<p>Abstract</p><p>This essay looks at Robert Altman’s film <em>Short Cuts</em> and Raymond Carver’s short stories and poem on which the film is based. The stories are not connected to one another in their original form of publication. In the film, Altman has linked and connected them through various devices. It is argued that he has transferred to film his own individualised interpretation of Carver’s stories, where the “empty space” is filled and the stories connected. Thus Altman’s contribution comprises not simply the transposition of Carver’s stories to an audiovisual medium, but rather his visualization of those stories and what lies beyond the text. Robert Altman compresses as well as expands the stories and alters them to fit in with one another. Several strategies are used for linking the stories. In the film, he lets characters cross over between storylines and transposes them to suburban Los Angeles to create a common space. He also uses places taken from the short stories as intersections where the paths of characters from different stories cross. Carver’s characters are altered both in order to link the stories but also to foreground the medium in which they are now presented. The changes undertaken for linking purposes are the creation of family ties between characters from different stories and changing the occupations of several characters. The latter also serves the function of foregrounding visual and auditory media. Apart from this linking, several themes are prominent in the adapted Carver stories and seem to be what makes the connections between them possible. The thematic links between the stories connect or contrast them and are generally transferred to the adaptation. It is concluded that this essay tries to demonstrate that <em>Short Cuts</em> departs considerably from the adapted texts while at the same time staying fairly close to their themes. However, further analysis of the film in conjunction with a more substantial analysis of Altman’s other works is required to make conclusions as to the exact extent of Altman’s “authorship.”</p>

<p>Immanence and Representation in W. H. Hudson’s <em>Green Mansions</em></p><p>Alice Sundman</p><p> </p><p>Abstract</p><p> </p><p>The study investigates the tension between immanence and transcendence in W. H. Hudson’s novel <em>Green Mansions</em>. The method in use is Edmund Husserl’s phenomenological method of bracketing that which is transcendent to the field of study (<em>epoché</em>). It is argued that there is a fundamental tension in the novel between presentation (unmodified acts of consciousness) and representation (modified acts of consciousness). The conclusion drawn from the studied evidence is that <em>Green Mansions</em> favours intimacy over remoteness, immediacy over mediation, presence over rupture, and wholeness over divisiveness. The study shows that the hero is caught in a contradiction between a culture based on representivity (a mania for picture-thinking, sign-thinking, and relation-thinking) and an immediacy of life embodied in the heroine as a pure presentation lacking any significant traces of gaps, divisions, or borders. Personified by the heroine, immanence constitutes a silent yet persisting resistance to a world-view based on representivity.</p>

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<p>Through the character of Lily Briscoe the essay investigates the homosexual element in Virginia Woolf’s novel To the Lighthouse. The main aim of the essay is to examine Lily’s process of coming to terms with her homosexuality through her painting where the disclosure of Lily’s sexuality emerges. Lily’s path to self-recognition is analyzed in close readings of textual evidence from the novel and with the use of secondary sources.</p>

<p>The essay investigates the construction and reconstruction of feminine beauty in Eliot’s <em>The Mill on the Floss</em> where the heroine Maggie functions as a way of illustrating both beauty and ugliness. Maggie’s “unrefined” appearance as well as her beauty is furthermore highlighted through a strong comparison with other characters, which also is a significant aspect in the essay. The analysis is based on a critical approach informed by previous studies regarding the various aspects of female beauty.  </p>

<p>In an increasingly globalized world with English as a lingua franca, European countries are competing in their efforts for their populations to speak English. The main goal of this study was to compare the English writing proficiency of one class in the Basque Country and one in</p><p>Sweden at the end of their compulsory education. Both classes took an essay test in which verb use, conjunction use, spelling and text length were measured. The Swedish students outperformed their Basque counterparts in almost every measured area, which was suggested</p><p>to be due to a combination of teacher-related factors (methodology, command of the language, use of the language and learning environment) and external factors (language typology, language input and student motivation). The teaching skills and command of English of Basque teachers should be improved as well as audiovisual tools and communicative approach introduced in order to compensate for the lack of language input and</p><p>language use possibilities.</p><p> </p>

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<p>This essay focuses on the genre of Chick Lit and two novels in that genre: <em>Confessions of a Shopaholic</em> by Sophie Kinsella and <em>Queen of Babble</em> by Meg Cabot. The essay examines the origins of the Chick Lit genre and discusses its influences and the typical trademarks of the Chick Lit novel. The essay also discusses how some of the current research has come to the conclusion that Chick Lit is sprung from the genre of romance novels. In the second section of the analysis, the conventional formula of the popular romance novel is presented, followed by a discussion about the ways in which the Chick Lit novels differ from that formula. The primary research question of the essay asks “Is the Chick Lit novel a new version of the romance novel or can it not be seen as a distinct literary genre?” The third section of the essay consists of a comparative reading of the two Chick Lit novels, where it is argued that they can be seen as novels about personal growth and development, and how they deal with self-discovery more than anything else.  In the conclusion, the essay discusses how although Chick Lit novels have borrowed some themes and characteristics from the romance novels, there is also more to the Chick Lit novel than just the romance theme. Friendships and family relations are as important to the two heroines as finding love is, and it is important for the protagonists to understand themselves first, and only after that do they begin thinking about love.</p>