This study ­is the first dissertation where the genre of reportage (in the U.S. classified as literary journalism) is systematically mapped with the help of narratology. Using tools primarily from structural discourse narratology, the thesis examines, describes and maps written reportages as narratives. Rhetorical and cognitive narratology complement the approach. 

The investigation rests on two assumptions. Firstly, a reporter’s professional purpose is to report about people and states of affairs outside the reporter herself. This results in a contextual commitment, which leaves traces in the narrative in the form of a textual commitment. The latter is in turn divided into narrative empathy and narrative compassion/sympathy. The thesis highlights the creation of narrative structures and stylistic features in reportages and the overall conclusion is that conceptions about a reporter’s professional purpose in fact do influence the narrativity of the text. 

Secondly, in contrast to news journalism, reportage is a personal genre that can be considered a directed reality: the content is taken from reality but the form is personal and a consequence of the writing reporter’s choices. The thesis presents a narratological model where the text develops in the interplay between three instances: a director, a narrator (in a first-person reportage a narrating reporter) and experiencing characters (in a first-person reportage including an experiencing reporter). The director should be regarded as a structuring property of the text itself. 

Part 1 provides a historical background to the reportage genre and the social side of the reporter role. In part 2, narrative characteristics of the genre are explored and defined together with the common roots of reportage and novels within realism and naturalism. Part 3 demonstrates how a contextual commitment can be transformed into a textual commitment. Throughout the dissertation, the director model is used to investigate differences and similarities between subcategories within the genre, sometimes between single texts, sometimes between reportage in general and fictional narrative. In part 4, a typology of reportage is presented. The genre is divided into five types of narration, based on the representational relation between how the physical reporter has collected information and in what ways an experiencing reporter is or is not apparent in the text. 

The thesis ends with a historicization of consonance and dissonance within the reportage genre. Consonance emphasizes the characters’ “here-and-now” and can be found within a broad, classical tradition of eyewitness reporting. Dissonance emphasizes the narrator’s retrospective perspective and can be found within the modernistic type of American New Journalism and in more experimentally written reportages from the most recent decades. The thesis demonstrates how both these ways of narrating may enable the reader’s narrative empathy with someone else than the experiencing reporter.

The analyses and conclusions are mainly based on Swedish reportages from 1819 to 2014. This material is complemented with international reportages from 1903 to 2007,  from Norway, Poland, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Bohemia, Croatia, Belarus and the U.S. Accordingly, the dissertation demonstrates that traditions of reportage are primarily international and that the observations about narrative patterns within the genre are also relevant outside of Sweden. 

The eyewitnessed reportage has a pronounced character of narrating. The imaginative power of the text helps the reader to empathise with the characters. That makes constructing empathy a necessary skill of reporters. But how can this be done?

Despite a tradition of story telling among reporters, narratologists virtually have neglected the reportage genre. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how narrative strategies can be used in reportages and, at the same time, suggest methods for investigating those strategies. The main question is: How can empathy be constructed? Empathy is here defined as a function of presence, perspective, selection and disnarration. A screen of covert values is also added.

The study applies a narratological and a media rhetorical approach to journalistic narratives, and focus is on basic discussions supported by analysis samples. Theories by Gérard Genette, Dorrit Cohn, Seymor Chatman, William C. Booth, Gerald Prince, Göran Rossholm, Bengt Nerman and others are discussed.

Even though a reportage is about real events, it always represents a personal interpretation. It presents the readers with a represented reality. In a narratological model for the macro level of the reportage I identify the trait of construction as an interaction between three instances: the producer (i. e. the implied author), the narrator and the experiencing reporter. On a micro level this model helps me to explain, for example, how a homodiegetic narrator can be combined with external focalisation, and how another character than the experiencing reporter can be focalised. In the former case I examine the interplay between showing and telling relative to the narrator’s visibility. In the latter case I especially focus on a complex technique for shifting perspectives, both those concerning thoughts, like Free, Indirect Discourse (FID), and those concerning perception. At the same time I study different degrees of perspectivity.  

This thesis explores the relationship between inhalation amplitude and turn-taking in spontaneous multiparty conversations held in Estonian. Respiratory activity is recorded with Respiratory Inductance Plethysmography. The main focus is on how inhalation amplitude varies between the inhalations produced directly before turn onset compared to the following inhalations within the same speaking turn. The results indicate a significant difference in amplitude, realised mainly by an increase in inhalation end lung volume values. One of the possible functions of this pattern is to signal an intention of taking the conversational turn. Another could be a phrasing or grouping function connected to lower inhalation amplitudes within turns.

