The thesis focuses on the textual representations of everyday experiences in short stories by Evgenii Grishkovets in the collections Planka (Plank, 2006) and Sledy na mne (Traces on Me, 2007). It reviews the literary environment of the first decade of the twenty-first century, and new realism is defined as a new literary trend, incorporating the elements of previously prominent realist and postmodernist traditions, and determined as partially a reaction to these. Grishkovets’ short stories are analyzed through the prism of Henri Lefebvre's theory of “everydayness,” including the latter’s concepts of alienations (the feeling of being foreign or estranged to oneself and some or all elements of one’s existence), moments (instances of true insight into a situation or experience) and presence (an individual’s experience of the authentic in an everyday situation). Through the analysis of the texts, an effort is made to determine the instances when Grishkovets’ characters reach the state of Lefebvre's total man, a person whose perception is not clouded by the alienations, and the concept of Russia’s ‘new hero’ in literature is discussed in correlation with Lefebvre's total man. / February 2016

This dissertation deals with Swedish crime fiction and its successes on the Swedish book market in the early 2000s. The genre’s expansion, marketing and literary content is mapped and analysed in three studies that together paint a thorough picture of this literary phenomena in Swedish book trade. In study no 1 the development of the genre in Sweden in the last 40 years is discussed from a quantitative perspective. With the base in bibliographies of Swedish crime fiction publication trends are analysed in several ways and concerning topics such as genre growth, gender balance, publishing houses, successful authorships, bestsellers and library lending. The results include: a significant genre expansion in the 2000s; a great dominance for the genre on the bestseller charts in the 2000s; and a shift in the author group, from male dominance to even gender balance. In study no 2 the marketing of the genre is examined through an analysis of book covers, titles and other elements in the concrete packaging of just over 150 Swedish crime fiction paperbacks. With book history as an important theoretical influence book covers and other peritextual elements are understood as a significant part of the marketing of the genre, but also – and wider – as of crucial importance for how genres themselves are established, withheld and re-negotiated in the interplay between different actors in the society of literature – publishers, authors, booksellers, readers. In study no 3 a quantitative content analysis of 116 Swedish crime novels published 1998–2015 is used to chart and discuss recurring themes and tropes within the genre. Focus is primarily directed towards what is understood as the most central parts of crime fiction: murderers and their motives; methods used in committing murder; victims of murder; and detectives and other protagonists. The results include: a distinct dominance of female protagonists; a partial realism, where depictions of everyday life in general is realistic while the murder plots are spectacular and sensational; and a dominance of normality, where main characters and innocent victims confirms normality, while killers and unsympathetic victims are depicted as deviants in stark contrast with normality.

Exploitation or empowerment? Arguing from the interface of Cultural Studies and Political Science, the following thesis investigates a specific effect of globalisation in India: the impact of Indian women’s employment in multi- and transnational companies (MNCs) on their life, social role and self-perception. On the basis of twelve case studies with MNCs, comprising comprehensive questionnaires and interviews with employees and experts, the study aims to assess possible socio-economic and cultural transformations by examining in detail the women’s work satisfaction, their responses to the influences of a foreign culture, the impact of their employment on their private lives as well as – in reverse – on the corporate culture of the company.

This essay examines how three big Swedish newspapers depicts e-sports and computer gaming and how the depiction change during 2000-2013. The study will also examine whether e-sports is being portrayed as competitive sport. The purpose is to investigate which attitudes that can be identified towards computer gaming and its culture in major newspapers such as Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet and how these attitudes eventually changed over time.   The sources that will be used in both the quantitative and qualitative analysis are based on web articles, mainly because the paper editions does not provide much, if any, information about computer gaming and e-sports and also because of the convenience of being able to quickly find articles to study.   Results indicate that computer gaming is being depicted in a clear negative fashion during 2000-2006, and that the depiction of e-sports is somewhat positive but not as glorifying as for the years 2007-2013. During this period, there is a apparent tendency of e-sports being introduced to readers who are unfamiliar with the gaming culture. As for the attitudes towards computer gaming, the depiction is still somewhat negative, mainly because the debate about computer games and violence was revived because of several acts of violence in shape of school massacres and mass murder. Finally, there are only partial results that indicate that e-sports is being portrayed as a competitive sport, based on Allen Guttman's criteria for competitive sports.

