Les attaques du 11 septembre 2001 sur le sol américain ont eu un impact incontestable dans les sphères politique, religieuse, sociale mais aussi culturelle de ce début de siècle. Elles ont mis à l'épreuve les positions idéologiques d'une certaine idée américaniste née avec les États-Unis et encore largement partagée. Si les images de l'effondrement des deux tours du World Trade Center ont symbolisé une rupture jugée historique, la catastrophe nationale a nourri depuis lors un grand nombre de représentations fictionnelles. À travers l'étude de dix-huit œuvres publiées dans la décennie qui a suivi - diverses dans leur nature mais emblématiques par leur impact sur la culture étasunienne -, notre travail prétend mettre au jour une logique temporelle opératoire, une typologie égrenant les différentes étapes du travail de deuil, de la sidération à l'éventuelle reconstruction. L'analyse diachronique de ce corpus, tourné vers la culture étasunienne dans son rapport à l'histoire des idées politiques, entend ainsi mettre en perspective le rôle de la fiction face au choc du 11 septembre. Ceci dans le but de saisir les évolutions et les limites de la fiction, lorsque celle ci se met à l'épreuve du réel. / The attacks of September 11th, 2001 on the American soil had an undeniable impact in the political, religious and social fields of this new century, but also in the cultural one. They put to the test the very foundations of what is known as “americanism”, an ideology born with the United States and still mostly prevalent to this day. While the images of the two collapsing World Trade Center towers symbolized a historical breaking point, the national catastrophe has since then nourished a large amount of fictions. Through the study of eighteen works of fiction published in the following decade - various by forms but noteworthy by their impact on the US culture -, our work claims to unveil an operative typology through time which follows the various stages of the mourning process, from denial to possible rebuilding. Thus, the diachronic analysis of this corpus, in close relationship with the American culture and history of political ideas, intends to question the role of fiction towards the shock resulting from September 11th, in order to seize the evolutions and limits of it, when the real puts it to the test.

Narratives of extinction surrounding “primitive” peoples have long been a subject of historical study. There is however a gap with regards to researching the response of the so called “primitive” peoples themselves. Therefore, the purpose of this essay is to examine the way in which the Sámi magazine Samefolkets egen tidning during the years 1918-1945 navigates the model of cultural hierarchy which defines the Sámi as a primitive people heading towards extinction. Drawing upon the theories of Johannes Fabian and Walter Mignolo the study finds that the magazine appropriates the model of cultural hierarchy by asserting the Sámi people not as a people of nature but as a people of culture capable of moving upwards in the hierarchy. The model of cultural hierarchy interacts with the strategies of the magazine in several ways. It is used to re-establish the coevalness of the Sámi as well as performatively developing Sámi identity through a self-proclaimed project of enlightenment. It also counters the narratives of extinction by stressing the unique cultural contribution of the Sámi to world history as well as using racial biology to scientifically disprove the supposed weakness of the Sámi. The use of racial biology is also a way of partaking in scientific language thus demonstrating the intellectual and cultural capabilities of the Sámi. The use of the model of cultural hierarchy also results in the magazine reproducing the idea of the primitive savage as well as adapting a paternalistic stance towards the “unenlightened” Sámi. In sum, the magazine tries to establish the Sámi as equals, politically and culturally, to the Swedes. Living together in the same place and, most importantly, in the same time. / Populärvetenskaplig sammanfattning: Forskning om historiska diskussioner kring att naturfolk är dömda till undergång har länge gjorts på förtjänstfulla sätt. Det är dock ovanligt att studera hur de så kallade naturfolken uppfattar utsagorna om sin egen undergång. Ett av de folk som åsyftades av dessa utsagor var samerna. Syftet med denna uppsats är därför att undersöka hur Samefolkets egen tidning mellan 1918-1945 förhåller sig till dessa utsagor och till tanken om kulturella hierarkier överlag. Uppsatsen visar att tidningen inte väljer att utmana själva idén om kulturella hierarkier. Istället etablerar tidningen en egen tolkning av kulturell hierarki där alla världens folk har möjlighet att utvecklas och bidra till mänsklighetens kulturella utveckling. Denna övergripande förståelse används sedan för att förklara hur tidningen försöker bevisa att samer inte är ”frusna i tiden” utan att de är samtida och jämlika med svenskarna. Detta reflekteras också i att tidningen bedriver ett upplysningsarbete som ska bidra till samernas andliga fortskridande. Tidningen använder sig även av rasbiologi för att via den tidens vetenskap bevisa att samer inte är rasmässigt svaga. Detta tolkas också som ett sätt att använda ett vetenskapligt och legitimt språk vilket är tänkt att ge tidningens argument ökad tyngd för svenska öron. Allt detta innebär även att själva föreställningarna om primitiva och vilda naturfolk inte utmanas, dessa reproduceras av tidningen. Likaså vissa paternalistiska inställningar mot ”oupplysta samer”. Uppsatsen belyser således hur tidningen försöker etablera samerna som kulturellt och politiska jämlika svenskarna, som levandes på samma plats och i samma tid.

