Denna studie syftar till att undersöka hur barn talar om sin egen och kamraters lek i förskolan med fokus på det som i litteraturen har kallats för karnevalisk lek. Vidare är syftet att med barns egna perspektiv på lek synliggöra lekens meningsaspekter så som barnen beskriver dem. Studien är kvalitativ och har inspirerats av en fenomenologisk ansats. Empirin har samlats in med hjälp av intervjuer och samtal med barnen. Denna har sedan analyserats med hjälp av teoretiska begrepp från Bachtin, Øksnes och Huizinga. Deras studier av den medeltida karnevalen, den karnevaliska leken, respektive lekens meningsaspekter har varit viktiga utgångspunkter för min analys. Sammanfattningsvis visar studien att barn talar om aktiviteter som kan relateras till Bachtins idéer om den medeltida karnevalen. Analysen visar också att karnevaliska aktiviteter ibland marginaliseras och underordnas mer ordningsamma och rationella aktiviteter och lekar i förskolan. I likhet med Øksnes analys av den karnevaliska leken, beskriver barnen att de bryter mot rådande regler och förbud i förskolan och att de stör den ordning och de normer som existerar i förskolan. Flera av de meningsaspekter Huizinga tilldelar leken märks i barnens beskrivningar av de karnevaliska aktiviteterna.

This study seeks to question old and common misconceptions concerning the american literary genre Southern Gothic. By using the carnival theory, the theory about the "grotesque" by Mikhail Bakhtin, this study seeks to explain and reach a better understanding of some works defined as Southern Gothic - so called because of the significance that is attributed in the genre to the geographical location in the southern United states. This study analyzes carnivalesque transgression in short story collections by Flannery O´Connor, Eudora Welty and Dorothy Allison, and the main purpose is to investigate if the genre really is as dark as it is often described by critics; pessimistic, absurdly shocking and without any affirmation regarding the beauty and strength of life.  Transgression is here defined as the transgression made by fictional characters when their bodies and their actions refuses to conform to the norms established by "the official world". By using Bachtins terminology my main thesis is to investigate positive and life-affirming transgression in A Good Man is Hard to Find, A Curtain of Green and Trash. The study further investigates the ways in which the bodies of the fictional characters become grotesque and in what way the characters through their behaviour become carnivalesque. The short stories are also compared with eachother from both a tematic and historic perspective: can changes through time be observed? Does the grotesque form or expression change in any way from Welty to Allison? The conclusion of the study is that both grotesque and carnivalesque forms can be found in the short stories, and it can be considered carnivalesue in a true Bakhtinian way, as both positive and affirming. The study also finds that the grotesque tends to become more positive and life-affirming through time.

I denna uppsats undersöks likheter och skillnader mellan huvudkaraktärerna i Kerstin Thorvalls Det mest förbjudna (1976) och Martina Montelius Oscar Levertins vänner (2015) utifrån figurationen av den kvinnliga grotesken. Den kvinnliga grotesken är hon som gör ett spektakel av sig själv och omkullkastar hierarkierna genom att inte bete sig enligt den normativa kvinnorollen – hon är en emancipatorisk figuration som har möjlighet att trotsa rådande maktordningar. En komparativ närläsning görs av romanernas huvudkaraktärer utifrån fem valda aspekter: Den manliga blicken, Plikten som kvinna, Kladdet och den groteska kroppen, Skrattet och att göra ett spektakel av sig själv samt Sexuella begär och skam. Uppsatsens teoretiska begrepp hämtas i första hand från Anna Lundbergs Allt annat än allvar - Den komiska kvinnliga grotesken i svensk samtida skrattkultur (2008) och Mary Russos The female grotesque: risk, excess and modernity (1995). Avslutningsvis diskuteras hur båda romanerna skildrar kvinnliga utvecklingshistorier där huvudkaraktärerna bejakar sina inre grotesker och på så sätt undviker samhällets konventioner. Den kvinnliga grotesken har inte förändrats nämnvärt under de senaste 40 åren, utan de kvinnliga plikter och normer som upplevdes tryckande under 70-talet gör sig påminda än idag och den rebelliskt tvära attityden mot dessa är lika stark hos båda huvudkaraktärerna.

