This dissertation develops and demonstrates a new mode of regional literary analysis. I begin by assessing the work of five Canadian literary regionalists from perspectives provided by human geographers and spatial theorists. Although discourses of Canadian literary regionalism vary, I argue that this field has tended to rely upon a reified understanding of regional analysis, a mystified conception of regional identity, and a passive construction of regional space. I offer a means of disrupting these tendencies by re-imagining the process of regional literary analysis. As I define it, literary regionalism is the process of demonstrating patterns in the way that literary texts deploy representations of sociomaterial space to enable performances of identity. This approach foregrounds literature's capacity to elucidate space's social efficacy. It also directs literary regionalism towards a more contemporary understanding of space and identity. In part two I begin to apply my mode of analysis to eight twentieth-century Canadian realist novels by introducing the concept of place. Because place-studies focus on the organization of social relations within a single text, I argue that they offer a useful means of initiating cross-textual, regional analyses. I demonstrate this point by analyzing the relationship between place and gender identity in Charles Bruce's The Channel Shore, and then looking for parallels in the way other novels articulate this relationship. In part three I construct a "region of denial and purgation" by interrogating how and why authors deploy representations of nature to deny the social origins of identity formation. I relate the power such representations have to articulate seemingly epiphanic shifts in identity to the sublime's enduring legacy. Because sublime experience enables characters to reconstitute themselves as new, it facilitates their desires to purge those aspects of their personal histories that have caused them guilt or shame. I conclude that this dissertation makes two contributions to Canadian literary studies. First, it advances a productive dialogue between human geography and Canadian literary studies. Second, by re-imagining the practice of Canadian literary regionalism through alternate disciplinary lenses, this dissertation helpfully foregrounds the heterodox character—and'unexplored potential—of a regional mode of literary analysis.

This thesis explores different expressions of regionalism(s) and regionalization processes in a Swedish and a westernized context. The case studies in the study conducted are represented by two different kinds of regions, Värmland and The Eight Million City. Värmland is a rather typical administrative and political bordered region at the subnational level in the Midwest of Sweden. The Eight Million City in turn exemplifies an imaginary cross border region, stretching from Oslo in the north, to Gothenburg, Malmö and Copenhagen in the south, connected in a network by a larger infrastructure corridor. It is also an example of how new planning practices stretching over already institutionalized national as well as local and regional borders, can be seen as challenging earlier planning and policy structures connected to the state. It is possible to see how different kinds of strategies related to strategic spatial planning practices are used to enhance the competitiveness of each region. In both cases this produce and reproduce different perceptions about what represents and constitute a competitive region. The empirical material analyzed in the study has been generated by interviews, participant observations, and document analysis based on discourse theory and discourse analysis. Different imaginaries are institutionalized in each region by different means and practices. In Värmland new perceptions about regional citizenship, regional identity and the idea of what constitutes a modern region are being institutionalized into the regional context by building a brand for the region. In The Eight Million City the project idea is based on an enlarged labor market connecting the larger cities in the region together in a network. As well as in Värmland, the knowledge produced in the project contributes to institutionalize different perceptions of citizenship and what makes up a competitive and attractive region. / Den här avhandlingen tar sin utgångspunkt i olika uttryck av samtida regionaliseringsprocesser och regionalism(er). Studien belyser två olika regionaliseringskontexter i form av Värmland och Åttamiljonerstaden. Två i grund och botten mycket olika regioner. Värmland utgör en subnationell administrativ region och därigenom ett exempel och ett uttryck för en decentralisering av statliga uppgifter rörande regional utveckling och tillväxt till den regionala nivån. Åttamiljonerstaden är en imaginär gränsöverskridande region som sträcker sig från Oslo i norr, över Göteborg och Malmö till Köpehamn i söder, där målet är att skapa en sammanhängande och funktionell arbetsmarknadsregion. Trots de båda regionernas olikheter, så kan de båda studerade regionerna ses som ett uttryck för en alltmer normativ policyagenda som grundas på begrepp som globalisering, internationalisering och en konkurrensutsatt marknad. Detta har lett fram till olika former av rumslig strategisk planering som ska stärka respektive regions konkurrenskraft med olika medel. I sin tur leder detta till att olika diskursiva kunskapsrationaliteter om vad som utgör den ”attraktiva regionen” i form av nya styrningsformer, regional organisering och den gode regionmedborgaren implementeras och institutionaliseras i respektive regional kontext.

This dissertation analyses the phenomenon of regionalism around the Baltic and the Black Sea since the end of the Cold War with a comparative approach and by applying an extended neorealist theory that includes geopolitics and historical legacy. The main focus is regional organizations, the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) and the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), which defines the geographical and political borders of the Baltic and the Black Sea region. These regional organizations are treated as international regimes. The three main varibales taken into consideration in this study are the distribution of power among the big states, the geographical location and the historical legacy that directly and indirectly affect the relations among the states in each region. These variables are consistently applied to the following  four sector analysed in this study: hard security, energy, economic development, and environment. While the last three sectors are areas of cooperation within the CBSS and the BSEC, hard security is not. Its inclusion in this study is because of the fact that it strongly affects the power relations among the states in the two regions and that it is strictly linked to the other three sectors. Although the CBSS and the BSEC have established ad hoc Working Groups with the aim to make cooperation working effectively, regional states cooperate to the extent that it brings relative gains according to the neorealist theory. The analysis shows that the two regimes created around the Balti and the Black Sea are ineffective despite the fact that the CBSS has managed to create stronger cooperative links among its members compared to the BSEC.

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Thesis (M.A.)--Eastern Illinois University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-101).

Thesis (Ph.D.). / Written for the Dept. of English. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2008/08/04). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Leopold-Franzens Universität Innsbruck, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 230-251).