Embodied Reading : Formative Perspectives on Literature Education

This thesis explores aspects of reading literature, embodiment and Bildung with a specific focus on literature education in compulsory school. The main purpose of this study is to discuss and problematize literature education in Swedish compulsory schools by focusing on embodiment and Bildung. The theoretical framework of this thesis draws on hermeneutics and phenomenology, and especially on the concepts of experience and the lived body. Through four studies, the thesis investigates different aspects of literature reading and literature teaching. In the first study the focus is on the curriculum of the school subject Swedish, while the second study investigates teachers' classroom practices when teaching literature in years three and five. In the third study, the focus is on pupils in years four and five, who enjoy reading fiction, and their stories and experiences of reading. The fourth study is based on empirical material from the third study that is combined with empirical material presented earlier in order to highlight possible approaches to Bildung in literature education in the school subject Swedish. The methods used in the thesis are textual analysis (study 1), observation (study 2) and interviews (study 3 and 4). The overall result shows that children's reading experiences can be considered a possible way of initiating a process of Bildung, and further that this process has bodily dimensions. The study also reveals that there is a discrepancy between how literature reading is articulated in the Swedish curriculum, on the one hand, and how reading is experienced by pupils and how reading education take place in practice, on the other. Possible implications of this discrepancy is that the formative potential does not reach all pupils.Denna avhandling handlar om grundskolans litteraturundervisning med ett särskilt fokus på kroppslighet och bildningsaspekter. Genom fyra delstudier görs nedslag i styrdokument, lärares klassrumspraktik och elevers egna erfarenheter av litteraturläsning. Avhandlingen visar hur barns läsupplevelser kan vara en möjlig del av en bildningsprocess och att dessa läsupplevelser har kroppsliga dimensioner. Resultaten visar också att de skrivningar om litteraturläsning som finns i den nuvarande kursplanen i svenska (Lgr11) står i skarp kontrast dels till lärares undervisningspraktik, dels till elevernas egna berättelser om litteraturläsning. Detta kan innebära att litteraturens bildningspotential inte når alla elever. Avhandlingen vänder sig till forskare, lärare, studenter och andra som är intresserade av frågor som rör villkoren för grundskolans litteraturundervisning.