Strindbergsbilder i gymnasiets litteraturundervisning : En analys av fyra läromedel i svenska

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this paper is to study the image of Strindberg that is conveyed in four different textbooks for the upper secondary school. How do the teaching authors choose to portray Strindberg? Do they focus on any one particular aspect of his writing? Adjacent to this a subsidiary aim is to see if teaching authors highlight the fictional nature of Strindberg’s works or choose to encourage a biographical interpretation. The work consists of a study of four literary history textbooks in the subject of Swedish for the upper secondary school, from 2000 to 2012. In the selected material the sections focusing on Strindberg and his writings are closely read and critically analysed. The teaching materials have then been compared to each other, with the purpose of trying to find similarities or differences in the way Strindberg is portrayed. What emerged from the analysis is that the aspect of Strindberg that is consistently provided with the greatest scope is his prose. Alongside and in interaction with the writing, much space is given to the person Strindberg and incidents from his life that has influenced his writing. The works and the facts about Strindberg which are given special emphasis are generally the same, what distinguishes the materials from each other is the actual image of Strindberg and the attributes and epithets used in the transmission of this image. A biographical interpretation of the works is indeed used throughout, like in the teaching materials of the 1980- and 1990s.