L’internationalisation de l’action publique sanitaire est aujourd’hui incontestable, et cette thèse représente une contribution intellectuelle à l’analyse de ce phénomène reconnu mais encore à explorer dans les détails. Partant d’un point très précis voire étroit, la substitution progressive dans le vocabulaire et les pratiques de l’Organisation mondiale de la Santé (OMS) de l’éducation sanitaire par la promotion de la santé, on retrace un parcours autrement considérable qui n’engage rien moins que les représentations historiques et politiques qui ont conduit à la mise en place de politiques publiques dans le domaine sanitaire, et ce à l’international. A la croisée de l’histoire des idées et de l’analyse des politiques publiques internationales, c’est une méthodologie innovante – articulant démarche intellectuelle et recherche empirique, notamment par l’observation participante et la conduite d’entretiens – que nous mobilisons pour retracer l’histoire et le fonctionnement réel de l’OMS.Notre travail se présente comme une histoire d’enchevêtrements de savoir(s), de jeux de pouvoir et de processus d’institutionnalisation dans des contextes changeants. Partant de l’émergence, dès le XVIIIe siècle, de l’éducation sanitaire comme stratégie visant la modification des comportements individuels puis de son inscription au sein de l’OMS, on en arrive à la question du changement de l’action publique (internationale). L’affirmation progressive de la promotion de la santé à partir des années 1980 traduit le travail de sens opéré par des acteurs (de l’OMS) qui, confrontés à des tensions liées à des modifications dans les équilibres jusqu’alors établis, modifient leurs discours et leurs pratiques afin de conserver, ou d’acquérir, une capacité à orienter l’action publique. Surtout, notre recherche montre que l’action publique sanitaire (internationale) se caractérise aujourd’hui par l’effort pour concilier – dans un contexte de complexification des enjeux, d’hétérogénéité croissante des savoirs et de multiplication des acteurs susceptibles d’intervenir au nom de la santé publique – des registres de légitimation (la défense de la liberté individuelle et la nécessité d’une action collective au nom de ce « bien commun » qu’est la santé) et des stratégies d’action (individuelles et collectives) non seulement différentes mais qui souvent même s’opposent. / This doctoral thesis is an intellectual contribution to the analysis of the unquestionable, process of internationalization of public health policies. Starting from a precise and even narrow point—the transition from “health education” to “health promotion” in the discourses and practices put forward by the World Health Organization (WHO)—we retrace the historical and political representations that shape public health-related policies at the international level. This interdisciplinary work, at the crossroad of the history of ideas and the international public policies analysis, is based on an innovating methodology which articulates an intellectual and empirical research to the analysis of the history and the functions of the WHO.This history is one of knowledge intertwining with games of power and institutional processes in shifting contexts. Starting with the emergence as early as the XVIIIth century of health education as a strategy for changing personal behaviors and its inclusion far later in the WHO structure, we move to the question of (international) public (health) policies transformations. The progressive affirmation of health promotion in the 1980’s reflects how WHO instances reframed the meaning of their work, when confronted to the tensions provoked by the shifting balance of well-established conceptions, and how they modified their discourse and their practice in order to keep or acquire a capacity to influence public action.. Above all, our research shows that (international) public health policies are today characterized by a attempt to combine—in a context of complexified issues and increased heterogeneity in knowledge as well as of a greater number of stakeholders in public health (action)—an array of legitimizing discourses ranging from the defense of individual freedom and the need for collective action on behalf of health as a “common good” to (individual and collective) strategies of action that are not only different but often conflicting.

