Ingen vet var hon kommer ifrån eller att hon snart ska spela huvudrollen i en uråldrig profetia; allra minst hon själv.

17-åriga Amelia har aldrig passat in i Ljusets systraskap. Hon älskar spänning och äventyr, inte broderier och körsång. I flera år har hon sparat silvermynt från tjuvjaktsbyten för att börja om någon annanstans. Men så en natt träffar hon den mystiska Gabriel – vars sneda leende följer henne ända in i drömmen – och helt plötsligt förändras allt. Ingenting är längre säkert … ingenting förutom att världen som hon känner till den kommer att gå under.

The study aimed to investigate how power and powerlessness are created and portrayed

in Ann-Helén Laestadius novel Stöld (2022) and what didactive implications the novel

has for teaching at a high school level. Based on an intersectional perspective, it was

analyzed when the axes of power gender, class ethnicity and age co-vary where power

versus powerlessness occurs. For the analysis, the thoughts, acting and actions of three

female and three male characters were studied. On an overall level, the analysis shows

that Sámi as a minority group is powerless in relation to the majority society because of

the historical context. On an individual level, the power perspective shifted depending on

the characters age, gender or ethnicity. From a didactive perspective, the novel Stöld is

relevant for teaching in upper secondary school partly based on the discourse they are in,

and partly based on the possibility of applying several parts of the course syllabus with

Stöld as a starting point.

Piruetter är en undersökning av hur form, formhinder och perspektiv påverkar en berättelse och möjligheten att berätta den sanningsenligt. Allt utgår från en ögonblicksbild, en beskrivning av ett barn som ensam åker skridskor sent på kvällen. En presentation av en mycket liten händelse som sedan beskrivs om och om igen på olika sätt; ett tema med 70 variationer. Genom att välja former som med sina respektive specifika och unika regler tvingar berättelsen till förändring och anpassning, och genom att skifta perspektiv och bredda den bakomliggande bilden gradvis, framträder till slut ett motiv mycket större än det ursprungliga temat. Traditionella och vedertagna former och formhinder, stilfigurer och perspektiv blandas med absurda, självuppfunna och slumpmässiga varianter och bildar sammantagna ett pussel där var och en av bitarna inte säger särskilt mycket men som utlagda på sina rätta platser, tillsammans skildrar en barndom som sträcker sig långt utanför skridskorinken under betydligt längre tid än temat antyder.

Uppsatsen behandlar filmförevisning i Karlskrona fram till nyårsafton 1905. Undersökningen, som utförts med 1897 som utgångsår, belyser också övrig bildvisning på orten. Uppsatsens huvuddel utgörs av en kronologisk genomgång av de filmvisningar som förekommit på orten.

Uppsatsens arbetsmetod är arkivforskning. Som primärkälla har främst Karlskrona Veckoblad, som i den undersökta tidsperiodens slutskede utgavs med sex nummer per vecka, använts.

Den första filmvisningen gick av stapeln 26 december 1898 i Ordenshuset på Ronnebygatan. Uppsatsen visar att denna lokal intagit en närmast monopolartad roll när det gällde uthyrning till kringresande filmvisare, vilka under tidsperioden framför allt visade ett blandat program med både kinematografi och skioptikonbilder. För mer religiösa filmer, som olika varianter av passionsspelet, erbjöd den vanliga kyrkan visningslokaler och dessa filmer verkar därmed ha nått en stor publik. Däremot har frikyrkorna och framför allt arbetarrörelsen i Karlskrona inte varit speciellt frekventerade som uthyrare.

Kungsplanen var platsen för stadens enklare nöjesliv - hit kom både kringresande cirkus och tivoli. Just cirkusen verkar ha varit en viktig arena i Karlskrona för filmvisning under såväl det första som under undersökningens sista år. Under de mellanliggande åren var däremot cirkusen inte aktuell som filmvisningslokal. Den första fasta biografen etablerades i början av december 1905 i nära anknytning till området och den andra, som startade veckan efter, placerades i den cirkusbyggnad som uppförts på Kungsplanen. I Karlskrona existerade alltså en koppling mellan film och nöjesfält.