Creakiness is a well-known turn-taking cue and has been observed to systematically accompany phrase and turn ends in several languages. In Estonian, creaky voice is frequently used by all speakers without any obvious evidence for its systematic use as a turn-taking cue. Rather, it signals a lack of prominence and is favored by lengthening and later timing in phrases. In this paper, we analyze the occurrence of creak with respect to properties of the respiratory cycle. We show that creak is more likely to accompany longer exhalations. Furthermore, the results suggest there is little difference in lung volume values regardless of the presence of creak, indicating that creaky voice might be employed to preserve air over the course of longer utterances. We discuss the results in connection to processes of speech planning in spontaneous speech.

The present study investigated the timing of backchannel onsets within speaker’s own and dialogue partner’s breathing cycle in two spontaneous conversations in Estonian. Results indicate that backchannels are mainly produced near the beginning, but also in the second half of the speaker’s exhalation phase. A similar tendency was observed in short non-backchannel utterances, indicating that timing of backchannels might be determined by their duration rather than their pragmatic function. By contrast, longer non-backchannel utterances were initiated almost exclusively right at the beginning of the exhalation. As expected, backchannels in the conversation partner’s breathing cycle occurred predominantly towards the end of the exhalation or at the beginning of the inhalation. 

This article provides a first quantitative overview of the timing and volume-related properties of breath holds in spontaneous conversations. Firstly, we investigate breath holds based on their position within the coinciding respiratory interval amplitude. Secondly, we investigate breath holds based on their timing within the respiratory intervals and in relation to communicative activity following breath holds. We hypothesise that breath holds occur in different regions of the lung capacity range and at different times during the respiratory phase, depending on the conversational and physiological activity following breath holds. The results suggest there is not only considerable variation in both the time and lung capacity scales, but detectable differences are also present in breath holding characteristics involving laughter and speech preparation, while breath holds coinciding with swallowing are difficult to separate from the rest of the data based on temporal and volume information alone.

This study explores the relationship between inhalation amplitude and turn management in four approximately 20 minute long spontaneous multiparty conversations in Estonian. The main focus of interest is whether inhalation amplitude is greater before turn onset than in the following inhalations within the same speaking turn. The results show that inhalations directly before turn onset are greater in amplitude than those later in the turn. The difference seems to be realized by ending the inhalation at a greater lung volume value, whereas the initial lung volume before inhalation onset remains roughly the same across a single turn. The findings suggest that the increased inhalation amplitude could function as a cue for claiming the conversational floor.

Translation is a careful process of carrying across the fullness of a spoken, written, signed, hummed or visualised message. Unavoidably, things will get lost, or spilled, along the way. In this publication, edited by three students in the International MA in Curating Art at Stockholm University, eleven artists address the act of translating across both human and non-human communication, thereby creating new universes in which to exist.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the open-air museum of Skansen in Stockholm as venue for celebration of Persian Fire Festival is assessed by the festival's visitors. The study is based on a delimited part of a larger online survey with 280 completed questionnaires including both close-ended and open-ended questions, and a qualitative thematic analysis method has been used in this paper. The results show a high level of appreciation of the Skansen venue that gives the visitors positive emotions, meanings, place attachment, place identity and a sense of place. Contributing factors have been the high status of the venue that has given the visitors pride and dignity; security and safety of the venue; size of the venue; and the natural beauty of the venue. The most important disadvantage factor has been the lack of accessibility combined with lack of sufficient public transport. The results have implications for the Swedish society, for the policy makers in Stockholm city and for both the host and the organiser of the festival and gives rise to new debates on immigrants' socio-cultural integration into Swedish society. This paper gives a contribution to existing literature on festival venue and its impact on the visitor's overall assessment of the festival.

