This thesis explores the role of things in the literary work Storgården. En bok om ett hem, by writer Karl-Erik Forsslund (1872–1941). Through a thematic reading of things, coupled with a historical contextualization, the thesis aims to understand how characters are affected by things within the home as a material place in Storgården. By distinguishing between "objects", which can be used and understood, and "things", which resist being used and understood, I argue that things and thingness play an important role in two distinct ways. Firstly, by letting the subject experience continuity over time, in his or her own life as well as with previous generations. Secondly, by creating a "mood" of homeliness, which the subject feels connected to. Both of these two ways are enabled by the oscillation between things as objects which can be used and understood, and things which resist such conceptualizations. By emphasizing the thingness of things, Forsslund makes things appear as unique, as if they existed only in the particular home. At the same time, he emphasizes the usefulness of the things to the subject living there. The feeling of homeliness is thus achieved when things appear both as objects which can be used and things with their own lives. By assigning things this role in his literary work, Forsslund formulates a critique of accelerating modernity, the city, and increasing standardization. In his vision, things and humans exist in a close relationship, and this challenges the notion of a subject clearly separated from the object world. Through this relationship with things, the home in Storgården becomes a place where multiple temporalities exist in a harmonious relationship. And it is this harmony that creates the mood of homeliness.

Identification has been a substantial topic for discussion in aesthetics and literature for a long time. Different views on what a text is has opened up for different approaches for how a reader should perceive and position herself in relation to a text. My specific take on the issue of identification is directed on how different theories and literary ideas have concerned itself with emotional and affective responses in the reader, I view this position through what is called postcritique, specifically with the works of Susan Sontag, Toril Moi and Rita Felski. The postcritical perspective have a significantly more positive look on reader involvement and emotional connections with a text which makes it an appropriate aim for discussion in contrast with for instance structuralism. The aim of this essay is to examine reader identification, its possibilities and functions in the literary field. I do this by attempting to unravel the lingering debate about reader involvement and identification which is shown in the texts by Sontag, Moi and Felski. Another part of this essay’s aim is to test the postcritical argument of the reader’s experience and importance to the text, which I mean have similarities with contemporary views on the importance of the individual’s formation of identity. The essay is divided into three parts: introduction, analysis and at last a critique of the postcritical arguments based on what is presented in the analysis. A conflict that is shown and discussed throughout the essay is whether reader involvement reveals the text itself or just the individual reader, which goes down to the base question of “what is the meaning of literature?” In the final part of the essay, concerning the postcritical arguments, I suggest that what is indeed thought to be a new, more broadened way of perceiving texts and literature, there is a focus on the individual in reading, which resembles the contemporary ideology of self-building and a therapeutic tendency which is present in our society. I question whether the postcritical approach truly have the ability to be a subversive reading practise in today’s society.

<p>Godkänt datum 2020-01-09</p>

Denna uppsats analyserar Jane Austens roman Mansfield Park samt Elizabeth Gaskells roman Wives and Daughters för att utröna likheter och skillnader. Uppsatsen utgår ifrån en komparativ metod för att se hur romanerna närmar sig den romantiska konflikt som uppstår, samt karakteriseringar och värderingar. Syftet är att se hur romanerna är en del av/upprätthåller en motivtradition. Uppsatsen visar att romanerna i hög grad liknar varandra gällande intrig och motiv, och att de på så vis är en del av den romantiska motivtraditionen.

Uppsatsen är en komparativ närläsning av fyra storstadsnoveller publicerade av förlaget Novellix år 2019. Uppsatsen undersöker den fysiska, upplevda och psykologiska naturnärvaron i Honoré de Balzacs, Charles Dickens, Edith Whartons och Ryunosuke Akutagawas noveller. Verken som till synes framställer urbana narrativ blir med hjälp av en ekokritisk närläsning "öppna" naturens närvaro. Uppsatsen vill visa att stad och natur inte delar ett antitetiskt förhållande till varandra. Staden är snarare en plattform för både kultur och natur. Syftet är således att se på vilka nivåer som storstadsnovellerna skildrar naturen och vilken roll den spelar i det urbana samhället. Frågeställningarna lyder: Vilka tecken på naturlig närvaro finns det i novellerna? Hur påverkas protagonisterna av naturen kontra det kulturella/artificiella i novellerna?

This thesis intends to examine how taste, identity and community works in a Swedish Facebook group exclusive to women and people who define themselves as non-binary. The study is based on a material that stretches from 2019–01–01 to 2019–06–30. With a political framework, this group has based its values on intersectional feminism and postcolonial theory, which gives the posts made in the group a certain setting to relate to. By using Jürgen Habermas’ classic book The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere : An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society (1962) together with Pierre Bourdieu’s notions on habitus, field, dox and capital, this thesis examines the perception of how the group develops a shared taste, as well as how it forms a certain kind of community. The first part of the analysis introduces statistics to form an overview of where the group members find their interests in literature most fulfilled and how interactions and commentary is spread over different kinds of posts. Here, a categorization is presented to clarify what the most prominent posts in the group are. In the second part, a closer examination is made through an approach to the new public that this group constitutes, how taste is formed and what kind of books the members are interested in and how conflicts arise not through discussions on good or bad taste, but rather political matters. Finally, the analysis shows how the community fulfills certain functions for the members and how they seem to perceive the group as a whole. In conclusion, this new cultural environment has impact on how we can understand our ability to express ourselves and make ourselves heard. Together with this we can see that the group forms a certain taste that mainly consists of popular culture, even though more literary titles can be found. Still, the most important function seems to be the one of community and the sense of belonging to a group, to participate and receive approval as a human being.

Cette thèse est née d’un vide documentaire autour de tout un pan de l’œuvre de Duras : ses ultimes années (1980-1996), année parfois décriées, alors qu’elles nous paraissent sa période la plus aboutie. Duras, dans cette dernière période, a écarté toute velléité psychologisante et a préféré structurer ses récits autour de certains archétypes (comme l’archétype de l’homme idéal incarné par Andréa, le petit frère ou Ernesto) tout en décalage avec les modes et notre temps en général. Ce retour à une littérature archaïque participe à la recherche de Duras d’une « féminologie » plus radicale que chez Antoinette Fouque. Mais qui, comme chez cette dernière, a à voir avec la sorcière de Michelet. Seule, la sorcière est capable de percevoir l’indicible et de le retranscrire, non par la magie du Verbe (schéma tout droit emprunté du logos du Dieu-mâle), mais la force du non-dit. Cette abdication devant la rhétorique, Duras l’a alors faite sienne. Ainsi, l’homme longtemps attendu, Yann Andréa, vient compléter la romancière. Cet archétype, en se faisant chair, insuffle en elle de la recréation littéraire, comme il en allait pour les dames du Moyen-Âge inspirées par leur jeune champion. Notre approche inédite de Duras tente à montrer comment elle a traité de la manière archaïque/anachronique ce que d’autres considèrent comme les problèmes contemporains du couple. Il ressort de ce décalage sciemment cultivé par Duras une dialectique que nous appelons : « dynamique du masculin/ féminin dans la dernière période de la création littéraire de Marguerite Duras (1980-1996) à travers ses romans et récits ». / The idea for this thesis arose from a certain documentary void regarding a whole segment of Duras' work : her final years...despite being a period in which she often came in for harsh criticism, seem to us her most fruitful and accomplished, during which she avoided dwelling on the psychology of her protagonists, and opted for a narrative structure based more upon certain archetypes (such as that of the ideal man, epitomised by Andréa, the younger brother, or Ernesto) hence going against modern trends. This return to an archaic style of literature is symptomatic of Duras' quest for an even more radical "feminology" than that of Antoinette Fouque. But is similar in its connection with Michelet's witch.Only the witch/sorcerer is capable of detecting the unspeakable and retranscribing it, not by the magic of the Word (directly borrowed from the male-God logos) but by the force of the unsaid. Thus Duras assumes this abdication in the face of rhetoric. So the long-awaited male, Yann Andrea, finally joins the novelist. This flesh and blood archetype inspires in her a new sense of literary ceativity like certains ladies in the Middle Ages inspired by their champions.Our novel approach to Duras tries to show how she treated in an archaic/anachronistic way what others considered as the couple's contemporary problems. What emerges from this carefully crafted discrepancy is a form of dialectic we'll call "The dynamic of masculine/feminine in the last period of literary creativity of M.D. through her novels and narratives.

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Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur karaktärerna Tintomara från Drottningens juvelsmycke och Eli från Låt den rätte komma in har skrivits fram i sin respektive samtid med synen på androgynen i fokus. Genom detta vill jag ta reda på om det går att läsa Eli som en modern Tintomara. Detta sker genom en komperativ läsning av de två verken genom ett genusteoretiskt och queerteoretiskt perspektiv. Slutsatsen blir att det går att läsa Eli som en modern Tintomara, då de har mer likheter än skillnader. Den avslutande diskussionen tar också upp att deras berättelser förmodligen skulle sett ut på ett annorlunda vis om de skrivits fram i vår samtid, fast trots det går det att lägga märke till mer nutida transerfarenheter i äldre skönlitteratur.