The main research interest in Comparative Literature is centred on the character, function, and history of literary text. In Gothenburg particular emphasis is placed on Scandinavian, above all Swedish literature, mainly from the last few centuries. However, there is also a vivid interest in literature from older periods such as the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. A number of approaches are represented at the department: reception studies and research about literary criticism, literary history, biography, sociology of literature, popular fiction, cultural studies, genre studies, prosody, rhetorical, thematic and comparative studies, literature didactics, theatre history, drama studies, and gender-oriented literature studies.