The present study set out to test some of the predictions made by the Threat Simulation Theory, which suggests an evolutionary source of dreaming (Revonsuo, 2000a). The qualitative content and frequency of threatening events in dreams were compared between traumatized Swedish subjects with experience of the tsunami-disaster in Southeast Asia in 2004 with Swedish subjects with no traumatic experiences. Only a few of the hypotheses were supported by the results. The results and unsupported hypotheses are discussed with focus on the Threat Simulation Theory, and alternative explanations are considered.

Although emotions are a natural component of dream experiences, a lack of consensus prevails in research literature concerning the specific characteristics of emotional dream experiences. The aim of this study was to investigate if and to what extent this lack of convergence among studies stems from whether dream emotions are self- or externally rated - forty-four healthy participants (16 males and 28 females; mean age = 26.93, range = 19 - 40) kept a home dream diary for three consecutive weeks, and daily rated their emotional experiences in dreams with the Swedish modified Differential Emotions Scale (smDES; Fredrickson, 2013). Two external judges rated emotions in the same 552 home dream reports using the same scale. Results obtained with the two methods differed in that the self-ratings, compared to external ratings, revealed: (a) more emotional dreams; (b) more positive than negative emotions per dream (with the ratio being relatively balanced); (c) a relatively more balanced proportion of positive and negative emotions, while the external ratings revealed more negative than positive emotions per dream. The results suggest that this is mostly due to the underrepresentation of positive emotions with external ratings. Thus, the results continue to question the extent of convergence between self- and external ratings when investigating emotional dream contents, and bring to attention the importance of methodological aspects when investigating dream emotions.

Dans cette étude nous nous proposons de mettre au jour ce qui assure la cohérence du texte dans quatre récits autobiographiques d’André Breton : Nadja, Les Vases communicants, L’Amour fou et Arcane 17. Nous proposons de les appeler « tétralogie » bretonienne. Après avoir montré que les approches en narratologie ne sont pas adaptées à cette fin, nous verrons que l’argumentation ayant pour but de transmettre l’idée du surréalisme donne un cadre intégrateur à ces récits pour en assurer la cohérence. Chaque texte doit selon nous être considéré comme une situation de communication entre le lecteur et l’auteur, c’est-à-dire dans sa dimension pragmatique et énonciative. L’illustration photographique, présente dans trois récits de la « tétralogie », fait partie des moyens mis en œuvre par l’acte d’argumenter. Elle contribue au mieux à cette communication-argumentation. Nous démontrons que ces récits doivent être considérés comme des « livres illustrés » modernisés par la photographie. Dans cette optique, nous examinons le rôle et l’évolution de la photographie à travers la « tétralogie ».Nous montrons que la situation de communication est figurée dans chacun des quatre récits comme un espace théâtral car chacun d’eux est construit comme un théâtre virtuel et fantasmatique. La théorie freudienne du rêve et du théâtre nous permet d’explorer la théâtralité de la « tétralogie » tout en résolvant le paradoxe du théâtre chez BRETON. / This study aims at clarifying the textual coherence in four autobiographical narratives of the Surrealist Poet André Breton: Nadja, Les Vases communicants, L’Amour fou and Arcane 17, which we propose to call “bretonian tetralogy”. Our main thesis is the central importance, in this “tetralogy”, of acts and means of convincing the reader of the genuineness of Surrealism. And the author succeeds in establishing a dynamic tête-à-tête relation with his reader, which endows each narrative with its inward coherence. Photography plays a key role in this rhetoric scheme, and we put forward the interpretation of “bretonian tetralogy” as a variation of 19th century’s illustrated book modernized by the medium and visualization device. On the basis of Freud’s theory about dream and theatricality, we demonstrate that these narratives must be considered as virtual theatres since incorporated theatricality is a way of reminding and exploiting, in the shape of a text, the discourse situation underway between communication partners; Breton and his reader.