This study aims at exploring the rhetorical processes underpinning condolences, as expressed by Saudi Arabian governmental authorities on social media, with a focus on Twitter. Taking its starting point in January of 2015, when the Charlie Hebdo shooting took place in Paris, this study looks comparatively at several acts of terror in order to answer whether these different attacks elicited different responses, and if so, what knowledge can be drawn from this conclusion. Furthermore, this study examines the role of social media in public diplomacy, and in the production and distribution of political discourse, especially as it relates to statements of condolences and expressions of solidarity mediated through twitter. In order to explore this, rhetorical criticism (Mral 2008; Foss 2004; Peirce 2003) is combined with pentadic criticism (Burke 1945) and performativity theory (Rosenberg 2018; Zivi 2016; Gregson and Rose 2014) to form the methodology. A key theoretical concept in this study is “grievability,” which aims at understanding why some deaths are grieved and others are not (Butler 2009; Butler 2004; Butler 2003). As this study shows, mourning itself can be understood as rhetoric, serving political and diplomatic functions rather than being an expression of actual, sincere solidarity or grief. This study also shows that tweets from official government sources can be seen as a performance of public diplomacy, and as performative of the official’s own position. Lastly, it is argued that offering condolences are a way to purchase “humanitarian capital,” which is becoming increasingly important in global politics.

This study utilizes ethnographic methods to inquire how ideas of masculinities are perceived by English-language media professionals and media audiences in Egypt. Using semi-structured interviews and a survey, the aim is to find common narratives on how masculinity is perceived on personal levels and what terms are used to describe men and masculinities, which in turn can be used as the basis for further analysis of Egyptian media content. The word “narrative” in itself is used to convey personal experience, and the telling of those experiences, rather than generalizable data applicable to the larger population. Found are several common themes, such as emphasized heterosexuality, and the expectation of men as providers and protectors, which is related, by the respondents, to the nation and the military. Protection and militarism relates to ideas of strength, honor, and courage. Men are almost exclusively seen as possessors of power. The ‘head of the household,’ and the head of state, both portrayed as iconized leaders, emerge as the quintessence of Egyptian masculine identity, whether that identity is contested or not.

The chapter provides a brief overview of the development of the broadcasting sector in Egypt, demonstrating the significance of this sector in promoting the ideologies and policies of Egypt’s successive regimes, beginning with Nasser’s through al-Sisi’s governments. Although the sector was subjected to liberalization, under Mubarak’s rule, state television still dominated the broadcasting sector and controlled the dissemination of public information and news. When private licenses were granted, the new private stations were barred from engaging in newsgathering, and those who overstepped this line quickly lost their licenses. The hope for political changes after the overthrow of Mubarak has largely dissipated, as media censorship has continued under the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and the Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi, and it has intensified under al-Sisi’s presidency.

The present project investigates the impact of the grammaticalised progressive on event conceptualisation in English and Persian. It applies the Heidelberg–Paris framework using single event descriptions for analysis at the sentence level and story re-narrations at the discourse level. The empirical data test the hypothesis that the progressive has an impact on information selection and discourse structuring in event conceptualisation in terms of infrequent endpoint encodings and language-specific patterns of perspective-taking in structuring discourse. Languages lacking the grammaticalised progressive clearly show different effects.

There are system-based similarities/differences in aspect between English and Persian. They have the progressive in common but differ with respect to the imperfective–perfective distinction. This difference is manifested as an increase in the use of the progressive in English. In contrast, the Persian system with two aspectual non-past forms which are possible for expressions of ongoingness leads to decreased use of the particular dāštan-progressive.

The key finding for the single, motion event descriptions is that the dāštan-progressive in Persian shows less frequent endpoint encodings, like in English, as compared to languages lacking the progressive. However, the imperfective bare mi-form is associated with frequent endpoints while English shows no such association because the progressive must always be used.

In narratives, differences emerge again due to the different typology. When the uses of the progressives in re-narrations are differentiated for clause type, the progressive in English is used equally in main and sub-clauses, though more dominantly in sub-clauses in Persian. These sub-results speak about differences in perspective-taking between these L1s.

The analysis of the complexities involved in aspect establishes that the bare mi-form in Persian can denote ongoingness in cases where the progressive is obligatory in English as it has no optional verb form. Consequently, the typological difference of the absence/presence of the imperfective–perfective categories leads to a significant increase in the use of the progressive in English, which results in a cross-linguistically different, and L1-specific, patterns of perspective-taking in the narrative discourse in English and Persian. Thus, despite the fact that the L1s have the progressive aspect, their principles of use differ as they are dependent on the relevant aspectual system.