This thesis explores the films produced in the francophone Belgian region of Wallonia as a case study for the configuration of what will be termed a ‘transnational regional’ cinema. The first section of this dynamic is considered in relation to film and cultural policy, which problematizes the possible formation of a clearly delineated regional or ‘national’ cinema. This presupposes a reconfiguring of the transnational along the lines of the regional and the linguistic communities of Belgium, which, in essence, pertains to how production, distribution and exhibition mechanisms function within the devolved region of Wallonia. This section therefore focuses on film policy as well as a macro- and micro- economic analysis of the industry in order to consider the perceived imbalance between Belgian and French cinema. In the second half, the thesis develops a textual analysis of a series of case study films to consider how cultural film policy and francophone Belgian identity is imagined and then imaged on screen. The interplay between the transnational and the regional is then nuanced by the approaches to the ‘transnational regional’ aesthetic. This aesthetic includes the visualization of the rural and urban Walloon landscape in Eldorado (Bouli Lanners, 2008) and Ultranova (Lanners, 2006) and the ‘marked’ regional landscape in Cages (Olivier Masset-Depasse, 2006). The shift in location across the conterminous border with France due to the logic of film funding engenders the approach to the ‘marked’ regional space in Masset-Depasse’s film. The final chapter tracks this aesthetic through to the works of the Dardenne brothers and in particular Le gamin au vélo (Dardenne brothers, 2011) in order to approach the construction of a peripheral spatial formation through corporeal movements. This therefore necessitates a consideration of how the Dardenne brothers’ film chimes with waves of European filmmaking, thereby revealing a regional space that is conceptualized as de-centred.

This thesis investigates two social movements in Turkey, the women&rsquo / s and LGBTT movements comparatively and in the light of available NSM theories. While brief histories of both movements are presented and all active LGBTT associations and groups in Turkey are introduced in the thesis, the main focus of the study is the LGBTT movement. Based on in depth interviews with 17 LGBTT activists, the evolution of this movement is traced and its current profile as well as its relationship to different branches of the women&rsquo / s movement are analysed in detail. The activities of the two movements during the legislative reforms in the 2000s are also examined. While findings of the thesis point to differences between the LGBTT and women&rsquo / s movements in Turkey, the interface of both movements with the state constitute a critical explanatory factor of their trajectories. The thesis also argues that the extent to which NSM theories can be used to explain these movements in the Turkish context is limited.

This study examines the concepts of art, politics and art institution departing from three cases of exhibition situations at Moderna Museet in Stockholm, 1998–2008. The cases are considered in relation to different aspects of the museum’s identity as an art institution. The first case, the Pontus Hultén Study Gallery (2008–), is an interactive exhibition space containing 34 mechanical screens for displaying art. It is understood here as a comment on the museum’s identity as a collecting institution. The author critically analyses a number of common oppositions in avant-garde theory regarding museum culture, such as the museum as a place for passivity rather than activity, preservation rather than initiation, and ultimately death rather than life. The second case, the exhibition series Moderna Museet Projekt (1998–2001), was marked by the ambition to integrate artworks into contexts outside the physical museum building. Here case analyses focus on the distinction that the series established between art and a presumed alternative, such as life, reality, or politics. The third and last case, the sound installation Forty-Part Motet (2001) by Janet Cardiff, was installed in an exhibition space that actualised the ideals of the so-called white cube. In the institutional critique of the 1960s and 1970s, this exhibition space was dismissed as isolated and detached from society, an idea that is critically examined. Throughout the different case studies, spectator positions and potential agency are of particular concern. This thesis concludes that the concepts of art and politics are different permeable forms of experiences, visibilities and practices, that cross and intertwine. This conclusion is informed by Jacques Rancière’s notions of aesthetics and politics. In this reading, the art institution is not a barrier separating art from politics, reality or life, but nor is it a dead or deadening space. Rather, the art institution, as a social space and concept of art, is considered as intertwined with other forms of visibilities and experiences. Thus, regarded as a frame for a certain type of visibility, the art institution is capable of establishing a difference that is both unproblematic and urgent.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the multiple versions of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" in concert and determine the reason for their continued presence in the American cultural landscape. To do so I will look at the novel and four films and examine the context in which they were created. In reexamining the novel and films, a central theme begins to emerge: interiority. Fear in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" moves from an external to an internal threat. The bodily locus of the monstrous other has been re-purposed and re-projected outward. The internal nature of the monstrous threat is displayed in the narrative’s use of production and distribution, mental health professionals, pseudo-families, and the vilification of sleep. Finally, this paper will examine the studio influence on the various films and their impact on the relative endings.