Penser l’île de manière théorique, comme espace de la finitude, de l’isolement, mais aussi lieu comme espace primordial pour l’étude du changement, est nécessaire ; même si à première vue la théorie ne semble pas souvent être en phase avec la "réalité". Cette recherche proposera donc une traversée du XXe siècle, afin de mener une observation des changements majeurs ayant marqué les espaces insulaires (principalement les îles intégrées dans le giron de l’Union Européenne), et les progressives prises de conscience des déséquilibres créés. Deux archipels servent de supports à cette réflexion : les Açores (Portugal) et les Hébrides (Ecosse, Royaume-Uni). Une idée centrale teinte ce voyage : même face à un passé marqué par les dépendances (économique, politique, énergétique…), par la déprise et des problèmes environnementaux, subsiste toujours un potentiel permettant de réinventer ces îles, les faisant évoluer vers des logiques nouvelles. Ce potentiel surgit en s’appuyant sur l’image idéelle et rêvée de l’île que nous portons tous en nous ; nos représentations d’une île qui n’existe souvent plus (ou qui n’a jamais existé), mais qui vit dans les esprits et nous fait rêver. En ce début de XXIe siècle n’est-on pas en train d’assister à l’émergence d’une nouvelle insularité, où île réelle et île rêvée peuvent enfin coïncider ? / Theoretically considering the islands as ended and isolated spaces but also as important spaces for studies of changes is a necessity, even if theory does not seem to match reality at first sight. This work provides an understanding of the major changes that marked islands spaces, and the progressive awakening of consciousness about the imbalances caused by these changes all through the XXth century. It is based on the study of two archipelagos: the Azores (Portugal) and the Hebrides (Scotland, UK). One major idea units this work: despite a past marked by various dependences (economy, politics, energy, etc.), environmental problems and land abandoning, islands can still evolve by using completely new ways of thinking. This capacity to evolve easily rises from perceptions and dreams we all have concerning islands, sometimes based on ideas of islands that often exists no more (if they had ever existed) but persist in our mind and make us dream. Nowadays, at the beginning of the XXIst century, are we not witnessing the rise of a new way of thinking islands, where real island and dreamed island can be combined?

This thesis presents the psychological concept of dreams and fairy tales and the possible similarities existing between them. Its main source is a depth psychology, psychoanalysis particularly. The thesis is consisting of two parts. In the first part, the theories of dreams and fairy tales are described and the possibilities for their interpretations are given. Then the affinity between dreams and fairy tales is presented including the theory of the Hungarian psychoanalytic Géza Róheim and the Israeli psychologist Ravit Raufman. Róheim assumes that fairy tales represent a social transformation of individual dreams. The development of this idea is: the fairy tales are inducting dreams that would be dreamed, anyway. But they finish better now, with the victory for the child. Raufman applies the methods with which fairy tales have been studied on dreams and defines the affinities between them. In the other part, the similarities between dreams and fairy tales are checked using collected dreams of children aged from 6 to 15. Dreams are interpreted with a special attention to a fourteen years old girl. The thesis also works with the dream of a young woman collected by Raufman. Finally, an explicit and implicit content and formal characteristics of the children's dreams are compared with the most famous...

Title: Playgrounds as an adventurous environment - an analysis of children's ideas for the construction of playgrounds Objectives: The main goal of this diploma thesis is to create a project based on children's imagination. The outcome will be a design of a children's playground which will demonstrate what the kids perceive as a "dream playground" and will provide the children with a place to spend their active leisure time. The project should be just an inspiration and link together the child ideas, security standards and current trends. Methods: The necessary data was gathered through a project survey. As the best way to find true and uninfluenced images of children about their dream playground, we chose drawing pictures, polls, and interviews. As a final result, a design of the children's playground was created based on the analysis and evaluation of all the collected data and the theoretical background. Modeling method was used for the final design. Results: The result of this work is a design that illustrates the children's ideas about their dream playground. This proposal is hand drawn and supplemented with labels and photographs of already existing elements or entire complexes. The survey shows that the main theme project theme is adventure. The design includes elements mainly made of wood...

The licentiate thesis focuses on young people’s dramatisation and reflections on the reception of theatre in schools as part of aesthetic learning processes. Its main objective is to describe and analyse how theatre can be used in teaching as a means to create meaning and knowledge in practice. The theatre’s relation to the Swedish subject is discussed from different aspects. The empiric survey was conducted at three 6–9 schools in the south of Sweden, referred to in the study as Österskolan, Norrskolan and Söderskolan. The survey is designed as a multiple case study. Two cases consist of individual classes with supplementary work based on the students’ reception of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the other two on stage productions that include acting. The material consists of video recordings of teaching processes, rehearsals and performances; notes from observations, interviews with teachers and pupils, a questionnaire regarding theatre habits, as well as documents such as theatre programmes and home pages. The cases are contrasted in order to extend the analysis, distinguish between mutual and contrasting patterns, and to some extent also to explain concepts used for description and analysis. The thesis aims to answer the following questions: • What is required in order for theatre to create meaning and knowledge in practice within a school’s framework? • How do form, content and use, and also production, reception and reflection cooperate in various media in the aesthetic learning processes and what didactical potential is the result of this cooperation? The result of the survey shows that a teacher’s patterns for verbal and physical interaction and his or her media specific competence strongly influence the terms for the aesthetic learning processes. The nature of the theatre culture’s meeting with the school culture at the individual school determines the possibilities for the participation in creation of meaning and knowledge in practice that are offered to pupils. Financial conditions, support from the school management, collaboration between subjects, functioning rooms, and the school’s gender practice are other important factors. The conditions for the theatre’s creation of meaning and knowledge differ significantly between the three schools included in this study. At Österskolan the theatre culture is a fairly unfamiliar element in the school culture. The teacher who supervises the supplementary work for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, however, possesses good media specific competence in the theatrical field and is able to generate possibilities for reflections on experience pedagogy based on the theatrical performance and actual participation in the theatrical practice for the pupils. For a number of years, the theatre culture at Norrskolan has been included in an integrated part of the school culture. A Midsummer Night’s Dream becomes the basis for verbal, dialogue-oriented discussions in the classroom. The pupils’ performance at the school strengthens the school culture and the pupils learn how to cooperate and take responsibility. The cultural profile at Söderskolan collaborates with professional cultural workers and regional cultural institutes in a theatrical project that invites both schools and the general public. In this case, all media is integrated in the creation of meaning and there is great didactical potential. In the intended doctoral thesis the analysis of the terms and the design of the aesthetic learning processes will be further discussed. / <p>Licentiatavhandling i litteraturvetenskap: alternativet Svenska med didaktisk inriktning.</p>

