Te aim of this article is to study how Sami environments are represented in Inga Borg’s Plupp books. How are the characters portrayed and how do they relate to each other and to the environment? In the analysis, ecocritical and postcolonial theories are used. Te result shows that Plupp is a character who interacts with nature and animals and follows the shifts of nature. Several books contain ecocritical motifs and Plupp shows great hospitality and generosity and he also advocates biodiversity and variety. In the characterisation of Plupp, rudimentary binaries like nature-culture and male-female are deliberately superseded or harmonised. Plupp can thus be read as a metaphor of equality, but also as a recognition of the Other. As a person (or being) seemingly existing in a space beyond language, Plupp transcends the expectations and limitations of many normative categorisations.
Lately there are numerous studies that show the limits of gender and fundamental value questions in various teaching aids. In Swedish as a school subject, this kind of research is insufficient, which is noteworthy since several researches today regard Swedish as a subject that deals with issues such as democracy and dialogism in a decisive way. Therefore, this article analyses three recently published text books aimed at literary history in Swedish as a school subject for upper secondary school with a focus on fundamental values. In the Swedish educational system, fundamental values is a central concept that illuminates matters connected to democracy, norms and values, and gender and equality are particularly significant issues. The study, which is both quantitative and qualitative, will be based on questions of intersectionality. Recurrent questions are thus how various authorships are presented based on gender, class, nationality and sexual preference. The results show that the analysed text books predominantly include a white, western, male discourse while discourses of women, non-European and national minorities clearly are excluded. Furthermore, men and women are valued differently. In the analysed course material, stereotypical images of masculinity and femininity that are belitted, and sometimes even sexist, are constructed. There is also an othering of non-European authors where non-European women are twice as marginalised. These evaluative points of departure, explicit and implicit, strengthen and manifest traditional gender roles and a heterosexual matrix which implacably go against the fundamental values of the Swedish educational system.
Te aim of this article is to contribute to the current academic discourse on how meaning is created in the practise of roleplaying games, and to critically discuss the particular type of aesthetic experience that roleplaying games can provide. Te empirical material consists of a readymade adventure, audio recordings of authentic roleplaying sessions, and interviews with the participants. Te analysis is based on theories on the value of literature reading and on theories concerning narrative aspects of games. Te results show that a perceived intrigue has a bearing on how the players create meaning in the gaming situation, and that literary values to some extent can be used to describe the aesthetic impact of roleplaying, but also that the function of interactivity in games can deepen as well as prevent this impact.
Today’s media landscape is characterized by convergence culture, where the formats and the distribution of a narrative come together and create extensive multi modal text universe. At the same time the traditional division between producer and consumer is challenged. With examples from fan fiction and role playing games, the article discusses the notion of narrative competence as a possible way of understanding and describing the participation in multi modal text universe. Some of the things that characterize narrative competence are social interplay in a collective intelligence, to be able to discern plots and make creative imitations and to develop a meta reflective ability to be able to meet, try and understand one’s own reactions. One of the conclusions in the article is that if school education wishes to be experienced as relevant among students, it should include narrative competence. At the same time it will also increase the possibilities of reaching democratic goals.
Recently, there has been an upsurge in the production of dystopian literature for young adults, in which the sixteen-year-old protagonist must face a turning-point in life. A number of these dystopian texts have been made into films and have given rise to a whole industry; a contemporary convergence culture, in which texts flow between media platforms. These texts have experienced tremendous national and international commercial success. The aim of this article is to present perspectives on converged literature in fan communities on the dystopian Hunger Games and Divergent series. This article analyses three recurrent themes and concerns: the rite of passage, roles and voice. Here, I analyse the literary texts themselves (in particular, the first volume in each series) and posts on two discussion forums, in an attempt to adopt an approach combining the study of texts and contexts through literary analysis and cultural studies. As the primary material for this study consisted of posts from two online fan forums dedicated to The Hunger Games series and the Divergent series, netnography proved a useful tool. Netnography explores activity and self-representation in social networking sites, in order to provide data on complex social and cultural practices, relationships, and the use of language and symbols. The netnographer collects publicly available archival data for text and image analysis. Methodologically, netnography enables scholars to ask pertinent questions regarding the correlation between activities taking place on social networking sites and other socially situated activities. My results show that the themes and concerns analysed are discernible in both the literary texts and the posts on fan forums. Voice as a theme is closely connected with the expression of individual opinions, but it also arises in discussions of narratology. Rites of passage are generally discussed in relation to fictional characters. With regard to roles, participants in fan forums take on a number of different roles: as readers, critics, consumers, producers, and guardians of the texts they love.