Relating the results to linguistic relativity and cross-linguistic influence, the study shows that owing to the grammatical category of the progressive in common, event conceptualisation is similar in English and Persian in terms of infrequent endpoint encodings in single motion event descriptions, despite the overall typological difference. However, L1-related influence on the principles of use of the progressive in L2 English is considerable in the narrative discourse of the advanced L2 users of English as they seemingly proceed from the principles of use in L1 Persian towards those in L1 English.

The present study investigates L1 influence on the structuring of events in adult second language acquisition, focusing on temporal perspectivation in film re-tellings by very advanced L2 speakers of English with L1 Persian. The analysis focuses on contrasts in perspectivation with regard to the role of grammaticalised temporal structures of the speaker’s L1, which provides specific means of temporal perspectivation in event representations that differ from English. When organising information for expression in a story-telling task in the L2, grammaticalised L1 features can result in L1-influenced, temporal relations between events that advance the story line, showing transfer as well as possible L2-specific patterns (Carroll, von Stutterheim and Nüse, 2004). Such L1 influence has been established in cross-linguistic analyses of the verbalisation of perceptual input in Germanic, Romance, Semitic, and Slavic languages by the Heidelberg group. The current investigation replicates an analysis of retellings of a film clip by von Stutterheim and Lambert (2005) and Carroll and Lambert (2006), involving an Iranian language, Persian, as L1.

While progressivity is a prominent feature of the temporal frame in film retellings in English, language change in Persian has led to the following changes for this grammatical category: the conventional mi-prefixed imperfective retains progressivity, while a new periphrastic progressive presents an alternative to this form, along with progressive constructions with verbal nouns.

The critical results will be retrieved from a quantitative analysis of the L1 Persian data indicating how much the periphrastic progressive is grammaticalised in contrast to the conventional imperfective. Also, a qualitative analysis of the Persian L2 English data identifies the temporal frame used in sequencing events, and compares this with L1 speakers of Persian and English. All three groups of speakers (N=30, in each) were asked to carry out the same task, i.e. retelling of a silent film lasting approximately ten minutes. Finally, the relative distances between the frames of temporal representation in the retellings of Persian advanced learners of L2 English and the two groups of L1 speakers shed light on the way the learners deal with aspectual distinctions in systems that differ typologically and the complexity for the learner. The study thus identifies the role of L1-influenced preferences in the expression of temporal relations in this advanced L2 English learner language with its implications for second language acquisition.

Gender representation is a core part of a democratic society. Gender has evolved past the heteronormative construction and is more of a continuum (Fausto-Sterling, 2000 in Motschenbacher, 2011). Educational materials are therefore an important tool where the school system can ensure inclusivity of the non-binary and LGBTQIA+ community. Previous research on English as a second language (ESL) textbooks used in secondary and upper secondary schools around the world have shown a gender imbalance with the male gender being dominant (Bahman and Rahimi, 2010; Barton and Sakwa, 2012: Brusokaitė and Verikaite-Gaigalienė, 2015). The present study is investigating the coverage of binary, non-binary and LGBTQIA+ characters in digital textbooks in upper secondary Swedish schools (English, 5, 6, 7) by employing a content analysis. The content analysis was initiated by first considering female, male, non-binary and LGBTQIA+ characters. The pronouns and names were supported by extending the analyses to adjectives and adverbs of manner used to describe the binary and non-binary genders and the activities performed by them. Data of adjectives and adverbs of manner connected to the binary, non-binary and LGBTQIA+ identities were also collected from the three selected textbooks. The findings reveal that there is a gender imbalance regarding the visibility of the female gender. In two out of the three textbooks male dominance is prevalent with approximately 30 % more male visibility. Non-binary and LGBTQIA+ characters are almost non-existent in the three selected textbooks, with a very limited number of characters included. The analysis also showed that there are multiple occurrences of gender-marked (Stanley, 1977) adjectives. However, the conclusion of the analysis of the adjective is that there is no gender bias because of the variation of the adjectives. 

I mitt reportage De som avvek och en som gick in berättar krigsvägraren William Males, desertören Steve David Kinnaman och veteranen Bill Ray i porträttform om hur de på olika sätt undkom kriget som rasade i Vietnam mellan åren 1955-1975.

En vägrade i initialt skede att delta i kriget. En var halvvägs till Vietnam innan han avvek. Den tredje upplevde krigets fasor och överlevde. Gemensamt för dem alla är att Sverige blev deras andra hem från 1960-talet och framåt, en fristad undan kriget och hemlandet USAs politiska förföljelser.