Cette thèse se propose d'étudier les aspects de la relation entre littérature, illusion et sens dans le corpus d'Alessandro Baricco, comprenant aussi bien son travail d’essayiste que ses œuvres de fiction. Nous convoquons de la sorte ses recueils de Barnum (1995) à Una certa idea di mondo (2013), des essais comme Next ou I barbari (2002 et 2008) et ses romans de Castelli di rabbia (1991) à La Sposa giovane (2015) – qui peuvent être analysés de différentes manières, stylistiquement, thématiquement, de manière détaillée ou partielle selon les besoins de l’argumentation. Compte tenu de l'ampleur du sujet, relevant tout autant de problématiques philosophiques que de questions sémiologiques, l’étude est focalisée sur la dialectique entre illusion de (la) réalité et vérité fictionnelle, à travers plusieurs prismes. Nous parcourons ainsi les illusions de la postmodernité en tant que nouvelle ère culturelle et littéraire, les remises en cause de l’illusion référentielle, notamment par le biais de l’aspect figural, soit l’exemplarité des personnages baricchiens. Symptomatiques de la tension entre fiction et réalité, eux-mêmes porteurs de thématiques dialoguant avec l’illusion, telles que le désir, le rêve, l’idée de destin, ils nous permettront d’ouvrir la réflexion sur les influences, la résistance, voire la subversion d’une voix narrative qui répond au réel, le conteste ou le diffracte jusqu’à l’émergence d’une autre signifiance. / This thesis intends to study the aspects of the relationship between literature, illusion and meaning in Alessandro Baricco’s corpus, including both essays and novels. We take interest in his collections, from Barnum (1995) to Una certa idea di mondo (2013), as well as his essays such Next or I barbari (2002 and 2008) and his novels from Castelli di rabbia (1991) to La Sposa giovane (2015) – which can be analyzed in various manners, stylistically, thematically, in detail or partially according to the argumentation’s needs. Given the extent of the subject, raising as many philosophical problems as semiotic questions, the study is focused on the dialectic between illusion of (the) reality and fictional truth, through several prisms. We traverse this way the illusions of postmodernity, as a new cultural and literary era, the reassessment of the referential illusion, especially through the figural aspect, that is the exemplary nature of baricchiens characters. Symptomatic of the tension between fiction and reality, they carry themselves themes relating to the illusion, such as desire, dream, the idea of fate. They will enable us to open reflection on the influence, resistance, even the subversion of a narrative voice that responds to reality, contests it or diffracts it until the emergence of another significance.

In this study, the function of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope in John Green’s young adult novels Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns is researched using feminist criticism and postfeminist theory. My claim is that The Manic Pixie Dream Girls in Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns perpetuate stereotypical gender roles and thereby help maintain a glorified image of the muse. I support this claim by researching how Alaska and Margo fit into the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope and, as such, how they perpetuate stereotypical gender roles. Furthermore, this study shows how the MPDG is connected to the traditional archetype of the muse.

Memória da Cultura, textos constantes e textos excluídos pelo esquecimento. A memória do sonho como a primeira obra de ficção jamais criada pelo homem. O sonho enquanto embrião narrativo de fábulas. Cânones, mecanismos culturais de controle. A performance da palavra. A movência das narrativas orais. O projeto poético e a rede intersemiótica de criação. Inconsciente coletivo, matizes arquetípicos e o mar como metáfora da metáfora do manancial das fábulas imemoriais. / The memory of culture, constant texts versus excluded texts, fables doomed to be forgotten. Remembering dreams as the first work of fiction ever created by mankind. Dreaming as telling tales. Standards as cultural controlling devices. Words as performances. Travelling through oral folktales. Poets and their artistic approach to life, plus the intersemiotic net for art creation. Unconscious collective, archetypical blending of nuances and the sea as the universal metaphor of the everlasting source of long forgotten fables.