Cultural Policy and Literature. Different Views on Value, Quality and Reader

This study treats cultural policy, it´s view of the value of literature, and how this view varies within different fields of cultural policy. The aim of the essay is to find different competing approaches through an investigation of texts from three different fields within cultural policy. The fields investigated are: The publishing subsidy of the National Council for Cultural Affairs, which values above all quality literature. En bok för alla, concentrates on spreading quality literature to new groups in society. Centrum för lättläst, which values that the contents of a text are successfully delivered to, and understood by, the reader. These three fields are compared with each other in means of their views on literature and reader. The study is carried through in the form of a text analysis inspired by the discourse theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. One conclusion drawn is that there are two domineering approaches to this matter which compete against each other. According to the first approach, literature has a value in itself. There is something that can be called quality literature, irrespective of whom be the reader. According to the second approach, the value is in the readers individual understanding of the literature. Either the book and its inherent quality are put in the first room, or the readers experiences attract the most interest. Other competing values can be said to be dependent on an overall political discourse, which values democracy, social variety and freedom of speech.Uppsatsnivå: