Identity creation in and through youth novels. A text analysis of Per Nilssons youth novels Anarkai and Ett annat sätt att vara ung

This Masters thesis is a study in library and information science, that examines literature as a tool for young people in their identity creation. Both scientists and teachers have found that teenagers like to identify themselves, when reading literature. The purpose of this Masters thesis is to examine how youths construct their identity through reading in relation to the purpose that libraries and cultural politics have in youth novels. The starting point of this study is the sociologist Thomas Ziehe and his idea about identity try-out identitetsutprovning and Erving Goffmans dramaturgy perspective. The main question is: what is the relation between young peoples identity creation in youth novels and in their reality in proportion to the young peoples reading of youth literature and the science about their reading? The question is answered in three parts. The first part examines previous studies about teenagers relation to reading youth novels and the ambitions of the cultural politics. The second part depicts youths and their reality through the anthologies About young women Om unga kvinnor and About young men Om unga män. The third part examines teenagers identity creation in fiction through a textual analysis of two novels written by the popular Swedish youth novel writer Per Nilsson: Anarkai Anarkai and A different way of being young Ett annat sätt att vara ung. In literature as well as in reality, meeting with new people is important for acknowledgement and connection. One conclusion of the study is that youths who read these novels have a good possibility of identifying themselves in them, but the knowledge of librarians and teachers that mediate these novels to teenagers is insufficient, which results in the novels not reaching the desired amount of youths.Uppsatsnivå: