Cet article porte sur la représentation de la masculinité dans Kiffe kiffe demain, le premier roman de Faïza Guène. La base théorique de l’étude est la branche des Gender Studies où l’on se concentre spécifiquement sur la construction de la masculinité (un domaine généralement appelé Men’s Studies ou Masculinity Studies en anglais).

La narratrice Doria et les autres personnages principaux de Kiffe kiffe demain habitent la banlieue parisienne et ils sont tous issus de l’immigration maghrébine. Par conséquent, nous nous intéressons plus particulièrement à la masculinité au sein de la communauté musulmane – telle qu’elle est décrite dans le roman.

Nous nous demandons si les personnages du sexe masculin sont porteurs d’une « masculinité islamiste » (au singulier) ou si on peut, au contraire, distinguer des identités masculines (au pluriel) plus complexes et hétérogènes. Notre étude indique que la masculinité islamiste est, en effet, très présente dans l’univers diégétique du roman, car la représentation de la communauté maghrébine y est assez problématique. Plusieurs personnages masculins de cette sous-culture sont même des caricatures d’hommes autoritaires et cruels.

Nous avons identifié trois aspects majeurs de la masculinité dans Kiffe kiffe demain : la trahison, l’hypocrisie et la violence – thèmes que nous jugeons intimement liés aux personnages masculins étudiés.

Cet article porte sur les deux premiers romans de Faïza Guène : Kiffe kiffe demain (2004) et Du rêve pour les oufs (2006), ainsi que les traductions en langue suédoise : Kiffe kiffe imorgon (2006) et Drömmar för dårar (2008). Nous présentons d’abord quelques mots et expressions dans les textes originaux qui sont porteurs de la culture maghrébine, pour voir comment ces termes sont traduits en suédois. Ensuite, nous discutons quelques mots qui sont porteurs de la culture française.

L’étude porte également sur l’oralité et le registre argotique, qui sont des traits caractéristiques de la prose de Faïza Guène. Or, si l’oralité est, dans l’ensemble, bien transférée en langue suédoise, il s’est avéré impossible de la rendre par les mêmes moyens dans la langue cible. Par conséquent, le procédé de compensation est fréquemment utilisé dans les textes traduits. Une conclusion de notre étude est que le côté argotique et « beur » des ouvrages est un peu moins développé dans les traductions que dans les textes originaux. Pour cette raison, on peut parler d’un procédé de normalisation : le texte cible a parfois tendance à devenir moins singulier – ou, si l’on veut, plus « normal », plus « neutre » que le texte source.

Le présent article porte sur la traduction française des aphorismes de Vilhelm Ekelund : Le moment suprême. Textes choisis et traduits par Benjamin Stassen (Bruxelles 1990). Il s’agit d’un petit recueil d’aphorismes qui, jusqu’ici, n’a jamais fait l’objet d’une étude critique. Nous examinons les stratégies du traducteur face à la prose singulière et personnelle de l’écrivain suédois. Nous nous demandons comment il a procédé pour transférer en français les particularités stylistiques, et autres traits caractéristiques de ces aphorismes. Dans l’ensemble, l’échantillon étudié est représentatif de la prose aphoristique de l’auteur, mais il s’agit d’un volume de très petit format : les « textes choisis et traduits » ne couvrent que vingt pages et ni la poésie, ni les essais d’Ekelund ne sont inclus.

Nos réflexions à propos des traductions sont centrées sur trois axes : nous commentons d’abord l’orthographe archaïque employée dans les textes suédois, mais qui n’a pas d’équivalent dans la traduction ; ensuite nous étudions la répétition – un ‘effet stylistique’ très caractéristique de la prose de l’auteur, mais qui a tendance à disparaître dans le texte cible – et, finalement, nous discutons l’abondance des substantifs dans les traductions, par rapport aux textes originaux.

En guise de conclusion, nous constatons que la traduction des aphorismes de Vilhelm Ekelund est bien faite au niveau du contenu. Néanmoins, il existe un certain nombre de cas où le traducteur, de toute évidence, est tombé dans le piège de la « normalisation ». Cette façon de neutraliser la prose d’Ekelund a parfois pour résultat un non-respect des choix stylistiques de l’auteur suédois.

Vilhelm Ekelund och den fransk-italienska kultursfären: Några nedslag i de tidiga prosaverken – från Antikt ideal (1909) till Attiskt i fågelperspektiv (1919). (Vilhelm Ekelund and the French and Italian cultural heritage: A study of his early prose – from Antikt ideal (1909) to Attiskt i fågelperspektiv (1919)). The Swedish poet, essayist and aphorist Vilhelm Ekelund was not only influenced by German literature and philosophy, he also wrote extensive literary criticism on the subject of Romance language authors. This article discusses Ekelund’s relationship to some of the most influential French and Italian writers – as it can be seen in his work during the period 1909-1919. This relationship was ambiguous: he paid homage to French authors such as Montaigne, Montesquieu, Stendhal and Comte – as well as to the Italian poet and philosopher Leopardi – but he also severely criticized such distinguished writers as Baudelaire, Rousseau and Maupassant. One conclusion of this article is that the authors praised by Ekelund all venerate the Greek and Roman cultural heritage, whereas the despised novelists and poets were, in his opinion, either too “modern” or too “feminine” – both highly pejorative adjectives in the author’s terminology. It is also noted that Ekelund’s most ferocious attacks date from the first part of the decade, before he entered a more harmonic period with the works Metron (1918) and Attiskt i fågelperspektiv (1919).

Vilhelm Ekelunds och det litterära fältet 1897-1949

[Vilhelm Ekelund and the literary field 1897-1949]

The theoretical background of this study is Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological approach to literature. I use his theory concerning the importance of cultural (and other forms of symbolic) capital for the individual artist – and his description of the literary field as a place characterized by continuous conflict between different categories of participants. In the article, I argue that as a young poet, Ekelund held a position in the field that was with the intellectual group as opposed to the group of commercial authors – and among the young avant-garde as opposed to among the consecrated and well-established writers. However, this position changed somewhat during the years Ekelund spent in exile (1908-1921), and it continued to change after his return to Sweden. His reputation as a thoroughly intellectual writer was accentuated and, as time passed, he himself became a consecrated artist with certain privileges – e.g. grants and awards – to defend.

This article investigates the notion of transculturality and applies it to four modernist authors of the 20^th century: Edith Södergran, Elias Canetti, Henry Parland and Marguerite Duras. The concept of transculturality is used to reach a better – or at least different – understanding of the selected writers and their respective body of work.

The purpose of this study was to examine marketers view of alcohol advertising. Focus have been

on its potential effect on the society, moral aspects and its relation to sustainability, identity, gender

and celebrities. The method used was semi-structured interviews with eight marketers at three

advertise agencies/production companies in Cape Town who have working experience of alcohol

advertising and this have been analysed in relation to impact and identity theories as well as ethics.

The result showed that majority of the marketers did not believe alcohol advertising increase

alcohol consumption nor lead to alcohol abuse but rather create brand awareness and competition

between brands. Their perception was also that alcohol brands are connected to identity in South

Africa and that using celebrities in alcohol advertising could be highly effecting when using the

right celebrity. One conclusion is that the participants did not suffer from moral myopia since they

were fully aware of what harm alcohol could have on the society. Regarding moral discussion at

work was it some of the marketers that did not talk about ethical issues which could be a sign of

moral muteness but it is really hard to draw any conclusion about it after a short interview.

The current piece of research is a study of how second language learners adapt to the distinction between imperfect and perfect in the narrative of past in the French language. The aim of the study is to find out how the learners adopt the grammar despite the difference between their native language and their learning language. The study describes the difference between Swedish and French. The corpus is defined, consisting of ten narratives by ten second language learners on the levels three and four in the Swedish school system. The title was

Un souvenir de mon enfance. An exercise in the schoolbook is also analysed. The result shows that the students first learn how to use imperfect in sentences containing a state verb. Later the students attempt the aspect of the verb to practise the shift between the past tense and the perfect tense. In conclusion, the shift between perfect and imperfect is a challenge to the Swedish learner. However, it is not an unbridgeable gap.

Denna undersöknings syfte var att undersöka användning av strukturer och strategiers

påverkan på en musikproducents kreativa arbetsprocess. Subjektet för undersökningen

var i detta fall uppsatsförfattaren själv och forskningsfrågorna löd: På vilka sätt

påverkas min produktivitet som låtskrivare och producent av att arbeta enligt en

förbestämd struktur? Vilka fördelar och nackdelar kan jag uppleva bland olika arbetssätt

för att ta sig ur och undvika skrivkramp? På vilka sätt påverkas jag av att försöka

framhäva tillståndet flow? Dessa besvarades genom forskningsmetoden forskning

genom design som gick ut på att producera låtar för att nå uppställda produktmål och

effektmål. Datan bestod av skriftlig loggbok som redogjorde för upplevelser, tankar och

känslor. För att analysera den användes i huvudsak Csíkszentmihályi Mihálys teori om

flow – den optimala upplevelsen. Detta knöts till huruvida strategierna som användes

kunde generera flow och produktiva resultat.

