andas). By doing a thematic study on the various family constellations appearing in the novel, I search for the queer elements in it. I discuss incest, family building and motherhood, and find that there are numerous queer elements associated with the themes I have chosen. I conclude that the Cullen family challenges the heterosexual matrix, despite not being typical queer vampire characters. I also find that building a successful family is not based on gender or constellation otherwise, but is instead dependant on democracy and equality.

Den här uppsatsen undersöker hur identitet uttrycks i tre musikvideos som tillhör genren ?queer rap? (Mykki Blanco, Le1f och Zebra Katz) där jag ställer frågan om den identitet som uttrycks hos dem är subversiva. För att ta reda på detta användes representations-begreppet tillsammans med Richard Dyers definition av stereotyper och José Esteban Muñoz avidentifikations-begrepp.Dessa tre artisters identiteter går att tolkas som subversiva då de använder normer och redan befintliga identiteter för att skapa nya uttryck, både från det heteronormativa och andra subversiva subkulturer. De skapar nya identiteter och uttryck med de normer som finns..

This essay aims to examine how the synthetic non-human subjects, EDI and Legion, are constituted in terms of their bodies, gender, desire and emotion, in the gaming series Mass Effect. In a close-gaming method I also want to explore in which way the gamer can effect or even change the expressions of the body, gen­der, desire, and emotion made by the synthetic non-human subjects. In order to do this I use Judith Butlers and Sara Ahmeds queer theory, and Donna Haraways cyborg feminism. I concluded that EDI em­braces her embodiments and is given a highly sexualized female body, being more of a woman than a machine. While Legion is rather embracing disembodiment and is given a non sexualized, androgynous male body, be­ing more of a machine than a man.

The aim of this thesis is a comparative study of Djuna Barnes' 1928 book Ladies Almanack and turn of the century sexological texts focusing on Havelock Ellis' studies of 'sexual inversion in women'. The study is based on queer theory concepts from Judith Butler and Fanny Ambjörnson as well as Michel Foucault's studies of the history of sexuality. After a presentation of the theoretical concepts and a short introduction of earlier research on Barnes' works my reading and conclusions are presented in five chapters focusing on different theoretical and thematic aspects of the studied texts. A recapitulation and discussion ends the thesis.In short, my conclusions are that Ladies Almanack contrary to earlier research can be read as a queer text, and a form of counter-discourse to the general one regarding lesbianism in the early 1900's. The text also reveals itself as a pointed critique and a satire of Havelock Ellis' writings on 'sexual inversion in women'.

This study aims to make out, which notions and ideas about gender and sexuality that comes into expression in the description of the deviant youth. This study is a narrative analysis, based on a queer theoretical approach. The queer theory directs attention to the normative frameworks on gender and sexuality. Queer theory also illustrates the relationship between the normative and what is considered abnormal/deviant. The study's empirical basis is 8 legal texts, legal documents formed in a Swedish context, which include the welfare state´s judiciary and social services.