Utifrån ett dussin intervjuer, arkivmaterial, facklitteratur, gamla tidningsdokument, fotografier, ljudsnuttar, filmer och digitala källor har jag skrivit reportaget i tre självständiga porträtt. Tillsammans med nytagna porträttbilder av intervjupersonerna och privata fotografier från deras ungdomstid, flyktväg, krigsminnen och familjer har jag försökt skapa en så levande bild av deras liv som möjligt.

Public debate about Islam and Muslims often focuses on contradictions, conflicts, and contrasting value systems. Since 9/11, the bombings in Madrid and London and the recent rise of ISIS this debate has to a large extent included a fear that Muslim immigrants will be disloyal to their new Western countries, and thus requires increased surveillance and control. Conversely, others argue that Muslim populations in the West have wrongly suffered from the increasing intolerance and suspicion resulting from terrorist acts committed by a small number of radicals. Such voices point to a need to safeguard religious freedom and the right to equal treatment regardless of a group’s ethnic, cultural, linguistic, or religious background. In many European countries, these discussions have directed attention toward places of Islamic education such as Muslim schools, mosques, and Islamic organizations, focusing on the sometimes controversial manner in which they have been depicted in the media, public discourse, and, within Muslim communities themselves (Aslan 2009; Birt 2006). Religious education is both an essential and a challenging objective for minorities since the “transmission” of religious tradition to future generations is crucial to the survival of any religion. In Sweden as elsewhere in Europe many Muslim children and teenagers and even adults attend privately-run, extra-curricular Islamic classes. Some attend Islamic schools or are taught at home. Publically funded Islamic education options provided by the state are an emergent option in several European countries. These classes lie not only at the heart of debates over religious freedom, equal rights to education, and integration, but are also connected to matters of securitization and the state control of Islam. This paper will present an overview of publicly funded, mainly pre-university Islamic education in Sweden, a European Western secular Christian majority country with a Muslim minority population. Firstly, I will establish a definition of Islamic education and a description of the state funding of education and religion in general. Then, the paper will move on to describe different types of Islamic education that are available in Sweden.

Denna uppsats är en litteraranalys av romanen Tiššārī av Inaam Kachachi. Analysen undersöker begreppet identitet och vad som bidrar till stärkandet av det, beroende på erfarenheterna man har varit med om. Metoden för analysen av denna roman är narratologi där strukturen i texten studeras närmare med fokus på ordningen av händelser samt vem berättaren av romanen är. Resultatet som har uppnåtts är att det finns flera irakiska identiteter som presenteras i olika tidsepoker och ur olika karaktärers perspektiv. Denna analys visar även vikten av kollektiva minnen som huvudkaraktären återberättar för att bidra till bevarandet och vidarebyggandet av den irakiska identiteten.

Peer review is aan interestingwell-researched  topic, with much research focusing on the students’' own perceptions of peer review/assessment as well as benefits and challenges with the method. However, little research has been conducted on teachers’ perceptions of students’ peer review of written assignments in English, with a general focus on junior high school level in a Swedish school. Thus, this study was aimed at examining six English teachers’´ perceptions and their usage of peer review of written assignments in English at two junior high schools in Stockholm. A qualitative method was applied, with semi-structured interviews which were analysed using content analysis. The findings revealed that the teachers used different strategies during peer review depending on students’ knowledge level, social competence and the challenges and opportunities that the method offered. Despite a lack of knowledge about the English language and other variables such as different personalities and lack of self-confidence causing difficulties for students to implement peer review as intended, teachers still had positive attitudes towards peer review on written assignments in English. In order to enhance the implementation of peer review, both teachers and students need to become familiar with the practical implementation of the method. Future classroom research within the Swedish education system will help engender favourable conditions that move learning forward.