Resultatet visade att flertalet positiva effekter kunde upplevas och att det för

producenten upplevdes ge produktiva resultat. Det visade även på nackdelar med olika

strategier och att de passade bättre i vissa fall än andra men att medvetenheten om dem

och konceptet flow upplevdes som positivt. Studiens utformning ger upphov till olika

svagheter såsom att undersöka både den psykologiska aspekten tillsammans med

praktiska strategier kunde fokuserats mot en av dem. Samt att uppsatsförfattaren och

undersökningssubjektet är densamma. Styrkor finns i att förstahandsinformation är det

som presenteras och att det gick att knyta samband mellan aktiviteter och deras förmåga

att generera flow. Förslag för kommande forskning är att undersöka påverkan på

flertalet andra musikproducenter på olika nivåer.

Föreliggande uppsats syftar till att undersöka grundläggande orsaker till varför

svenskar mellan år 1874-1930 valde att emigrera till Nordamerika från hamnen i

Bergen. Vidare undersöks också emigrationsmönster och om vissa kategorier av

människor (till exempel specifika yrkesgrupper eller kön) var mer representerade än

andra. För att undersöka detta har en kvantitativ studie genomförts där

emigrantprotokoll, skrivna av hamnpolisen i Bergen mellan år 1874-1930, har

studerats. Resultaten visade att de flesta svenskar som emigrerade från Bergen var

unga, ogifta män från framförallt Älvsborgs och Värmlands län. Dessa kom till Norge

för att arbeta som grovarbetare inom infrastruktursektorn innan de emigrerade från

hamnen i Bergen till Amerika med New York eller Minnesota som vanligaste

destination. Resultaten pekade också på att faktorer som arbetsmöjligheter i Amerika,

lättillgängligheten att avresa via Bergens hamn, samt att den enskildes vänner,

kollegor och familj tidigare emigrerat kan ha legat till grund för utvandringen av

denna emigrationsgrupp.

Denna studie har inspirerats av Rikard Jonssons avhandling Blatte betyder kompis (2007), vilken

undersökte hur invandrarkillar använde sig av ett fult språk för att positionera sig som män i

gruppen. Föreliggande studie undersökte hur elever på språkintroduktionsprogrammet på en

utvald skola använder och analyserar orden hora och bög. I studien, som har en kvalitativ ansats

deltog tio män i åldern 18-20 år.

Syftet med undersökningen är att undersöka hur de medverkande ungdomarna använder orden

hora och bög för att positionera sig i en grupp, markera sitt kön samt utöva makt. Resultatet visade

att informanterna i denna studie kunde bekräfta det Jonsson (2007) kommit fram till i sin studie,

nämligen att ungdomar använder sig av ett visst språk för att få en roll i gruppen och markera sitt

kön. Dessutom framkom att informanterna är en produkt av den könsmaktsordning som råder i

samhället.

In this essay I focus on Christian Zionism, its roots and growth, to judge wether or not it is possible to look at Christian Zionism as a modern form of myth. To do that I have used Bruce Lincoln's definition: ideology in narrative form. I also ask the question whether this kind of religious conviction can be labeled as an extreme or become a danger to society. The conclusion I reach is that Christian Zionism and its broader context, dispensationalism, very well fits the definitions of modern myth that Lincoln offers. There is certainly a hierarcic ideology within Christian Zionism, and its narrative/myth have been ”negotiated between narrators and audiences over time”. The essay also shows that there is a risk concerning this particular form of religious conviction, it could become an extreme. Especially so when this alternative form of viewing reality and the future, is represented not only among ordinary citizens in the US, but also within the US Government and among military leaders.