I en avslutande del diskuteras också publiksammansättningen och en hypotes om att förevisarna ofta riktade sig till ung publik framförs.

Det här är ett sorgedrama med en adoptivdotter och hennes döende mor i centrum. Allt går mot det slutgiltiga. Det blir en färd som kränger åt olika håll när tid, rum och känslolägen pendlar fram och tillbaka. Med korta prosadikter bildas en sammansatt väv som når flera bottnar.

Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka hur fantasy kan användas för att öka elevers läsförståelse. Min uppsats är teoretisk på så sätt att jag inte har gjort någon empirisk undersökning. Jag har istället använt mig av läsförståelseundersökningar, litteratur om läsning samt genomfört en litteraturanalys av Tolkiens Härskarringen.

De undersökningar jag använt mig av, PISA-undersökningen från 2009 och IEA:s undersökning om läsförståelse, visar att pojkar generellt har sämre läsförståelse, framförallt på de berättande texterna, och därför har jag valt att fokusera på fantasy, som är en genre som Olin-Scheller (2006) i sin undersökning kommit fram till att pojkar föredrar.

Pojkars sämre läsförståelse kan förstås som vilken läsarroll de intar vid läsningen, ett uttryck från Appleyard som Olin-Scheller använder sig av för att förklara elevers läsning. Då högre läsförståelse kräver att läsaren intar rollen som tolkare, har jag i min analys av Tolkiens Härskarringen gått in i den rollen och visat på de delar i verken som en lärare skulle kunna lyfta fram för eleverna. Eftersom pojkar inte lika ofta når upp till rollen som tolkare och därför avvisar texter som kräver den rollen vill jag visa hur de kan stanna i den genre de trivs med (här kommer motivationsaspekten in) och ändå utveckla sina läsarroller. Då Tolkiens verk även har så många referenser till andra texter, ofta kanoniska, är det min förhoppning att eleverna genom att komma till insikt om detta även ska motiveras till att läsa dessa texter och förstå hur ett litterärt verk bara kan förstås i sitt sammanhang.

In YA dystopias, adolescent girls are repeatedly used as breeders of the new generation and must go to the extremes to protect their offspring from an oppressive society. The motif of the adolescent mother is used both to highlight the vulnerability of the young mothers and the challenges that they face when they bring a vulnerable child into their dystopian worlds. It illustrates inequalities in the distribution of power between the adult generation and adolescents. It is one of several tools that authors of YA dystopias use to problematise adults’ oppression of adolescents in real-life societies through the lens of extreme power abuse in dystopian, future worlds. Through an analysis of Amy Ewing's The Lone City trilogy (2014–2016) and Jennie Melamed's Gather the Daughters (2017), the chapter illustrates in what ways the young mothers are oppressed, how they respond to this oppression, and how they rebel against it. An intersectional approach is applied, which clarifies that intersections between for example youth, motherhood, and gender affect both how the adolescent mothers are positioned in their dystopian society's matrix of domination and what possibilities they have to challenge their oppression for the sake of themselves and/or their child.

I ungdomsdystopin Eleriatrilogin (2012–2014) av den österrikiska författarinnan Ursula Poznanski gestaltas en värld som har råkat ut för en omfattande miljökatastrof. Detta har resulterat i en strikt uppdelning där de så kallade sfärsamhällena har skapat ett högteknologiskt samhälle som har gott om resurser, vilka dock kontrolleras starkt av de styrande, medan befolkningen i klansamhällen utanför de skyddande sfärerna lever under mycket svåra och fattiga förhållanden i den fördärvade miljön. I min presentation undersöker jag trilogins didaktiska potential i skolans värdegrundsarbete avseende miljöperspektiv, kulturmöten och maktrelationen mellan barn, ungdomar och vuxna. Jag argumenterar för att Poznanskis trilogi problematiserar hållbarhetsbegreppet genom att belysa hur en icke-hållbar miljö påverkar de sociala relationer som uppstår och begränsar möjligheterna till en försoning mellan de två samhällen som strider mot varandra i en kamp om naturresurser. Synliggörandet av hur ekologisk, ekonomisk och social hållbarhet går in i varandra gör Eleriatrilogin till ett effektivt verktyg för att aktualisera hållbarhetsfrågor i skolans värdegrundsarbete.