Denna studie behandlar svenska som andraspråkslärarens val av skönlitteratur inom arbete med nyanlända på introduktionsprogrammen samt hur läraren motiverar dess val av densamma. Syftet är att undersöka vilka texter och teman som lärare anger att de föredrar eller undviker vid arbete med nyanlända och varför. Studien baseras på en surveyundersökning i form av ett frågeformulär, och genom att sammanställa de författare, böcker och teman som använts mest och av flest lärare undersöks huruvida lärarnas angivna val stämmer överens med de angivna teman som föredras eller undviks eller om det förekommer en diskrepans. Resultaten visar att lärarna ser valet av skönlitteratur som en utmaning men att de i slutändan gör liknande val. Detta visar att lärare och skolor redan har olika former av böcker som de alla anser bör läsas med nyanlända och att de på så sätt kanske redan har en form av litterär kanon. Vidare visar resultaten att det finns en diskrepans mellan lärarna och deras syn på val av temat flykt. Vissa lärare anser att det är gynnande för eleverna att diskutera temat flykt medan andra anser att det bara leder till elevernas lidande. I slutändan använder sig dock de flesta lärarna av detta tema vilket anses vara problematiskt då det riskerar att reproducera stereotyper.

The Harry Potter series, although primarily written for young adults has managed to be widely popular amongst readers of different ages. The series has been able to entice both young and adult readers all over the world as it provides readers with ample opportunities for self-recognition and thus even self-reflection. Other than providing readers with opportunities for self-recognition the series also provides multiple examples of different important real-world issues such as mental health, othering, discrimination, and the stereotype threat.

          In the Harry Potter series, readers are introduced to a whole new world filled with magic, witches, wizards, and other magical beings. The magical world is, however, still very similar to our world; it follows the same timeline as the real world, showcases different teenage problems as well as similar social structures and issues. 

         In today’s society immigrants and students from different nationalities, cultures and backgrounds are very common, leading to othering, stereotyping and prejudices being real issues that need to be addressed in today’s multicultural classes. Students are in need of support and encouragement to better understand and handle these issues in their everyday life.

          Drawing on these ideas this essay will, by using a thematic analysis of the Harry Potter series, focus on the depth of the prejudices presented in the series by examining the underlying structural understanding of othering and racialization which readers are not always aware of being prejudiced against and how these prejudices are presented in the series. The aim is to show how the issues of unconscious biases and othering in the Harry Potter series are presented through the themes and characterization and how they can be used in eliciting empathy by alerting students to the fact that othering and discrimination are often based on unconscious biases found within the society.

This study aims to research the implications of Afro-Swedish women's relationship with their hair and how it pertains to their view of femininity and beauty. Four one-on-one semi-structured interviews with Afro-Swedish women were conducted to collect relevant material. During these interviews, the women shared their relationship with their hair, experiences relating to their hair in Sweden, and how and if it has affected their perception of their beauty and level of femininity.

The findings of this study demonstrate that Afro-Swedish women relate femininity to hair that is associated with whiteness, which means hair that is smoother and straighter but also longer than the afro-textured hair associated with black people. The results showed how representations of black women in relation to beauty and femininity were seen as limited by the informants, as those were rarely there to begin with and/or only inclusive of lighter-skinned black women with wigs, weaves, straightened or relaxed hair. All the informants shared experiences of their hair being touched, with or without consent. Through comparison to earlier research, it was found that the experiences and opinions of these Afro-Swedishwomen were more similar than different to black women from the USA for example.

To conclude, this study disproves the notion of Swedish exceptionalism in relation to the racialization and discrimination of afro-textured hair, as well as the not so colorblind representations of beauty and femininity. These results also show that there is a vast amount of information concerning the lived experiences of Afro-Swedish women, relating to hair and other themes, to be uncovered by researchers in gender studies.

This doctoral thesis investigates popular romance, a mass-cultural genre with a large female audience. Popular romance is often considered ”lowbrow” and is referred to by terms such as ”porn” and ”garbage”. The female reader of this so called “sentimental trash” is often portrayed as naïve and unworldly. The thesis makes this derogatory view of the genre its point of departure, to investigate what cultural understandings of gender and sexuality the critique against popular romance entails. The thesis further investigates how these conceptions of gender and sexuality deviate from and challenge a culturally promoted and normative sexuality.

The thesis consists of six chapters. The first chapter describes the selection of the empirical material and the theoretical and methodological framework. The empirical material consists of the three novels in the popular series Fifty Shades of Grey and the four novels and five films in the popular series Twilight. The thesis places itself within the field of feminist cultural studies and queer theory. It makes use of the concept of masturbation (both literal and figurative) as an analytical entry point and as a method focusing on the “here and now” of romance reading.

The second chapter contextualizes the study by defining the term “popular romance” and by providing a brief historical overview of the genre. Previous research on popular romance is presented and discussed in relation to the derogatory view of the genre.