Syfte: Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur fyra lärare i grundskolan årskurs 4-6 arbetar med textsamtal i svenskundervisningen. Syftet var också att lyfta fram de förmågor som elever kan utveckla vid textsamtal samt pedagogens betydelse för textsamtalets genomförande. Utifrån syftet har följande frågeställningar formulerats. Dessa är:

1. Hur arbetar fyra lärare med textsamtal i svenskundervisningen i årskurs 4-6?

2. Vilken kunskap bör pedagogen ha för att kunna genomföra samtal om texter enligt de deltagande lärarna?

3. Hur vanligt förekommande är samtal om texter i grundskolan årskurs 4-6 rent generellt enligt de deltagande lärarna?

4. Vilka förmågor anser de intervjuade lärarna att elever kan utveckla vid samtal om texter?

Metod: Den metod som har använts för att genomföra denna empiriska studie är observation och intervju. Urvalet som gjordes var att begränsa observationerna till fyra lektionstillfällen med fyra olika lärare. Den intervjuform som kändes mest lämplig att använda för detta ändamål var en halvstrukturerad ansats med ett kvalitativt utgångsläge.

Resultat och analys: Resultatet visar att de fyra deltagande lärarna har en medvetenhet kring vad ett textsamtal innebär. Denna kunskap är en följd av att lärarna helt eller delvis använder sig av ett färdigt arbetsmaterial i undervisningen. I materialet ingår strukturerade textsamtal. Den slutsats som kan göras efter att ha genomfört både observationer och intervjuer, är att endast en lärare säger sig arbeta medvetet, regelbundet och strukturerat med textsamtal i undervisningen. Det var dock inget som observerades under lektionen jag deltog i. En av lärarna säger också att hon arbetar medvetet och strukturerat med aktiviteten men menar att det är svårt att få tiden att räcka till. De övriga två arbetar inte med textsamtal i undervisningen men den ena läraren uppger att hon använder sig av öppna frågor rent generellt i undervisningen. Ett tryggt klassrumsklimat, goda ämneskunskaper, kunskap i att ställa rätt frågor samt att vara förberedd är förmågor som benämns som betydelsefulla för att textsamtal ska kunna äga rum. Ingen av lärarna uppger att de tror att textsamtal är vanligt förekommande i skolan.

Samtliga intervjuade lärare uppger ett antal förmågor som de menar att eleverna kan utveckla vid samtal om texter. Dessa är förmågan att kommunicera, förmågan att lyssna på andra, förmågan att uttrycka egna åsikter samt att kunna reflektera, analysera och bygga vidare på resonemang.

The aim of this study is to examine Japanese gendered language use in online game streaming, and the differences in gendered language use between male and female streamers. The main aim of this thesis is to examine how, and to what extent, young Japanese adults use gendered language when broadcasting gaming streams online. I will examine how pronounced the differences in gendered language use are between male and female streamers, and see if the major theories about gendered language apply in the Japanese streaming community. To collect the data, I looked at 20 game streamers, with each stream lasting 15-30 minutes. I transcribed the streamers’ commentary, and examined the frequency of certain sentence ending particles, personal pronouns, and polite speech/word choice. The streamers were chosen with regards given to certain criteria to prevent skewed results, and to control the independent variables to a certain extent. For example, the streamers must be playing alone to ensure that the streamer is the only person speaking. I analyzed the results using a qualitative method, which indicated that the greater gender differences are found in the use of personal pronouns, but not as much in the use of sentence ending particles or politeness level.

This essay examines the persuasive side of music and its affect on consumer behavior when utilized in television commercials. It includes an interpretation of twelve study cases, in which three groups of four people is presented the same commercial, with different music being the only item dividing the groups. This is followed by a few questions about the product. The aim is then to see how the answers differ from one group to another, and how they match the music’s presupposed connotations suggested in the theory part of the essay, thus, observing the communicative, and eventually persuasive, power of music in television commercials. The main question is: how might music utilized in a television commercial power people’s opinions about the product in that commercial. The results show how music may alter people’s opinions about the product in the commercial, and that the interviewees’ opinions, in most cases, match the music’s presupposed connotations. The study’s results confirm what was previously found by Adolfsson in 2007. By comparing results from then and now it adds to the understanding of musical meaning in everyday life.

This essay examines the persuasive side of language in a speech given by Senator Barack Obama on Super Tuesday in February 2008. It studies how Senator Obama utilizes language to convince and persuade his audience. This is done from an Aristotelian point of view, meaning that the study focuses foremost on how the senator’s word choices relate to Aristotle’s three means of persuasion, ethos, pathos and logos. Those basic guiding principles are relevant to use since Aristotle’s work on the subject of rhetoric is still today one of the most relevant works in that field. The analysis is basically performed through personal observations guided by previous studies, within the frame of Aristotelian rhetoric. The results show how Senator Obama enforces the three means of persuasion through language and how it can be considered persuasive. The study might add to rhetoric studies from a linguistic perspective since it reaches a better understanding of language used in the field of politics, where rhetoric is a prominent component.

