Underhållning på rätt sätt: Bokserien Stjärnböckerna och Svensk läraretidnings förlag som litterära vägledare

Abstract

Theme: The Children’s Library Saga and the Swedish Teachers’ Magazine’s Publishing House. Logo: The Swedish Institute for Children's Books Entertainment the Right Way: The Book Series Stjärnböckerna and Svensk läraretidnings förlag as Literary Guides Stjärnböckerna is a book series for teenagers that was published by Svensk läraretidnings förlag 1937­­–1950. This article investigates the launch of the book series in 1937, the content of the first four books, their reception and the marketing of the book series, with the aim to gain a deeper understanding of how the publisher performed literary value. The study draws on theories about literary value and on Laura J. Miller’s concept reluctant capitalists, in order to understand the idealistic stance that the publishing house took towards their enterprise. The book series was launched as entertainment reading and as a counterweight to other literature that, at the time, was conceived of as being of bad quality and misleading for young readers. The debates specifically targeted crime magazines and romance stories from tabloids for, among other things, containing exaggerated violence and immoral values. The article shows that the ambition was to distribute the publishing house’s definition of literary value to readers, adult caretakers as well as critics by combining seemingly contradictory value regimes: one that underscores literature as entertainment, and one that aims to provide quality literature by creating a distance to contemporary popular entertainment. In the process of expressing its stance in the debate about so called bad literature for young readers, the publishing house reinforced its own brand as a trustworthy literary gatekeeper