The purpose of this master?s thesis is to examine how librarians perceive the importance of staff reading groups in helping to make fiction more accessible to adult users of public libraries. The study also examines how librarians perceive the learning processes in such groups, and what these learning processes involve and how they appear. The empirical data was acquired via observations of four staff reading groups and interviews with seven public librarians who took part in the groups. In part, the empirical data is interpreted by means of Lena Wilhelmsson?s analytical tool, which deals with changes of perspective within an organised group.

This Master?s thesis is connected to an interdisciplinary field between humanities and health care; ?humanistic medicine? or ?humanistic nursing?. The object of the investigation is nursing students? experiences of reading fiction and autobiographies as course literature. In semi-structured interviews a group of students talk about their reading.

Alice Lyttkens (1897-1991) was a very popular author in Sweden during several decades in the middle of the twentieth century. She was most famous for her historical novels. During her first period as a novelist in the 1930s, however, she wrote contemporary fiction, reflecting the situation of contemporary Women. The traditional view of the two sexes as ?complementary? permeated the interwar period.

Previous research shows that Swedish teenagers? reading of fiction have decreased during the last decade (Skolverket 2006). As future librarians we found ourselves asking why, and an interest to look into this was triggered. The purpose of this Bachelor thesis is therefore to examine why teenagers? reading of fiction is decreasing. Focus lies on students? perception of their own reading, both inside and outside the school environment.

Which expectations did leading debaters place on fiction as an instrument in achieving societal changes hoped for by introducing the Public library? How can the value of fiction be described in relation to the mission of the Public library, according to these moulders of public opinion? Place and timeframe for this thesis is Sweden around the years 1905-1912 (period of formation of the Public library here according to the Anglo-American model). Starting point is the assumption that the Public library as a political institution is characterized by an ideological function. It produces meaning and norms, it sets standards of value. Method used is based on close reading and comparison.

The aim with the study is to get an understanding of why pupils read literature in upper secondary school from four Swedish teachers´ thoughts and attitudes towards fiction in upper secondary school. Some of the theoretical starting points that lay as a foundation to the study are Lpf 94, the curriculum for Swedish and different literature oriented researchers as Lars-Göran Malmgren´s subject construction, Louise M. Rosenblatt´s transaction theory, Jan Nilsson´s view on fiction as a source of pleasure and a source of knowledge and Gunilla Molloy´s dialectal questions. To reach the aim in question qualitative interviews with four Swedish teachers in upper secondary school were carried through. The result shows that the teachers see the literature?s part in school as meaningful and claims that it deserves to have an even higher value in all subjects, not only in the subject Swedish.

What is it that makes an audience love a character? Through comparative analysis and anevolutionary perspective, I have examined the relationship between the viewer ? the human ?and three popular characters: Shakespeare?s Bottom and Puck from A Midsummer Night?sDream and Dag-Otto Flink, the most popular character from Vallarnas friluftsteater inFalkenberg, Sweden. In what way do they attract us? Why do they attract us? The aim of thecomparative analysis between the characters was to reveal enough similarities for defining allthree as the same character type: the fool. One of the most important similarities for theevolutionary discussion was that especially Dag-Otto and Bottom are consistently themselves.Furthermore, the Darwinian perspective, especially with theories of Daniel Nettle, indicatesthat there are several factors that come into play for successive fiction.

AbstractThe purpose with this study is to find out how pedagogues, who teach in the early years of primary school, motivate and stimulate all pupils so they want to read a lot of fiction. The research also includes finding out more about why the pedagogues work as they do. The research starts with a study of current literature which deals with how teachers should work with motivation and stimulation in school. To find out how the pedagogues work in school I have made qualitative interviews with four pedagogues who work in the early years of primary school. The result shows that all of the pedagogues motivate and stimulate pupils in similar ways.

This thesis should be regarded as an integrated research synthesis. The purpose has been to analyse how the literary sociologist Lars Furulands model the literary process correlates in relation to todays book market for fiction. The central problem has been: In what different ways can some of the main actors featuring in Furulands model of the literary process use, produce or provide copyright protected works of fiction which are electronically distributed? Three questions have been considered to penetrate this problem: In what different ways can to judge from some projects which have been carried through at common public libraries electronic works of fiction be provided to their presumed readers? What reasons could there be as it appears in a number of texts that four Swedish authors have chosen to disseminate their works of fiction by the aid of the Internet? Which main functions may, according to current research, be supported by electronic media in connection with editing and retail of fiction? During this study a picture of two quite disconnected processes of publication has materialized. These processes seem to proceed parallelly to each other, without any close contact, in a traditional respectively an electronic circuit.