The aim of this C-essay is to discuss the translation of some of the names in J.K. Rowling’s immensely popular Harry Potter books and look at how the translation agrees with and/or deviates from the original. Special focus is put on features such as alliterations, allusions and imaginative inventions, which are characteristic of J.K Rowling’s style and may be particularly tricky and challenging when translating. A comparison is made between the names in the original texts and the translated texts. The names are divided into different categories, such as names of characters, places etc. I argue that the translator uses different strategies when translating different types of names. Focus is on the Swedish translation, but Norwegian examples are included too.

Det självständiga bildämnet? – En bilddidaktisk litteraturstudie om bildämnets möjligheter att vara ett autonomt ämne i skolan: syftar till att undersöka, skapa kunskap om samt diskutera bildämnets plats, roll och funktion inom skolans värld. Vidare att öka förståelsen för bildämnets betydelse för elevers lärande och utveckling. Föreliggande studie har haft fokus mot gymnasieskolan och undersökningen är genomförd genom en systematisk litteraturstudie med en kvalitativ innehållsanalys som analysverktyg. Resultatanalysen är uppdelad efter frågeställningarna; Vilka argument lyfts fram för att legitimera bildämnet i skolan? Vilken betydelse har bildämnet för elevers lärande och utveckling? Vilka eventuella konsekvenser finns när bildämnet marginaliseras? Forskningen belyser flera argument för att legitimera bildämnet - exempelvis genom det mediespecifika argumentet, livsvärldsargumentet, demokrati- och yttrandefrihets-argumentet, tillväxtargumentet samt om bildämnet som kommunikatör vilket syftar till att konsten har en inverkan på kommunikation, ekonomi och teknik. Forskningen redogör för, gällande elevers lärande och utveckling, att bildundervisning har förmåga att konstruera betydelse och utveckla för ett öppet och kritiskt tänkande. Forskningen pekar mot att behövs nya perspektiv i bildundervisningen, annars riskerar undervisningen och estetiken att bli kraftlös och irrelevant.

We encounter images and visual expressions on a daily basis. An image says more than a thousand words... but maybe the images can say too much? The school plays an important role in the development of democracy, gender equality, tolerance and respect of human rights. It is therefore important to have a discussion about the content of the textbooks and reflecting upon how these support the school's duty. I intend to investigate how images are produced in teaching materials for religious education, focusing on Christianity and Islam. The method of the essay is a semiotic content analysis. To reach the purpose, to investigate how and what images depicted in the teaching materials for religious education, four questions have been compiled: How does the image material look? What relationship does image and text have with each other, and how do they communicate? What is the balance between men and women? Are these different depending on the subject area? Do the textbooks show stereotypes or generalizing views through pictures? The result of the study shows that the analyzed textbooks have a relatively rich image content. Both books have religious phenomena as the main motive of the pictures. One of my most important issues in this analysis was whether the images had a reasonable caption or text link in the current text. Only 8% of the analyzed material had no caption or text attachment. The result also shows that both textbooks reinforce stereotypes. In Christianity, it became clear that 55% of the imagery shows stereotypical patterns, and in the texts about Islam, 60% show stereotypical patterns. A general view is that images contribute to learning and can help explain and illustrate a difficult subject. In particular, images are good for creating variation from the text, but using images must be done with care and caution, as images can easily contribute and reinforce stereotypic perceptions and prejudices.

"Jaa, men bild…det är ju allt!" – En kvalitativ undersökning om elevers och bildlärares uppfattningar om bildämnets plats, roll och funktion i skolan