When J. K. Rowling announced that she has always seen Professor Albus Dumbledore as gay after the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007), the previous silence on the topic of queer sexuality within the Harry Potter universe came to an end. However, as Jim Daems clarifies in “‘I Knew a Girl Once, whose Hair…’: Dumbledore and the Closet” (2012), many academics and fans were upset that Rowling did not represent Dumbledore’s sexuality in the book series. For a book series that explicitly and repeatedly explores and problematises race, gender, ethnicity, age, nationality and class, the silence regarding diverse sexualities is not only surprising but problematic, as it suggests that there is no room for queer characters in the Wizarding World. I argue that the silence on this topic in the seven Harry Potter novels and the eight movies that are based on them undermines some of the didactic potential of the series to address human rights and equality. By silencing a queer character’s sexuality, the explicit ideology about everyone’s equal rights to exist and thrive is counteracted by an implicit ideology about queers’ sexualities being too deviant to represent within books and movies.

The stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (2016) and the movies Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016) and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) were all published after Rowling’s announcement about Dumbledore’s sexuality. I argue that they are examples of silencing queer characters, since they do not explicitly represent Dumbledore as queer, and since Cursed Child portrays a relationship between Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy that is coded as romantic throughout the play, but ends up reaffirming heteronormativity when the boys discuss who will get a girlfriend first at the end of the narrative. In my paper I explore the consequences of the silencing of the queer for the overall didactic potential of the Harry Potter universe regarding human rights and equality, by defining explicit and implicit ideologies about sexuality in the Harry Potter novels, movies and Cursed Child. I also clarify in what ways Cursed Child and The Crimes of Grindelwald can be seen as examples of queerbaiting, expanding Emily Roach’s argument about Cursed Child in “Harry Potter and the Cursed Closet: Queerbaiting, Slash-Shipping and the Cursed Child” (2018) to the most recent addition in the Harry Potter franchise.

In the theatre performance Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (2016), Harry Potter's magical world is revisited from the perspective of an adult Harry, who has grown out of his rebellious youth and become a controlling and sometimes abusive parent. Many fans were outraged by Harry's treatment of his son Albus, a Slytherin, whose only friend is Draco Malfoy's son, Scorpius. I utilize cognitive script and schema theory to analyze the play manuscript's ideologies connected to age. I argue that the reactions against the non-sympathetic adult Harry can be conceptualized as a schema disruption of "the Harry Potter literary schema."

YA dystopias explore the relationship of power between adults and adolescents through hyperboles. The Hunger Games in Suzanne Collins trilogy (2008-2010) is just one example of extreme oppression of the young. The exaggerations encourage readers to question the division of power between adults and adolescents in real-life societies. Research on YA dystopias has predominately focused on the role of adolescents as political symbols who rebel against repression when exploring the age category (cf. Day et. al.). However, the motifs of the adolescent killer and the adolescent mother highlight a similar interplay that can deepen the understanding of the category. The rhetoric of the hyperbole incorporates an educational potential that can be utilised in the classroom. Through a case study of the adolescent killer Red in Christina Henry’s The Girl in Red (2019) and the adolescent mother Lyda Mertz in Julianna Baggott’s Pure trilogy (2012–2014) I exemplify how the motifs interrogate the relationship of power between adults and the young. By applying an intersectional approach, I illustrate how other power categories, such as race, (dis)ability and gender, are intertwined with the characters’ age and position them in a matrix of domination (Hill Collins). Maria Nikolajeva’s concept aetonormativity refers to how adults are positioned as normative and children/adolescents as non-normative. Consequently, children have less power than the adults. Clémentine Beauvais instead argues that children are “mighty” in children’s literature, since they may be able to affect the world long after the adult generation has died. Thus, they have a different kind of power than adults. I illustrate how these positions can instead be conceptualised as two motifs. At different points in the narrative, Red and Lyda are variously depicted as controlled adolescents and mighty adolescents. I exemplify how this can be brought to attention in the classroom through different tasks.

Since the publication of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games in 2008, there has been a boom in literature about dystopias with authoritarian regimes, featuring adults who oppress children and adolescents. Dystopian literature for young adults asks important questions about the consequences of the adult generation’s inability to deal with challenges such as discrimination and dictatorial tendencies. It also illustrates how young people can be oppressed by adults in non-fictional societies by exaggerating the power inequalities between children, adolescents and adults.

Mothers and Murderers explores power relationships between adults and the young, using a corpus of around one hundred Anglophone and Swedish dystopian novels for young adult (YA) readers. It highlights the power relationships that come into play when dystopian regimes force young characters to become killers. It also illuminates the relationship of power between children, adolescents and adults by analysing the motif of the adolescent mother. In this dystopian literature, adolescent mothers must be prepared to do whatever it takes to protect their child, even while being oppressed by adults. This book analyses how the power category of age relates to other categories such as gender, race, (dis)ability and class.

The genre’s problematisation of adult oppression of the young incorporates an educational potential that can be harnessed in the classroom. By exaggerating actual age-related power inequalities, it can support students and teachers in questioning assumptions about what the young generation needs and what elements of society it needs protecting from.

Combining text analyses of the motifs in the corpus, case studies with in-depth analyses of these motifs, and suggestions for teaching plans, this book is aimed at readers who want to explore dystopian literature for young adults, as well as teachers and trainee teachers who want to actualise the educational potential of this genre in the classroom.

In the second book in the Swedish fantasy series about the town Engelsfors, Fire (2013), a dysfunctional group of witches is forced to unite and work together in order to hide that they have switched bodies with each other. This version of the body-switching motif is different from the more common body switch between two characters in that five people who are all focalised throughout the experience take part in it. The body switch is closely tied to a learning process about the need for cooperation and understanding for other people’s life situations, which in turn emphasises the different girls’ intersectional power positions (cf. Crenshaw "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex"). Through the process of walking in someone else’s shoes, the girls get to experience how it feels to watch their own body and life from a distance. Simultaneously, they get to play the part of someone else. As a consequence, they learn about both their own life situation and intersectional power position, and about the girl whose body they temporarily reside in. Thus, the literalisation of the figure of speech “to walk in someone else’s shoes” becomes a learning process. By positioning each individual young woman as the active subject in another girl’s life and the passive object in their own life, the body switch functions as a fantasy literary equivalent to the photograph motif, which according to Roberta Seelinger Trites often is deployed as a vehicle for illuminating how people are simultaneously the subject and the object in their own lives in realistic adolescent literature (123). The article is based on the concept of intersectionality, photograph theory, Mikhail Bakhtin’s carnival theory, and Tzvetan Todorov’s theory on how fantastic literature can turn figures of speech into literalised facts. These theories are all used to investigate how the body switch problematises and changes the witches’ ability to influence their respective life situation.

Introduction: Conceptions of Girlhood Now and Then: “Girls’ Literature” and Beyond

In Justice in Young Adult Speculative Fiction, Marek C. Oziewicz argues, 'it is possible to study scripts through the lens of the author's cognition, through the reader's cognition, or as a textual matter with an implied author and reader' (9-10). Here we propose a fourth method for studying scripts in children's literature: as a textual matter. Unlike previous research in the field, we argue that neither the implied author nor the implied or real reader's cognition is necessary for a cognitive analysis to offer insights about a literary text. A cognitive analysis of characters can demonstrate how each character's cognitive embodiment of their intersectional subject position contributes to the progression of a text's plot and themes. By analysing the mimetic, synthetic and thematic dimensions of character (Phelan), we maintain an ontological distinction between humans and characters - a prerequisite for applying cognitive theories to characters. In order to demonstrate the broad applicability of our approach, we analyse the cognitive scripts of the protagonists in two portal-quest fantasies form two different countries. Taliah Pollack's Saga Sward: Omskakare och varldsresenar [Saga Sword: world shaker and traveller] was published in Sweden in 2012; Tahereh Mafi's Furthermore dates from 2016 and was published in the US.