This thesis reviews the circumstances that led to what Paul Renner called “the inflation of historicism,” places his response to that problem in the context of the Weimar Republic, details how the German attributes with which he began the project were displaced from the typeface that emerged in 1927, demonstrates that Futura belongs to a new category of serif-less roman fonts rooted in Arts and Crafts lettering, and considers why the specifically German aspects of the project have gone unrecognized for over seventy years. Renner’s writing is compared to ideas prevalent in early twentieth-century German cultural discourse, and Futura’s design process is placed in the context of Renner’s personal experience of Weimar’s social and economic crises. Objective measurements are employed to establish the relationship between drawings attributed to Renner and are used to compare features of Futura with other fonts of the period.

This thesis reviews the circumstances that led to what Paul Renner called “the inflation of historicism,” places his response to that problem in the context of the Weimar Republic, details how the German attributes with which he began the project were displaced from the typeface that emerged in 1927, demonstrates that Futura belongs to a new category of serif-less roman fonts rooted in Arts and Crafts lettering, and considers why the specifically German aspects of the project have gone unrecognized for over seventy years. Renner’s writing is compared to ideas prevalent in early twentieth-century German cultural discourse, and Futura’s design process is placed in the context of Renner’s personal experience of Weimar’s social and economic crises. Objective measurements are employed to establish the relationship between drawings attributed to Renner and are used to compare features of Futura with other fonts of the period.

Hans Holbein's Dance of Death has fascinated researchers for centuries, and in the shape of the book Les Simulachres et historiées de la mort, published in 1538, it was going to change the perception of the dance of death theme for a long time ahead. What most researchers point out about Holbein's pictures is its underlying sense of satire or irony – but is typically glossed over as a matter of fact. The aim of this study is to explore what makes satire and humor apparent in Holbein's dance of death. The study mainly focuses on four separate images from Holbein's series, that represent different social standings and professions to compare and study the difference in satire depending on this factor. By using Panofsky's iconographic method, Kemp's reception theory and Bachtin's theory about the carnivalesque and the grotesque, the study shows that Holbein was inspired by the earlier traditions of the Dance of Death theme but made certain new changes that were related to renaissance culture and ideas. These factors in combination with the ideas of the grotesque turned the frightful Death into something more than just a sudden harbinger of death – it was also part of carnival culture and laughter.

This essay deals with recurring grotesque motifs in Mikael Niemi’s novels Kyrkdjävulen, Populärmusik från Vittula (Popular Music from Vittula), Fallvatten and Koka björn (To Cook a Bear). It aims to widen the academic understanding of Niemi’s works by focusing on their aesthetics in relation to previous studies, which have mostly been concerned with placing Niemi in a context of Tornedalian minority literature. With the grotesque defined as monstrous and boundary breaking imagery that challenges common rational, ideological or moral world views, this study shows that these motifs can both strengthen, nuance and undermine postcolonial interpretations of the novels.Through Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of the grotesque, emphasis is placed on the subversive and utopian aspects of the grotesque motifs. With the use of Sigmund Freud’s term the uncanny (das unheimliche) and Julia Kristeva’s term the abject, psychological and emotional aspects of the selected motifs are drawn to the surface. And, by turning to Sara Ahmed’s thoughts on emotions and performativity, the function of disgust in said motifs is examined. The grotesque motifs in question are: the degradation of the mouth, the lower animals, the boy with the knife, the witch mother, and the androgyne. The first part of the analysis shows that in Niemi’sworks the mouth is associated with storytelling, power, agency and the subject’s ability to both knowand express himself, but also to take the world into himself and be changed by it. The mouth is often degraded, which in a carnivalesque manner results in a linguistic revival. The second part of the analysis argues that lower animals, such as rats, reptiles and bat-like devil spawn, are symbols of the abject – that which man must cast out in order to exist. The motifs of the rats and devils are associated with themes of language, identity and writing, but also allude to a threatening feminine principle. In the third part of the analysis, the motifs of the boy with the knife, the witch mother and the androgyne are found to be juxtaposed to and interwoven with each other in narratives concerning gender, sexuality and coming of age. The results of the study show that Mikael Niemi utilizes grotesque aesthetics to give shape toprocesses of growth and change, captivity and liberation, and a complicated sense of identity that eludes clear and rational definitions. The grotesque in these novels is not purely utopian in a Bakhtinian sense, but more emotionally ambivalent. A determining factor to whether the grotesque image brings true renewal or only a repetition of past pain is the will and choice of the individual. Thus, Mikael Niemi’s novels speak not so much of the power of a minority identity, as of the power and potential of the individual to reinvigorate that identity. They form an individualized, existential project in a Tornedalian context.