är en intervjustudie vilken syftar till att få ökad kunskap om bildlärares och gymnasieelevers uppfattningar om bildundervisning och bildskapande, samt om bildämnets plats, roll och funktion i skolan. Materialet som behandlas består av gruppintervjuer med tre verksamma bildlärare, två estetelever i årskurs 3 samt två teknikelever i årskurs 1. Bildämnet har fått en marginaliserad plats i skolans värld, och sedan skolreformen 2011 har ämnet, som tidigare varit en obligatorisk kurs, reducerats till att vara en valbar kurs som saknar meritpoäng. Undervisning i estetiska ämnen brukar ofta beskrivas som efterlängtade "andningshål" i en skola präglad av teoretiska ämnen. Många forskare menar dock att undervisning i konstarterna har en stor betydelse för människors sätt att tänka, lära och uppleva sig själva och omvärlden. Uppsatsens resultat visar att studiens deltagare upplever att bildämnet har en låg status i skolan, men är viktigt, i synnerhet för att uppmuntra och utveckla kreativitet, som deltagarna menar är viktigt i såväl ungdomslivet, som i framtida yrkesliv. Studien mynnar ut i en diskussion om viktiga aspekter som rör undervisning, kreativa näringar och arbetsprocesser, vårt växande bildsamhälle samt bildämnets tillskrivna status, och vad som kan betecknas som kunskap. Dessutom en diskussion kring studiens teoretiska utgångspunkter – Visuell kultur och visuell läskunnighet.

During the 20th century, Sweden developed into a mainly secularized society with low key institutional religious presence on the political scene. Church and state separated in year 2000, as a result of a long term development separating religion and politics in Sweden. But a new development has been taking place in the last decade in Sweden on municipality levels. Being a society with less the 5% of the population born abroad in the beginning of the 1960s, contemporary Sweden is today a cultural multi-diverse society with close to 20% of its population born abroad. As a result of migration Sweden has rather rapidly developed into a cultural diverse and multi-religious society. Starting in the year 2006 on a municipality level, representatives of religious organizations have in Sweden become invited participants in a growing number of Swedish cities through involvement in inter-religious councils. Often political local authorities has decided to take a leading role in the councils, seemingly out of a growing awareness of faith-based organizations crucial role in promoting social cohesion in local settings.

This paper presents a case study where the formation of an inter-religious council is taking place in a mid-sized Swedish town. The paper presentation outlines the result of interviews with three kinds of actors; (1) elected politicians responsible for strategic policymaking in local community, (2) civil servants responsible for carrying out these policies and (3) representatives of Christian and Moslem faith-based organizations active in the local community.

Main research questions are the following: What are the key expectations on the council from the different actors’ point of view? What kind of challenges are perceived to be crucial by different actors which should be dealt with in the short and long run?

Analyses are made comparing similarities and disagreements in various respondents’ views.The answers from the participants are also discussed through the lens of problematizing the overarching aim of the interreligious council. Does it promote a wished for social cohesion or does it involuntarily strengthen group conflict in pluralistic Sweden? The outcome of the empirical data will also be put in a European context about the consequences on local level when interreligious dialogue is established as part of municipalities’ inter-cultural strategies.

Swedish society is characterized by secularization but as a result of migration during the last decades Sweden has developed into a more pluralistic society. On local level this is also detectable through a development of inter-religious councils in a growing number of Swedish cities. Often local political authorities has decided to play a crucial part in the councils, seemingly out of a growing awareness of faith-based organizations vital role in promoting social cohesion in local settings. This paper presents a case study where the formation of an inter-religious council is taking place in a mid-sized Swedish town. It presents the result of interviews with three kind of actors; (1) elected politicians responsible for strategic policymaking in local community, (2) civil servants responsible carrying out these policies and (3) representatives of participatory Christian and Moslem faith-based organizations active in the local community. Main research questions: What are the key expectations on the council from the different actors’ point of view? What kind of challenges should be dealt with in the short and long perspective from different actors’ point of view? Analysis will be made comparing similarities and disagreements in various views.

Abstract: Audiovisual Storytelling and Ideological Horizons: Audiences, Cultural Contexts and Extra-textual Meaning Making