The focus of this research paper is to analyze how Rebecca West’s book Black Lamb & Grey Falcon contributes to the construction of a theoretical concept created by M. Todorova, ”balkanism”. This is achieved through extensive analysis of her work, focusing on how West creates her own stereotype of Yugoslavia and how her portrayal of people and the Yugoslavian society relate to her discussions of the region’s history. With the help of two categories, ethnography and historiography, I will be able to look how West uses the history of Yugoslavia in the construction of” the other” and” otherness”. The main theory used in this paper is Maria Todorova who came up with the concept of” balkanism”. This combination makes the analysis in question unique. With the help of Todorova, it will be possible to understand why West wrote her book in the way that she did while at the same time trying to find out how West contributed to the construction of the theoretic concept of” balkanism.” In conclusion it can be said that West’s way of writing about Yugoslavia is often characterized by certain words and patterns that will be discussed further in the analysis.

This thesis seeks to shed light on a remarkable figure in Russian history, Father Alexander Men’. How and why did Men’ identify Vladimir Solovyov, Nikolai Berdyaev, and other pre-revolutionary cultural figures as representatives of authentic Russian religious culture? Why would a popular Russian Orthodox priest present the writings of mystics, anarchists, and the Silver Age counterculture as the antidote for seventy years of Soviet materialism? What role did Judaism and the Russo-Jewish intellectual tradition have on Men’s identifications as an Orthodox priest? I use a semiotic theory of culture following Yuri Lotman and the Tartu–Moscow Semiotic School as a framework to analyze the historical development of Orthodox personalism. Through this we find a coherent justification for Men’s cultural project. This thesis traces this line of thought from theories of cultural unity by Pyotr Chaadayev, through Christian universalism in Vladimir Solovyov, the existential personalism of Nikolai Berdyaev, and finally through Men’s personal relationship with Nadezhda Mandelstam.

Notion scientifique et philosophique majeure du XVIIIe siècle, l’expérience s’affirme dans les œuvres du romantisme émergent (1795-1818) à la fois comme un thème privilégié et comme le support d’une élaboration esthétique. Étudier l’appropriation plurivoque de la notion d’expérience dans un corpus comparatiste (Novalis, Mme de Stäel, Coleridge, Tieck, Senancour, Keats, etc.) permet d’examiner, contre un certain héritage de l’histoire littéraire, les nuances de l’identité romantique alors en train de se constituer. L’analyse poétique, couplée à la perspective diachronique qui est celle de l’histoire des idées, fait voir la richesse des conceptions et des attitudes du romantisme en lien avec l’expérience, de la quête à la résignation, de la célébration de l’action au repli introspectif, tout en permettant d’interroger la réception critique et universitaire des œuvres et leur rôle dans la construction d’une certaine identité romantique. / A major scientific and philosophical concept of the eighteenth century, the Experience manifests itself in the works of the new emerging Romanticism (1795-1818); both as a privileged theme and as a contribution to an aesthetic construction.Studying the polyvocal understanding of the notion of experience in a comparative corpus, like in Novalis’, Mme de Stäel’s, Coleridge’s, Tieck’s, Senancour’s, Keats’s, to mention a few, makes it possible to observe, against a certain legacy of literary history, the nuances in the Romantic identity during its own making. The poetic analysis, combined with the diachronic perspective of the history of ideas, shows the wealth of conceptions and attitudes of Romanticism in relation to experience, from the quest to resignation, and from celebration of action to the introspective withdrawal; all while allowing the critical and academic reception of such works to be questioned regarding their role in the construction of a certain Romantic identity.

