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Abstract

Reading Without Lines. Transformations of Literary Texts in Textbooks While textbooks and teaching materials within the high-school subject of Swedish have been the focus of several studies, the transformations that literary works undergo as they are incorporated into teaching materials warrant further consideration. Research has shown that the subject of Swedish in schools has been subject to fragmentation as its scope has expanded. Such fragmentation has also been shown to affect the way learning materials such as textbooks and anthologies present literary works to pupils. This article considers the textual transformations that literary texts undergo in their transition from originals to textbook material, with a particular emphasis on processes such as remediation, fragmentation, exclusion and hybridization. What kind of text are pupils in schools actually reading when they open their textbooks? What is the relationship between the original literary work and the excerpt commonly found in textbooks and anthologies? While empirical studies of classroom situations have yielded considerable insight into learning processes, as well as literacy and reading, this study focuses on the text itself by describing and theorizing the implications of textual transformations for the study of literature. Through an analysis of literary works from three different schoolbooks in the subject of Swedish for year 7, 8, and 9, the article illustrates and problematizes various aspects of textual transformations as it relates to the curriculum, Lgr 11.

Keywords

• textbooks
• Swedish
• literature in schools
• didactics
• textual transformations