In a society characterized by mediatization people are to an increasing degree dependent on mediated narratives as a primary means by which we make sense of our experience through time and our place in society (Hoover 2006, Lynch 2007, Hjarvard 2008, Hjarvard & Lövheim 2012). American media scholar Stewart Hoover points to symbols and scripts available in the media environment, what he call the “symbolic inventory” out of which individuals make religious or spiritual meaning (Hoover 2006: 55). Vernacular meaning-making embedded in everyday life among viewers’ dealing with fiction narratives in films and tv-series highlight a need for a more nuanced understanding of complex audiovisual storytelling. Moving images provide individuals with stories by which reality is maintained and by which humans construct ordered micro-universes for themselves using film as a resource for moral assessment and ideological judgments about life (Plantinga 2009, Johnston 2010, Axelson 2015). Important in this theoretical context are perspectives on viewers’ moral frameworks (Zillman 2005, Andersson & Andersson 2005, Frampton 2006, Avila 2007).This paper presentation will focus on ideological contested meaning making where audiences of different cultural background engage emotionally with filmic narratives, possibly eliciting ideological and spiritual meaning-making related to viewers’ personal world views. Through the example of the Homeland tv-series I want to discuss how spectators’ cultural, religious, political and ideological identities could be understood playing a role in the interpretative process of decoding content. Is it possible to trace patterns of different receptions of the multilayered and ambiguous story depicted in Homeland by religiously engaged Christians and Moslems as well as non-believers, in America, Europe and Middle East? How is the fiction narrative dealt with by spectators in the audience in different cultural contexts and how is it interpreted through the process of extra-text evaluation and real world2understanding in a global era preoccupied with war on terror? The presentation will also discuss methodological considerations about how to reach out to audiences anchored in different cultural context.

This article analyzes how people in late modern society characterized by de¬traditionalization and individualization use moving images as a cultural resource for the construction of meaningful subjective world views. With a critical focus on ‘the self’ as a core aspect in contemporary media society, Eric W. Rothenbuhler labels the individual self as one of ‘the sacred objects of modern culture’ (Rothenbuhler 2006: 31). The article makes use of empirical data to illustrate and theoretically develop perspectives on how the audience uses fiction film in everyday life to elicit self-reflection and how film engagement is interconnected to spectator´s creation of self images (Giddens 1991, Axelson 2008b, Vaage 2008), but also how cinematic experiences could be a resource for the spectators’ construction of more profound and long-lasting ideas of being part of a moral community (Brereton 2005, Jerslev 2006, Klinger 2008, Barker 2009, Vaage 2009). Some empirical findings support a conclusion that moving images create a transitional space for the human mind, with the capacity of transporting the spectator from real life to fiction and back to real life again, helping the individual with an ongoing process of transforming the self, dealing with who you actually are, and who you want to become (Axelson 2008a, Vaage 2009). Other case studies show how the audience experience meaning in watching films, providing insights about meaning in life and general lessons of life value (Oliver and Hartmann 2010).

In an audience study empirical examples of narrative impact is presented when specific fiction film scenes condensate spectators’ emotional lives, identities, and beliefs. The outcome of conducted in-depth interviews with film viewers in Sweden 2012, discussing favorite films, will support theories about stories as a primary mean by which we make sense of our experience through time. It calls for a development of theories which in more detail explores spectator’s narrative competence when being absorbed by fiction. It challenges theories of fiction emotions and proposes a more complex analysis of the passionate viewer. A conclusion is that narrative impact is partly related to fiction emotions but most importantly when spectators are testing the narrative for a larger significance beyond the media, connecting diegetical fiction experiences with spectator’s profound aspirations in life and experienced conflicts of human existence in extra-diegetical world.

In what ways and under what circumstances can a movie be a resource for individuals and their thoughts about existential matters? This central research question has been investigated using a both quantitative and qualitative approach. First, a questionnaire was distributed amongst 179 Swedish students to provide a preliminary overview of film habits. The questionnaire was also used as a tool for selecting respondents to individual interviews. Second, thirteen interviews were conducted, with viewers choosing their favourite movie of all time. In the study socio-cognitive theory and a schema-based theoretical tool is adopted to analyze how different viewers make use of movies as cultural products in an interplay between culture and cognition in three contexts; a socio-historic process, a socio-cultural interaction with the world and inner psychological processes. Summarizing the interviews some existential matters dominated. Matters of immanent orientation were in the foreground. Transcendental questions received much less attention. Summarizing the schema-based theoretical question, assessing which cognitive schema structures the narratives were processed through, the study found an emphasis on a combination of two main cognitive structures, person schema and self schema. Detailed person schematic cognitive processes about fictitious characters on the screen and their role model behaviour were combined by the respondents with dynamic cross-references to detailed self schematic introspections about their own characteristics, related to existential matters at some very specific moments in their lives. The viewers in the study seem to be inspired by movies as a mediated cultural resource, promoting the development of a personal moral framework with references to values deeply fostered by a humanistic tradition. It is argued that these findings support theories discussing individualised meaning making, developing ‘self-expression values’ and ‘altruistic individualism’ in contemporary western society.