Under 2000-talet har det producerats och spridits mängder av betydande forskning som publicerats via databaser. En betydelsefull länk i kunskapsspridningen utgörs av akademin som i dag står för den största andelen av vetenskapliga publikationer. I denna historiografiskt inriktade undersökning kartläggs och undersöks en del av svensk historieforskning och historieskrivning som ägt rum under 2000-talet. Den vetenskapliga disciplin som undersöks inom det humanistiska fältet är historievetenskapen, avgränsat till de resultat av forskning som studenter gjort runtom på de svenska universiteten och högskolorna, i ämnet historia. Källmaterialet består av studentuppsatser som publicerats i databasen Digitala vetenskapliga arkivet, DiVA vilket i dag ses som det nationellt mest använda systemet för publikationsdata, med över 400 tusen publicerade fulltexter varav antal nedladdade uppgår över 53 miljoner gånger. Genom empiriska och teoretiska studier och bruket av både kvantitativa och kvalitativa metoder analyseras metadata, för att ge svar och resultat över frågan om vad studenter i det svenska utbildningssystemet, på universitet och högskolor skriver historia om under 2000-talet. För att få fram svar fungerade bibliometri som kunskapsområde och frågan om vilka nyckelord som dominerar och var de mest frekvent använda i taggningen (definitionerna) av forskningsresultaten ställdes. Delfrågan om hur bruket av nyckelord ser ut över tid användes för att få fram och se trend över resultat. Teoretiskt ramverk i undersökningen och läsning av de kvantitativa resultaten utgick från Kuhns teori om paradigm. Resultat visar att Genus, Historiebruk, Arkeologi, Historiemedvetande, Historiedidaktik, Identitet, Osteologi, Andra världskriget, Diskursanalys, Kalla kriget, Samer, Laborativ arkeologi och Utbildningshistoria utgör några ledande sakområden som studenterna skrivit historia om under 2000-talet. Resultat visar också att det nationella paradigmet är ledande för studenternas historieforskning, även om USA, Sovjetunionen, Jugoslavien, Japan, Finland, Sápmi och Israel förekommer frekvent. Avslutningsvis visade föreliggande undersökning att metadata kan användas som resurs i historieforskning samtidigt som det historiska perspektivet vidgas. / During the 2000s, numerous significant researches have been produced and disseminated through databases. An important link in the dissemination of knowledge consists of the academy, which today accounts for the largest proportion of scientific publications. In this historiographically oriented study, a part of Swedish history research and history writing that took place during the 2000s is mapped and examined. The scientific discipline that is investigated in the humanities field is the science of history, limited to the results of research that students have done around the Swedish universities and colleges, in the subject of history. The source material consists of student essays published in the database Digital Scientific Archive, DiVA, which today is seen as the nationally most used system for publication data, with over 400 thousand published full texts, of which the number downloaded is over 53 million times.  Through empirical and theoretical studies and the use of both quantitative and qualitative methods, metadata is analyzed, to provide answers and results on the question of what students in the Swedish education system, at universities and colleges write history about during the 2000s. To obtain answers, bibliometrics functioned as an area of ​​knowledge and the question of which keywords dominated and were the most frequently used in the tagging (definitions) of the research results was asked. The sub-question about how the use of keywords looks over time was used to bring out and see the trend over results. Theoretical framework in the study and reading of the quantitative results was based on Kuhn's theory of paradigm.  Results indicate that Gender, History Use, Archeology, History Consciousness, History Didactics, Identity, Osteology, World War II, Discourse Analysis, the Cold War, Sami, Laboratory Archeology and Educational History are some leading subject areas that students wrote history about during the 2000s. Results also point out that the national paradigm is leading for students' history research, although the United States, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Japan, Finland, Sápmi and Israel occur frequently. In conclusion, the present study showed that metadata can be used as a resource in history research while broadening the historical perspective.

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