En verksamhet i den psykologiska och politiska ödeläggelsens landskap : En kritisk diskursanalys av biblioterapi i dags- och månadspress ; An activity in the landscape of psychological and political devastation : A critical discourse analysis of bibliotherapy in daily and monthly press

The concept of bibliotherapy is subject to different views of its meaning and potential place in the library. Through a critical discourse analytical approach, this thesis examines bibliotherapy in relation to a Swedish library context by analyzing Swedish articles from daily and monthly press, and relating the discourses identified in them to Zygmunt Bauman’s theory of late modernity. Using bibliotherapy and library as key concepts to analyze, seven different discourses are identified, the first four related to the concept of bibliotherapy and the three latter related to the norms, beliefs, and values of libraries: a curative discourse, a universal discourse, a discourse based on reading as a way of looking inward, one based on reading as a way of recognition, traditional library discourse, bibliotherapeutic library discourse, and crisis discourse. These discourses are related to each other as well as to the social structures of late modern society, and the role of bibliotherapy as a whole is examined in this context. Bibliotherapy emerges as a tendency in late modern society, interacting with aspects of it consisting of undermining of the welfare society, the construction of identity, and seeking of community and safety.