In this master thesis I investigate different views on literary quality in two quite different library journals; Biblioteksbladet and Bibliotek i Samhälle. One aim of the study is to see whether the ambiguity of the term literary quality is considered. Since there is no universally accepted definition of literary quality to be found the analysis is inspired by discourse analysis. This theoretical frame work starts off in the assumption that our views of the world are much dependent the way we describe it. The work of Finnish scholar Sanna Talja is presented and the results of this thesis are compared with the three perspectives on music culture that are presented in her book.

This Masters thesis is a historiographic study, which aim is to investigate how the Brezhnev administration 1964-82 describes the events taking place during the soviet cultural struggle 1917-32. The investigation is limited to how some of the literary groups, organisations and currents as well as a small number of Russian writers are viewed by the administration. The third and last edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, which is considered as equivalent with the soviet official view, is used as source. The analysis made in this thesis is divided in two parts; the text analysis of the writers biographies is compared with the result of a discourse analysis, whose target is some of the literary groups, organisations and currents during the topical period. The discourse analysis is a pre-analysis, but its conclusions also have a value in itself.

Ulf Lundell is one of the most famous songwriters and authors in Sweden. He has written fifteen works of fiction and they?ve all same theme ? a lonely man trying to look into his own past life. They are all built on a character, writing from an I-perspective, having a bit of Lundells own biography in there?s personality. The aim of his thesis is to find out how Ulf Lundell presents him self in his fictive characters, and will trace the authors development from a psychological point of view.

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.

 AbstractThe main purpose of the essay is to describe the reception of Alexander Solzhenitsyn?s debut novel One day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962) in Swedish newspapers. The reception itself comprises the 1963?s Swedish reviewers opinions on the novel as to how it was controversial or not and the literary quality of the novel and Solzhenitsyn?s writing. In the analysis, seventeen reviews from seventeen different newspapers is included, studied and compared.

This thesis examines how a company can get an effective, high quality, maintenance of their computerized systems. After literary studies concerning the life cycle activity Maintenance we have studied how the maintenance at the department IT Supply of IKEA IT AB in Älmhult is carried out. What steps and measures in the analyzing of results of changes are carried out and if they have predefined processes for changes. Based on the facts we found most important in our literary studies we have created a model and theoretically applied this to the maintenance of a specific system to see what they can work with to further improve the quality and efficiency in their maintenance. The basis for our thesis is literary studies and the collected material has been used as a foundation for the research at the company, which was carried out through interviews. This thesis is based on the question: ?How do the lack of a model for maintenance and the lack of orientation affect the maintenance in a company??.

The purpose of this study is to examine, from a gender perspective, Utbildningsradions TV-program Hej Litteraturen! in the light of feminist literature studies conducted during the last twenty years. I want to examine if the feminist literature studies have had any impact on contemporary teaching material regarding the question of how much space in time is given to men versus women and which female authors are included in the literary canon. Hej Litteraturen! is a TV program produced in 2010 intended for high school teaching of literature history.   By conducting a content analysis in which I divide the study in a quantitative and a qualitative component, I have investigated how much space and time is given to female writers and how they are presented. My analysis draws on use Yvonne Hirdman?s theory of the gender system.   The result shows that the female authors get 37 percent of the total reference space and 42 percent of the time-space. The program has sought to describe male and female authors equally and gives them weight and relevance to the sections in a similar manner.    In conclusion, Hej Litteraturen! is a tutorial which embraces parts of the criticisms that have existed in historical literature review papers in general and literary history textbooks in particular. Hej Litteraturen! has worked on gender aspects of the program and by picking up contemporary authors as reference points for literary history in the present, the program contributes not only not only in renewing the literary canon, but also in balancing out the dominance of male writers in the history of literature..

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine attitudes and standpoints amongst librarians at the Swedish public library towards literary awards and awarded literature. The questions posed in the study are: What attitudes are expressed amongst these librarians towards the Nobel Prize in literature, the August Prize and literary awards and awarded literature in general? What significance do the Nobel Prize in literature, the August Prize and other literary awards have concerning purchase and display at these public libraries? How is awarded literature perceived and how do they talk about it concerning quality and are questions of quality significant? Qualitative interviews with seven librarians at four different public libraries have been done. Theories regarding J?rgen Habermas the bourgeois public sphere and Pierre Bourdieu?s terms habitus, field and capital have been used as to explain the library as a public sphere.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate how the literary site Vulkan.se affects the conditions for publishing, distribution, incorporation in value systems and feedback in the literary process, as it appears in Lars Furuland?s model of this process. The purpose is also to propose an updated version of the model. This is achieved through a qualitative testing of Furuland?s theory.

This master thesis is a study of a new electronic library reference service-project called Speak instantly to a librarian and the purpose of the thesis is to investigate a new electronic reference service and how the librarians who work with it experience it. This should be seen from an informational society point of view. The study is conducted from two questions: - What needs do the libraries have and how do they argue for the project and the chat-reference service Speak instantly to a librarian? - How do the librarians experience the personal work situation in the new reference service, and its use of chat technology? Together with interviews of a selected group of librarians from the public libraries of Göteborg, Malmö, Nacka and Stockholm, this thesis includes aspects such as the theory of the informational society by Manuel Castells, as well as literary studies of the history of library reference, the development of electronic reference service and the virtual library, and the background and the beginning of the studied project Speak instantly to a librarian. The thesis also contains an overlook of other similar library projects in the United States of America.

In this essay I have described ecocriticism as a theory with several different subfields that are inspired by a cross-disciplinary approach, such as green culture studies, ecofeminism, and postcolonial ecocriticism. After a short summary of the background of ecocritical studies I analyze the various subfields, take a closer look at their contents and present various examples of ecocritical thinking. A presentation of the commonly used concepts within the discipline and some reflections on these is followed by my final discussion, where I state that even though ecocriticism is a relatively new theory and the concept doesn?t have a clear definition as yet, it is in my view a useful tool for analysis and can with time make valuable contributions to literary studies, not least by introducing a number of new perspectives..

This thesis takes a closer look at the USA Patriot Act and the literary debate that has followed the passing of that Act. The aim of the thesis is to define what freedom is for the two opposing sides using McCallum's freedom model.The literary analysis shows that the most common argument from authors who are pro Act is that in desperate times like these one must relinquish a part of the individual's freedom to ensure the safety of the collective. Amongst those authors who are against the Act concerns are raised for the possibilities of abuse as a result of increased government power such as the ability to detain immigrants for long periods of time, surveillance and increased exchange of information between federal agencies..

This essay examines how female authors are described in the literary canon of two differenteditions of the Swedish education material on the history of literature: Svenska Timmar ?litteraturen. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the depiction of femaleauthors has changed from the first edition (1991) to the last edition (2012), and how thesechanges correspond with the curriculums Lgy70 and Lgy11.The study is quantitative as well as qualitative. The quantitative part of the study showsthat the percentage of female authors has increased in the 2012 edition. A greater number offemale authors are also portrayed with pictures and headings.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine values expressed towards the Swedish literary award Augustpriset in a selection of articles from Swedish newspapers published between the years 2000-2007. The questions posed in the study are: What types of values concerning Augustpriset are expressed in a selection of cultural journalistic articles? How is the relationship between intellectual culture and commercial culture reflected in the articles? How are positive and negative standpoints justified? How can Augustpriset and the journalists be understood as parts of intraconversion on the literary field? The study?s qualitative textual analysis is theoretically based on Pierre Bourdieu?s theory of the literary field. The method used for analysing the articles is idea analysis using dimensions constructed from Bourdieu?s description of two polarities, the intellectual and the commercial, of the literary field.

This essay focuses on Finnish immigrants living in Sweden and their experiences of educationof literature in Swedish upper secondary school. It concerns the fact of how education ofliterature can be used to strengthen students? formation of cultural identity. The essay tries toidentify obstacles as well as possibilities in the teaching of literature with a view to deepenand enrich this process. The method consists of a phenomenological approach includinginterviews with a group of Finnish immigrants living in Sweden.