The purpose of this thesis is to form an idea about the qualitative value and meaning of reading fiction in a psychological perspective and over a lifetime. Seven women, 68-79 years old, were interviewed about their reading habits of fiction in their lifetime. The material is presented as life stories. I use an inter-nordic research project called the SKRIN project which looks upon reading habits from an individualistic and psychological perspective. I also refer to an American study which focus on reading development with roles readers take in different ages of life written by J A Appleyard.

The works of crime fiction writer Edogawa Rampo are largely unknown in the West, but have had a considerable impact upon literature and popular culture in his home country of Japan. Rampo?s works are threading on the line between between distinctively Western and distinctively Japanese writing styles and thematic realms, embodying a cultural fusion which acts as a mirror of the societal and cultural changes that occured in the author?s contemporary Taish? era Japan. This thesis is an attempt to explore Rampo?s literary mindset, and more specifically to attempt to picture and describe Rampo?s self-image as an author of crime fiction active during this time period.

The aim of this Master thesis is to analyse the interaction in between reading and writing based on young writers experience. My approach was to investigate how writersread literature and how they look upon their reading in relation to their own writing.Seven young people has been interviewed in this qualitative study, based a theory about their reading and reading habits. They were asked questions about reading habits and theirview upon the connection between reading and their own writing.Previous studies of Swedes´ reading habits prove that relaxation and pleasure are the most common reasons for literary reading. This differs from the present study, where my findings shows that writing people, more than other, read literature, in the way people in general read non-fiction. That is with a purpose beyond the actual ?situation of reading?.

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. Dessa är två mycket olika skådeplatser för scenarier att berättas i men som trots sina olikheter har nog med faktorer gemensamt för att kunna klassificeras som delar av samma subgenre..

The aim of this Master's thesis is to examine the contemporary educational tasks of the Swedish public library as they manifest in Swedish library journals. Our main question at issue is: Which educational discourses are there? And in relation to our main question: how do the concepts of information literacy, lifelong learning and adult education relate to each other? Is there an antagonism between the public library's duty to supply fiction as opposed to non-fiction? and: What are the consequences of these discourses in the service provided by the library?Our theoretical starting-point is the discourse theory as proposed by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. We analyse 39 texts from four Swedish library journals: Ikoner, bis, DIK-forum and Biblioteksbladet. The analysis is done in two phases.

In this paper Mona Hatoums installation Corps étranger is discussed via a post structuralized method based on associative and semiotic comparisons with vanitas, a post-modern self-portrait, and as a representative for modern visual art. The analyze touches upon pornography, science fiction and the quest for scientific conquest in outer and inner space. Theoretical references are Foucault, Freud, Lacan, Barthes, Dolar, Said and Virilio. Hatoum makes the observer a voyageur with the aid of the latest medical technology, endoscope, which gives her the opportunity to make an introvert self-portrait when she films her own throat and rectum. But at the same time she makes the portrait of us all.

The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate if and how upper secondary school librarians can work in a more deliberately pedagogical way with fiction from the perspective of upper secondary school students. In the essay inspiration is fetched from phenomenography in order to determine the different perspectives that may exist amongst the students. In addition to the phenomenography, theories on how learning occurs, individual and social constructivism, are also included in the essay. In the essay three upper secondary schools are included. Interviews were conducted with the librarian of each school and with three students at each school.

The purpose of this paper is to explore branch librarians? ideals for mediating fiction and their view on the literature that are distributed by the Swedish Arts council. The study is based on the following questions: How do branch librarians reflect about mediating fiction? How do they express their view and their work with literature that are distributed by the Swedish Arts council? And which ideals of mediating can be distinguished from these expressions? To answer these questions a qualitative examination based on interviews with four branch librarians where used. The empiric material where then analysed by Jofrid Karner Smidt?s theory about different ideals for mediating fiction.

Libraries exist around us and for most of us they are a part of our every day life. But how often do we stop and think about their meaning?Libraries in fiction are usually not the center of the narrative, they play a role quietly in the background and offer a backcloth to the story. Yet they are a vital part of the story. Without them a big part of the magic in the stories would be lost.And what is their role in our lives? What do the libraries mean to the books they harbor, the readers who seek them out and society in which they have their axiomatic role?This essay?s focus is my story ?Between the shelves?, which is about the young girl Julia and the mysterious passageway she discovers in her local library.

In school there are many pupils with Swedish as their second language and these pupils often have less basic condition compared with pupils with Swedish as their mother tongue and the most common root cause is lack of language knowledge, also the time spent in Sweden matters.I have trough questionnaires and literature studies investigated if there, for pupils with Swedish as their second language, is an easier way to figure out how to read and write in Swedish using fiction literature as learning material compared with ordinary ways.In the questionnaires that I performed participated a number of teachers that teach Swedish as a second language. These teachers all work in schools with a big share of pupils with Swedish as a second language.I also tried to evaluate if there was a difference between teachers with a graduation in Swedish as second language compared with these who don?t have a graduate but still work with these pupils.The result shows that I discovered that only the graduated teachers have used fiction literature as a learning material in the daily work and have experienced good results from the pupils, they also knew why they used fiction literarture for reading and writing training.As a teacher it is very important to have the knowledge regarding children that have Swedish as a second language, to be able to support them in a correct way.Despite the pupil can?t speak or read the new language, it has feelings and knowledge about the circumstances that they can?t express.The teachers mission is to knew and have understanding for these circumstances.Keywords: Pupils with Swedish as second language, learning to read and write, fiction literarture, school..

The aim of this thesis is to investigate how the indexing of fiction for adults looks like in the public libraries that don?t buy indexed records for fiction from Bibliotekstjänst (BTJ). The questions that I want these libraries to answer is: - Public libraries that index fiction for adults themselves: 1. What tools do they use when indexing?, 2.

 The aim of this thesis is to examine men's attitudes towards literature, and how social norms affect their book reading, in order to contribute to the knowledge of why men's book reading is decreasing. This is realized through a discourse analysis of literature recommendations in men's lifestyle magazines.Two magazines, King of Sweden and Magazine Café, are examined through critical discourse analysis. Theories of discourse are combined with theories of gender to explore how gender stereotypes affect men's reading habits.The analysis shows that ideals of masculinity have a great influence on the book recommendations. Social norms, associated with gender, also seem to have significance to whether or not a book is considered suitable for men to read. These are, inter alia, norms of heterosexuality and violence.

The aim of this essay is to investigate how patrons, librarians and indexers use subject headings to describe and index fiction literature. We wanted to know if the groups concentrated on different levels in the text from a semiotic viewpoint, where words either can describe the manifest/connotative meaning or the latent/denotative. To investigate this we had four fiction indexers, four librarians working with fiction for adults and eight library users read and index four short stories. After that we did interviews asking them about how they were thinking when describing the texts, how they use subject headings, about their opinions on indexing and, in the interviews with the librarians and indexers, about their usual work assignments. The subject headings they listed were analysed according to the level they described.

The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to do a comparativecase study between a public library in Sweden and one in England. Our aim is to examine what factors affect alibrarian in charge of purchasing fiction for adults and to what degree. We have used two methods of study, specifically semi-constructed interviews with two librarians and text analysis of policies in place at each library respectively. Our research questions share the above mentioned context and should therefore be read with that backdrop:-How is selection and purchase covered in the policies?-What selection criteria are used by the respondents?-What differences are there regarding the decision making? -How can the viewpoints be explained?Our analytical framework was based on three arguments namely market demand, quality and social inclusion when examining our material.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine the reading support activities performed by the school libraries of five Swedish upper secondary schools. It focuses upon fiction reading. Two main research questions are asked: the first one in order to find out what kind of ideas of fiction, fiction reading and young people that are held by the librarians of the five libraries, the second one in order to find out what the motives behind the reading support activities are. One additional research question is asked to examine how the librarians estimate the results of the reading support activities, and furthermore how the students seem to respond to them.