This thesis explores the American liberal Protestant religious influences on Oscar Hammerstein II, and investigates how they are manifested in his musical plays written with Richard Rodgers in the period 1943-1959. Identifying these influences, which stem from Hammerstein's Protestant maternal family and from his attendance during his youth at the prominent Universalist church, The Church of the Divine Paternity, enable a widening of the theological engagement with popular culture to include the neglected realm of musical theatre. Having identified the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical play as a particularly powerful popular art form that explores the existential questions faced by human beings, I investigate the previously unexplored Unitarian and Universalist influences on Oscar Hammerstein II, refuting claims that he was part of the Jewish theatrical community on Broadway. Tracing these influences in Hammerstein's lyrics and libretti shows his response to these fundamental questions as human beings seek to create meaning and build identity in relation to that which is ‘other'. Within Hammerstein's personal philosophy I distinguish, the relationship between human beings and God, and the ethical relationships between human beings in community. I begin by exploring the Unitarian moral philosophy and belief in the fatherhood of God found in Carousel, The Sound of Music and Cinderella, and engaging with the Universalist depiction of the restoration period of the soul found in Carousel. Having revealed Hammerstein's liberal Protestant understanding of this relationship, I turn to his social and political activism connecting it to a social gospel understanding of the brotherhood of man and assertion of human unity. Engaging with his ‘American' musicals – Oklahoma!, Carousel, and The Sound of Music - and his ‘Asian' musicals – South Pacific, The King and I, and Flower Drum Song - separately, I question the theological implications of his late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century understanding of human unity have with regard to diversity. Throughout each of his musicals evidence is adduced of an unwavering belief in the progress of humankind onward and upward, as he reveals a significant liberal Protestant understanding of the nature of humanity, the brotherhood of man, and the possibility for human development and change.

Les radicaux britanniques réclament une réforme parlementaire profonde et une limitation de l’influence royale, et encouragent la participation populaire à la vie politique. L’étude porte sur les membres de deux sociétés londoniennes, la Society for Constitutional Information et la Revolution Society, et en particulier sur deux de leurs figures de proue, Richard Price (1721-1791) et sur John Cartwright (1740-1823). Leur discours oscille entre des références patriotiques à l’histoire nationale [constitutionnalisme] et une ouverture à l’universel (jusnaturalisme). La guerre de l’indépendance américaine révèle à leurs yeux les failles du système politique britannique et l’Amérique leur offre désormais un nouveau modèle de liberté. A la même époque, leur discours prend une dimension britannique et non plus seulement anglaise. L’évolution de leur discours se mesure à la différence entre la xénophobie marquant le début de la période, chez John Wilkes par exemple, et l’idée de bienveillance universelle défendue par Price en 1789 dans un éloge conjoint de la révolution anglaise de 1688-1689 et de la Révolution française. / British radicals demanded a thorough reform of parliament and limitations on the influence of the crown, and encouraged popular political participation. This study is concerned with members of two London-based societies, the Society for Constitutional Information and the Revolution Society, and in particular with two leading figures of the movement, Richard Price (1721-1791) and John Cartwright (1740-1823). Their discourse alternates between patriotic references to national history (constitutionalism) and an appeal to universal values [natural rights]. Under the influence of the War of American Independence, they opened their eyes to the shortcomings of the British political system, and came to consider America as a new model of liberty. During the same period, their discourse widened from an English to a British dimension. This evolution is nowhere more apparent than in the contrast between the xenophobia of the early years of the reform movement (associated with John Wilkes) and the idea of universal benevolence that Price defended in 1789, when he paid a double tribute to the Glorious Revolution of 1688-1689 and to the French Revolution.

<p>The aim of this study is to analyse the Swedish state´s ambition in achieving equality among its citizens. By studying the new urban policy introduced by the government in 1998 from a theoretical perspective the purpose of this essay is to understand the ideational dimensions in this policy project, in regard to established understandings about equality.</p><p>The theoretical framework on which this study is based consists of two different parts. The first presents dominating models on welfare states, mainly focusing on the socialdemocratic welfare state. The second introduces influential theoretical views on equality, primarily discussing universalism and a differentiated equality view. It also presents theoretical views on how to understand the relationship between the state an its citizens. This essay is taking its departure from a perspective based on constructionism, by asking how the problem was constructed and what the policy tells us. It is a case study using a discoursive approach in analysing the policy from an understanding of policies as arguments shaped by normative assumptions made by actors whose assumptions are limited by the discourse in which they exist.</p><p>The main result of the study is that since the policy was created while the socialdemocratic party was in government, the normative assumptions, on which the party base its analysis on society, therefore had a main influence on the policy. Even though the analysis of the policy shows a tendency in Swedish welfare politics moving away from universalism towards a differentiated view on equality, with the state still marked by communitarian ideals, there appears to be a resistance towards including the perspective of cultural recognition next to the traditional view on economic redistribution based on a class theory.</p>

<p>The aim with this paper is to study how the integrational ideology of the Swedish parliaments party platforms, including the right wing Sverigedemokraterna, is formulated. The integration theories examined are assimilationism, multiculturalism, universalism and residualism. In turn these theories are simultaneously applied to the party platforms extracting explicit or implicit messages of the four former mentioned theories. The Swedish history of integration as well as immigration, which per capita is one of the highest in the European union, pinpoints the reason why this subject is due to further investigation. The results show that most of the parties contain traces of more than one integration theory, with the exception of primarily Sverigedemokraterna which focuses on assimilationism. On the other hand Vänsterpartiet, Socialdemokraterna and Centerpartiet are in favour of multiculturalism whereas Folkpartiet, Kristdemokraterna, Miljöpartiet, and Moderaterna contain more than one integration theory.</p>

The aim with this paper is to study how the integrational ideology of the Swedish parliaments party platforms, including the right wing Sverigedemokraterna, is formulated. The integration theories examined are assimilationism, multiculturalism, universalism and residualism. In turn these theories are simultaneously applied to the party platforms extracting explicit or implicit messages of the four former mentioned theories. The Swedish history of integration as well as immigration, which per capita is one of the highest in the European union, pinpoints the reason why this subject is due to further investigation. The results show that most of the parties contain traces of more than one integration theory, with the exception of primarily Sverigedemokraterna which focuses on assimilationism. On the other hand Vänsterpartiet, Socialdemokraterna and Centerpartiet are in favour of multiculturalism whereas Folkpartiet, Kristdemokraterna, Miljöpartiet, and Moderaterna contain more than one integration theory.

This dissertation represents the first attempt to take account of the entire Swedish œuvre of Marcus Ehrenpreis and view it as a single, coherent statement, recognizing the very fundamental confrontation taking place between tradi­tional and modern ways of viewing reality and its possible resolution. A reading of his work reveals that the one constant in his life in letters was the struggle to reconcile the apparent logical antithesis of universalism and particu­larism, which this dissertation sees as one with resonance for all ethnic minorities. In the Chapter One, a general orientation in the modern Jewish world is provided, including the traditional worlds of Orthodoxy and Hasidism into which he was born; the trend toward the political emancipation of the Jews in Western and Central Europe and the subsequent waves of assimilation among young Jews; the exacerbation of antisemitic tendencies in both Eastern and Western Europe; the emergence of Jewish nationalism, commonly known as Zionism; and the renaissance of Jewish culture which crystallized around these events. Chapter Two offers a social and intellectual biography of Ehrenpreis, providing the reader with the relevant information about his youth, organizational efforts, education, and career as rabbi and author, while Chapter Three posits a perspective from which to approach his work, by describing the generational unit to which he belonged and how the concerns of his youth and early adulthood, shared by other Jewish intellectuals born around the same time as he, shaped the problems with which he grappled throughout his life. The generational perspective also allows the fundamental differences between his own generation and the generations before and after his to emerge in bold relief. It is hoped that in employing this perspective, it becomes clear that the accumulated work of Ehrenpreis can be seen as an integrated whole, which came to full expression during his thirty-five years in Sweden. In Chapter Four, Ehrenpreis' definitions of Jewish religion and Jewish culture and the difference between them are explicated, before proceeding to investigate the way in which he thought the essence of these ideas best be mediated - primarily from the pulpit in his sermons and the intellectual periodical in his writings. The latter in par­ticular he found to be an essential tool for disseminating Jewish culture in Sweden, both to Swedish Jewry and the general Swedish public. Chapters Five and Six deal with what Ehrenpreis considered the two major expressions of Jewish culture, lit­erature and historical knowledge, and the roles they played in the formation of a substantive understanding of Jew­ish culture in the modern world. For him, literature was the bearer of ethics and values and the forum within which these could be transvaluated and made germane to modern man. In his historical writings, he wished to counteract tendencies from within and without the Jewish world which either consigned the Jewish people to the past tense, or overemphasized the role of traumas and catastrophes in its history at the expense of an ongoing, positive and cre­ative Jewish cultural evolution. Chapter Seven concludes the close reading of Ehrenpreis ' Swedish authorship by concentrating on his war­time writings. In referring to the legacy of the Hebrew prophets, the essential cultural values of Jewish tradition as he perceived them emerge: The ideas of social justice, minority rights, and the goal of perpetual peace between nations. He emphasizes their significance for the development of the democratic tradition in Europe as well as their function as the pillars on which the identity of Jews in the modern world could rest. The dissertation closes with a summary of its conclusions. / digitalisering@umu

