”Man ska helt enkelt bli rädd” : En studie av sju barns berättelser om läsning av skräcklitteratur

Sammanfattning: The aim of this Master’s thesis is to create increased knowledge about how 10-11 year old readers experience and use horror fiction. The work is organized to seek answers to questions regarding how the children experience, use and get affected by reading horror fiction. The essay is based on sev-en individual semi-structured qualitative interviews with children aged 10-11 years. The empirical material from the interviews was analysed by content analysis, through which recurring themes could be distinguished: Suggestion, Emo-tional reactions, Self-reflection and Creativity. The analysis has been conducted through applications of theories about development psychology, children’s reading development and genre concepts of horror fiction. The themes are exempli-fied with quotes from the interviews. Based on result from the analysis, conclusions are drawn in response to the initial questions of the study. The conclusions are not generalizable, but valid for individual children in the study, provided their statements have been correctly interpreted.- The children experience reading horror fiction Physically, Visually and Emotionally.- By reading horror fiction the children fill needs for Stimulus, Therapy and Community.- The children are affected by horror fiction in that they Develop skills and/or Develop inhibitions.In the essays final discussion the thesis’ emerging picture of the children's approach to horror fiction is problematized. The discussion underlines the importance of adults in the li-brary and school taking interest in the children's own experi-ences of reading, and it is hoped that this thesis can contrib-ute to the promotion of this.