Kulturmaffians myggor och tigrar ? En litteratursociologisk studie av litteraturkritik och härskartekniker i en tidningsdebatt
The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine how the literature criticism are in the Swedish media in the reception of the novel Mosquitoes and tigers from 2007 written by the Swedish author Maja Lundgren. A second aim is to examine how master suppression techniques have been used by the literature critics in the newspaper debate. This qualitative study is based upon a total of 52 articles and reviews from five big Swedish newspapers. The theoretical approach, literature criticism, mainly originates from the Swedish professor in Literature Science Tomas Forser and the literature scholar Gunnar Hansson. The theory of master suppression techniques founded by Berit Ås, Norwegian professor in Social Psychology, are used as an analytic tool. The method of analysis is textual, qualitative text analysis. The conclusion of this study shows that the literature criticism usually is divided in one ethical and one aesthetic part. The aesthetic criticism includes the book not being entertaining or well written or too long, and also that the form is a problem for the readers who do not know if the genre is fact or fiction. The criticism about the form issue is also ethical while the author can be vague about the truth. The ethical criticism also consists from the author using name of authentic people. Another conclusion of this study shows that mainly three of the master suppression techniques are visible in the debate: ?making invisible?, ?ridicule? and ?heap blame/put to shame?. By merging various articles, it was possible to interpret the master suppression technique ?double bind?. There was no sign of ?withhold information?. This study also shows that the writer Maja Lundgren uses master suppression techniques herself.