This essay is called Imaginary non-community, How Swedish press portrayed the fight for freedom in Tunisia and Hungary 1955 and 1956 and it describes how two similar struggles for freedom are portrayed through the eyes of the most popular Swedish news papers Dagens Nyheter, Aftonbladet and Expressen. In 1955-56 Sweden is a country where the focus lies within the nation itself with economic growth and the building of folkhemmet. The Swedish social program for a more improved living condition. Outside of Sweden the cold war is reigning and the Swedish international politics is careful and passive. The fear of communism makes Sweden side with the western powers and therefore they (Swedish politicians and news papers) do not object to the French military effort to strike down the rebellions by force in North Africa. Tunisia and Hungary are countries within the European hemisphere, Hungary as a former empire now as a satellite country for the Sovjetunion and Tunisia as a colony of France. Tunisia and Hungary may share similar assets, they both struggle to gain freedom from their dominant opponents and they are both part of the European hemisphere but is their similarities enough to make them portrayed the same in the Swedish news papers? European universalism and an imaginary community are definitions I have been trying to exemplify with my investigation of the Swedish news papers portrayment of Tunisia and Hungary 1955-56. And though it is easy to find literature about nationalism, post-colonialism and European universalism it has come to my conclusion that news papers and their impact in creating imaginary community and exclusion rarely has been investigated in Sweden. Tunisia and Hungary do have some similarities with each other but they are definitely not portrayed the same in the Swedish news papers. It was clear to me that the Swedish press sympathized with Hungary to a greater extent than with Tunisia in their struggle for freedom.

Until recently Alice Cary's works have gone largely unnoticed by the literary community, and those critics who have examined her writings have recognized her primarily as a regionalist sketch writer. However, studying Cary's total body of fiction, including her novels and children's fiction as well as her sketches, and examining the influence of Christian Universalism upon her work reveals that Cary is a much more complex and nuanced writer than she has been previously understood to be. This dissertation explores the way that Cary questions stereotypes of accepted behavior specifically as they pertain to the identities of men, women, and children and offers a more flexible and inclusive religious identity rooted in Universalist ideals. In her depictions of women, Cary uses tropes from gothic stories, fairy tales, and sentimental fiction to criticize evangelical faith, Transcendentalism, and separate spheres-based stereotypes of women's behavior, and she undermines these stereotypes and replaces them with a Universalist emphasis on communal service and identity. Similarly, Cary's depictions of manhood are influenced by her desire to dissect preconceived notions of masculinity like that of the Self-Made Man and his earlier counterparts the Genteel Patriarch and the Heroic Artisan and replace these stereotypes with a Universalist model that embraces gender fluidity and sacrifice of self interest for the larger community. Cary's treatment of children continues her critique of nineteenth century stereotypes. Cary, unlike most early nineteenth century writers, exposes the dangers of romanticized visions of middle class children, which physically isolated children from their families and endangered working class children by increasing the demand for child labor; thus Cary's Universalism leads her to depict all children, not just the wealthy ones, as God's children and worthy of protection. Cary also uses children metaphorically to represent minorities and tentatively question the treatment of African Americans and Native Americans. Cary stands as a prime example of an author who has been overlooked and whose obscurity has hindered the construction of literary history, particularly in regard to the antebellum roots of realism and the influence of liberal religious belief on realistic fiction.

Comments and Discussions : Hideko SAKURAI (櫻井秀子)

The portrayal of collective identity of Muslim populations in Europe presents an increasingly important issue within identity politics. While European Muslims represent a diverse population that has experienced longstanding socio-political concerns, they are also increasingly portrayed in light of wider global perceptions of Islam in a post-9/11 era. Consequently, there is growing concern over a confusing of such pre-existing domestic issues and larger international problems of radical fundamentalism and Islamic terrorism. The misrepresentation of European Muslims as linked to such issues in turn often exacerbates domestic problems and contributes to an evolving sense of oppositional Muslim identity in Europe. In light of these concerns over inaccurate depictions of Muslims and their harmful effects, many of which will be expounded upon below, a more critical and deliberate approach is necessary in scholarly assessments of Muslim populations. This thesis examines the situation of European Muslims amidst such portrayals of commonality and international influence. After discussing some facets of political identities and critiquing other approaches to this issue, the study focuses on the case of Muslims in France. Using the lens of universalism, I examine the context of Muslims in France and evaluate the accuracy of assertions of common identity. After illustrating the diversity of French Muslims, the study then turns to the situation of Muslims in Europe, comparing the French case with those of Great Britain and Germany. Finally, it returns to the recent French national identity debate for concluding remarks. The study demonstrates that, while portrayals of Muslims as a uniform threat to European identity are at present inaccurate and misleading, such assertions also carry potentially harmful effects in stigmatizing Muslims and contributing to oppositional identity formation.