Berit Åström

Although single fathers as primary careers are on the rise, most single-parent households in the US are headed by women. These women are a lucrative market for parenting books and most of these books are aimed at single mothers raising sons. This intersectional study analyses the way in which these advice books draw on mother blame language, misconceptions of neuropsychological research and traditional conceptualisations of masculinity and femininity to convince the mother readers that they are unable to raise a son to be a man. The study further connects the advice books to a cultural backlash against ideas of ‘involved fatherhood’ and ‘caring masculinity’, exploring how the authors argue for a return to traditional family structures.

Although single fathers as primary careers are on the rise, most single-parent households in the US are headed by women. These women are a lucrative market for parenting books and most of these books are aimed at single mothers raising sons. This intersectional study analyses the way in which these advice books draw on mother blame language, misconceptions of neuropsychological research and traditional conceptualisations of masculinity and femininity to convince the mother readers that they are unable to raise a son to be a man. The study further connects the advice books to a cultural backlash against ideas of ‘involved fatherhood’ and ‘caring masculinity’, exploring how the authors argue for a return to traditional family structures.

Begrepp som ”flicka” och ”tant” a¨r ta¨njbara och ibland motsa¨gelsefulla. De kan vara uttryck fo¨r genus, fo¨rbundna med kultur, kroppsideal, livsfo¨rlopp och normer. I Att konstruera en kvinna anva¨nder fo¨rfattarna flickan, tjejen, kvinnan och tanten fo¨r att ska¨rska°da a°lders- och ko¨nsordningar och tillga¨ngliggo¨ra forskning om ko¨n, a°lder och a°ldrande. Flickan ser vi oftast som ett barn, men ordet har ocksa° kommit att anva¨ndas om tjejer och unga kvinnor. Tanten i sin tur har kommit att bli en symbol fo¨r ”det lilla livet” med hantverk och la°ngkok, men a¨ven fo¨r sja¨lvsta¨ndighet och kritisk blick: hon so¨ker inte behaga utan kan sa¨ga emot och visar civilkurage. Ba°de tanten och flickan anva¨nds ibland pa° ett a°lderso¨verskridande och subversivt sa¨tt. Fo¨rfattarna diskuterar hur kulturella fo¨resta¨llningar skapas och a°terspeglas i medierade sammanhang: i sko¨nlitteratur, tidningar, tecknade barnfilmer, bloggar och olika popula¨rkulturella sammanhang – men ocksa° i ma¨nniskors egna bera¨ttelser. Har vi idag ett uppluckrat a°lderslandskap da¨r ma¨nniskor a¨r friare fra°n normer om ”passande beteende” och kan iscensa¨tta sina liv som de o¨nskar utan att beho¨va fo¨rha°lla sig till sociala tidtabeller?

In recent years Anglo-Saxonist scholars have widened the scope of their studies to include not only various aspects of Anglo-Saxon society and literature, but also, selfquestioningly, their own discipline. Through an in-depth study of the scholarship on The Wife's Lament and Wulf and Eadwacer, this thesis examines the roles of these scholars in the critical history of the two poems. The poems are two of the most haunting and at the same time cryptic texts of the entire Old English corpus. Because of these characteristics, the research they inspire is wide-ranging, imaginative and sometimes provocative. The thesis focuses mainly on two aspects of scholarly research: the emergence of a professional identity among Anglo-Saxonist scholars and their choice of either a metaphoric or metonymic approach to the material. A final chapter studies the concomitant changes within Old English feminist studies.