The third chapter studies the Swedish media commentaries on Fifty Shades of Grey and Twilight to define how the rejected romance reader is conceptualized, and how this romance reader is presumed to be reading. This “romance reader” is thereafter discussed in relation to the Western historical discourse on masturbation, “female illness” and (women’s) private reading. The chapter closes with a discussion on the form of reading that the romance reader is associated with. This self-immersed, excessive and over-invested reading form is defined as “masturbatory”.

The fourth chapter explores the act of romance reading when defined as a sexual activity. The romance community is compared to the “second wave” feminism of the 1970s in order to demonstrate how the genre establishes a separatist female community where relations, positions, and identifications are in motion, revealing both homoerotic and autoerotic elements to this homosocial context.

In the fifth chapter, a close reading of the material is performed with a focus on the “here and now” of the reading situation. The dichotomy of desiring subject and desired object is problematized in relation to looks and gaze. The thesis argues that the romance text uses detailed and intimate descriptions to instill a sexual charge and to freeze the flow of the storyline in order to make room for constant erotic contemplation. These “frozen moments” and the repetitiveness of the genre are discussed in relation to theories of queer temporality. The romance text constructs a room “outside of time” that privileges the overwhelming pleasures of the “here and now”. This liminal room is not only available for the heroine and hero of the story, but for the romance reader as well.

The sixth and final chapter ties together the main arguments of the thesis in an overarching discussion on how conceiving romance reading as a form of masturbation challenges previous research on popular romance and the gendering of and contempt for mass culture.

During the 2010s, popular romance has emerged as a popular genre in Sweden. Popular romance is often criticized on account of its perceived gender conservatism. In Sweden – a country that prides itself on being at the forefront of progressive gender politics – the genre has however become promoted as feminist, and Sweden is represented as an especially beneficial context for the emergence of a (more) feminist popular romance. For this article I analyze a selection of Swedish contemporary romance novels, released between 2014-2019. Taking the feminist critique into account, I analyze how these novels negotiate genre conventions in an effort to produce (more) feminist love stories, and how these local variants of a global genre relate to the feminism of the Swedish context and the Swedish self-image. The novels, I argue, are permeated by a Swedish gender equality discourse; one that focuses on heterosexual couples who fulfill themselves equally in relation to both family and work life. The novels both challenge and uphold gendered inequalities and criticized romance tropes. They further produce different representations of Sweden, sometimes representing Sweden as only superficially equal and other times as a country where equality is already almost in place.

The aim of this study is to expose and analyze the ways Yennefer of Vengerberg in the series The Witcher is prescribed a monstrous female identity. This has been done by applying three theories to the selected material, Crip Theory by Robert McRuer, The monstrous feminine by Barbara Creed and Colleen Donnellys analysis of the visual impact. The three theories have been used to identify how Yennefer is defined as a female monster and how this is done based on her physical appearance and personal characteristics as well as her performative actions. The conclusions of the study highlight the importance of beauty and a normative body in relations to what can be seen as the monstrous feminine. The findings can be applied to a wider set of society context, to better understand our view and perception of the female identify, and to help us expose underlying cultural patterns that in many ways place barriers for women.

This study explores the ways a Swedish state agency works with equality during the making oftheir AI-chatbots. The study explores an AI-team’s work in dealing with questions of equality,with equality through own experiences and values, the study has also placed its central themesaround equality work and language. The study does this with help of what Sara Ahmed callsinstitutionalized work. The study concludes that what Edmund Husserl calls the natural attitudeto working with equality constitutes a risk of leaving out perspectives and experiences. Workingwith Swedish as the state language, the study discusses how the use of language might representwhiteness and what effects this use of language may have on the interaction with their chatbot.The study has based its material around interviews made with six members of the state agenciesAI-team as well as programmed words and sentences in the chatbot. 

This thesis deals with developmental, universal, grammatical, and functional factors involved in the acquisition of L2 syllable structure. More specifically, using speech data from Spanish and Chinese learners of Swedish, the thesis examines the production and development of syllable onsets and codas—that is, syllable margins. In doing so, the present work draws on various theoretical considerations and empirical findings from research on L1 and L2 acquisition, phonology and phonetics, language variation and language typology. The thesis includes three empirical studies, all of which are based on longitudinal conver­sational data. Study I deals with the acquisition of word-initial /sC(C)/ onsets by one native Spanish speaker, whereas Study II and Study III focus on the acquisi­tion of word-final codas by three native Chinese speakers. Study I and Study II both showed that onset and coda length and phonetic environment are influen­tial factors in the production of syllable structure, while sonority may not be as reliable a predictor of production difficulty. Next, both Study I and Study III provide evidence of a U-shaped rather than linear development of pronunciation accuracy. This pattern is interpreted as an effect of initial increase in fluency, with more focus on content and less on form. In addition, Study III showed that L2 proficiency is related to the epenthesis-deletion differential. An increasing ratio of epenthesis-to-deletion is the first-order indicator of increasing L2 profi­ciency during early stages of acquisition, but increased target-like production becomes the first-order indicator of development at later stages. Finally, Study III showed that learners are aware of potential ambiguity resulting from simpli­fication in different grammatical/functional categories. Codas that are essential for the retention of semantic information are preserved through higher accuracy rates and higher relative levels of epenthesis errors.

Research has consistently shown there is a negative correlation between age of onset (AO) of acquisition and ultimate attainment (UA) of either pronunciation or grammar in a second language (L2). A few studies have indeed reported nativelike behavior in some postpuberty learners with respect to either phonetics/phonology or morphosyntax, a result that has sometimes been taken as evidence against the critical period hypothesis (CPH). However, in the few studies that have employed a wide range of linguistic tests and tasks, adult learners have not exhibited nativelike L2 proficiency across the board of measures, which, according to some, suggests that the hypothesis still holds. The present study investigated the relationship between AO and UA and the incidence of nativelikeness when measures of phonetic and grammatical intuition are combined. An additional aim was to investigate whether children and adults develop the L2 through fundamentally different brain mechanisms-namely, whether children acquire the language (more) implicitly as an interdependent whole, whereas adults learn it (more) explicitly as independent parts of a whole.

Denna grundbok belyser fenomenet, ämnet och forskningsfältet andraspråksinlärning. Med utgångspunkt i 1960-talets brytning med behavioristisk inlärningspsykologi och kontrastiv språkanalys diskuteras de mest centrala frågeställningarna inom den därefter följande moderna, mentalistiskt orienterade andraspråksforskningen.

I bokens tio kapitel presenteras de huvudsakliga empiriska upptäckterna och teorierna om andraspråkets utveckling och variation, dess kognition, processning och universella egenskaper, liksom inflödets, interaktionens och undervisningens roll, effekter av sociala och individuella skillnader samt modersmålets inverkan. Många exempel ges från studier av svenska som andraspråk. Boken avslutas med en termordlista med förklaringar till centrala begrepp inom fältet.

Boken vänder sig främst till universitetsstuderande på grundnivå i ämnen som tvåspråkighet, svenska och nordiska språk samt till blivande och verksamma lärare i svenska som andraspråk och modersmålssvenska.

On the basis of their review of studies, Mayberry and Kluender (2017) propose that the human language learning ability becomes severely compromised if it is not developed in tandem with brain development in early childhood, but that it functions more or less flawlessly, even in adulthood, if language acquisition had at one time proceeded according to the maturational timetable. Mayberry and Kluender therefore suggest that the critical period hypothesis (CPH) for language is unambiguously tied to the timing of L1 acquisition, but that its relevance to L2 acquisition is less clear, the implication being that the well-documented AoA effects in the SLA literature are due to non-maturational (i.e., psychological, experiential, cross-linguistic, etc.) causes.

This study deals with the development and recoverability of word-final codas in Chinese-Swedish interlanguage. The relation between consonant deletion and vowel epenthesis is investigated from both a developmental perspective and a grammatical-functional one. Longitudinal, conversational data from three Chinese beginner learners of Swedish were analyzed. First, it is shown that for these learners the acquisition of Swedish codas was U-shaped rather than linear such that they exhibited relatively high accuracy rates at early stages, lower accuracy rates at later stages, and again high accuracy rates at more advanced stages. It is also demonstrated that the epenthesis-deletion differential is closely related to second language proficiency in that the proportion of epenthesis to deletion errors increases over time. Furthermore, the data show that word-final codas that are relatively important for the retention of semantically relevant information generate lower overall frequencies of simplification and greater epenthesis-deletion proportions than codas containing information that is relatively recoverable from other segments or features in the context.