Traditionally the content of fiction has not been described, analyzed, classified and/or indexed to the same extent as non-fiction. As a consequence, this lack of content analysis has resulted in unsatisfactory fiction retrieval in relation to users seeking and search behaviour. This fact is why this Master s thesis is written. The total of library users' seeking and search behaviour is investigated in order to suggest methods to improve user adapted fiction retrieval tools. Suggesting relevant fiction retrieval tools corresponding to users' seeking/search behaviour is another aim of the study.

Detta kandidatarbete undersöker science fiction, en av de större och vanligast använda genrerna inom medier såsom spel, film och litteratur, genom att studera dess undergrupper, de så kallade subgenrerna. Dessa är specialiserade versioner av genren i fråga och använder den inom vissa förutsatta ramar, exempelvis hur samhället ser ut eller vilken typ av teknologi det huvudsakliga fokuset kretsar runt. Genom att studera hur subgenrer är beskrivna i The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction kan man avgöra att de består av sex punkter: plats, tidsperiod, karaktärer, teknologi, narrativ och visuell estetik. Dessa punkter har använts som ramverk för att utveckla en ny subgenre; Mystech, där scenarier utspelar sig i vad som kan ses som en typisk fantasyvärld med magi och monster, men där dessa egentligen bara är teknologi majoriteten av de påverkade inte förstår sig på. För att demonstrera Mystech har två olika miljöer utvecklats, både i bild och skriven form.

This master?s thesis aims to study the practice of separating popular genres of fiction from the rest of the fiction stock, often seen at public libraries. The method being used is critical discourse analysis according to Norman Fairclough?s three-dimensional conception of discourse. The textual dimension of this analysis is the book shelf itself and the sociocultural practice is the everyday practice at a public library of supplying and mediating books to the visitors.

Humanity has always dreamed about a better world. These dreams has manifested themselves in the vision of Utopia - the good place, but also the non-existing place. Up until World War II man still wrote optimistic descriptions of this ideal world, and spread the idea through literature. In the aftermath of the atomic bomb and under the influence of the cold war, these publications seized to surface in literary surroundings. Despite this utopia did not die - it has only changed.

I denna uppsats undersöks hur deltagarkulturen ser ut på gräsrotsnivå, hos de som skriver och läser fan fiction. Utifrån två fan fic-berättelser undersöks interaktionen mellan författare och läsare. Eftersom forskningen inom fan fiction och deltagarkulturer belyser möjligheten till lärande undersöks hur och om konsumenternas produktion på denna nivå främjar lärandet i skapandet av fan fiction. En intressant aspekt när det gäller deltagarkulturen är hur gränsen mellan producent och konsument blir diffus. Kan man, utifrån undersökningen utläsa om gränsen mellan dessa, producent och konsument ? författare och läsare ? upplöses? Frågeställningar för undersökningen är:Hur interagerar läsarna och författarna med varandra?På vilka sätt engagerar sig läsarna i berättelsen och dess utveckling? Hur förhåller de sig till författarens tolkning och hur ser de/använder de sin roll som läsare?På vilka/vilket sätt uppmanar och/eller uppmuntrar författarna kommentarer och respons från sina läsare? Hur hanterar de kommentarerna?I vilken utsträckning framträder en informell lärmiljö på communityt? Hur ser den ut och kännetecknas den av deltagarkulturen?.

Using a discourse analytical approach this thesis examines a selection of user reviews concerning Stephenie Meyer?s Young AdultNovel Twilight, published at LibraryThing 2009-07-01 ? 2010-12-31. The aim of the study is to identify and shed light upon the conceptions relating to target audiences distinguishable in the reviews and todiscuss the possible consequences of categorizing fiction by age of theintended reader. In order to accomplish this, the study examines the conveyed images of Young Adult fiction and grown ups? reading of Twilight.The thesis concludes that several discourses regarding Young Adult fiction are distinguishable in the material; some of which concern level, quality, and writing style, others thematic and contentbasedaspects, while one concerns fiction aimed specifically at girls.