The samurai has been viewed as the Oriental equivalent of the feudalistic knights of Europe ever since the Europeans of old first landed on the shores of Japan in the 16th century. This comparison was not only because of their positions as the military class of their respective societies, but also because of the similarities in ethics and morality causing them to personify the concept of chivalry. The code of moral principles, based on the influences of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Shintoism, which the samurai was either instructed or required to observe, is called Bushidō or the Way of the Samurai. By the application of the theory of conceptual history, the study analysed the three works The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi, Hagakure – The Way of the Samurai by Yamamoto Tsunetomo, and Bushido – The Soul of Japan by Inazo Nitobe. The purpose of the essay was to analyse and discuss how bushidō has been defined and explained by the three sources written in different time periods and how these three authors differ in their definitions of bushidō. Furthermore, the definitions were contextualized based on the societal changes of Japan between the time of writing the sources. The results showed how the authors focus on different aspects of what is included in bushidō and how the samurai was supposed to act for the benefit of society. Musashi added more focus on the way the samurai was supposed to excel on the battlefield. Tsunetomo, however, wrote his work while peace in Japan had established itself and thus focused on how the samurai was supposed to behave outside of the battlefield. Nitobe’s definition of bushidō also showed implications of a change in society based on how he chose to explain the concept of what bushidō was, and how it had evolved without the knights who had fostered it. Lastly, the study was discussed within an educational context. The samurai have seen a rise in popular history through games, film, advertisements, and more, and thus the curiosity of students, not only in Oriental culture, but Japanese culture in particular has been acknowledged. Therefore, teachers need further development of their own knowledge within the field of Oriental culture, which this study hopefully succeeds in.

Under 1970-talet genomgick Sverige något som kan kallas för emotionell frigörelse, vilket också kom att innefatta människors sexualliv. Att forma en medveten, ansvarsfull, och känslosam samhällsmedborgare skulle i det stora loppet gynna demokratin. Tidigare forskning har fokuserat på hur detta förmedlades till vuxna genom olika typer av material. Forskning med fokus på barn och unga inom detta frigörelseprojekt har på så sätt förbisetts och är således en lucka som denna uppsats velat fylla. Detta har gjorts genom att centrera undersökningen till Maj-Briht Bergström-Walan som vid denna tid arbetade aktivt med sexualupplysning, specifikt den riktad till barn och unga. Det studerade materialet har bestått av hennes sexualupplysande arbeten i SOU 1974:59, Sexualkunskap för mellanstadiet och Kamratposten mellan 1965-1975 och har här analyserats utifrån ett intersektionellt perspektiv. Jämfört med tidigare forskning har detta kunnat visa en tydlig skillnad kring hur man förhöll sig till vuxna kontra barn, där hennes radikala sida visat sig något nedtonad än vad tidigare forskning kunnat framhålla. Däremot har Bergström-Walans strävan efter jämlikhet mellan män och kvinnor, pojkar och flickor stämt överens. Analysen av hennes sexualuppfostran har påvisat den svårighet som låg i förmedlingen av sex och samlevnad till barn och unga som samtidigt syftade till att senarelägga deras sexuella samliv. De skulle fostras till att uppnå en vuxen mognad men helst av allt avvakta med det vuxna sexuallivet.

There is a contradictive part of Swedish women's history that has been overlooked by too many historians. It is about the ways in which the women's movement viewed men in their arguments for citizenship. In this study I examine how man, men and masculinity were constructed as rhetorical objects of female emancipation in Kvinnornas tidning ('The Women's Magazine'). The magazine was published to educate women on civil matters after women's suffrage was granted in Sweden. By stuying the first publications from 1921-1922, I evaluate the obstacles that were connected to citizenship as a male prerogative, despite women's right to vote.  The magazine is characterized by its aim to aggregate women to inluence the male, public sphere and thereby be defined as citizens. By identifying an ideology of separate spheres in the magazine, I study how men were portrayed in each sphere. Here I use the feminist theory of sameness-difference to map where Kvinnornas tidning referred to men as defined by their sex, and where this conflicted with (male) citizenship. My argument is that the ideas of men in the magazine related to how emancipatory aims were subject to male and female normative positions in each sphere. I argue that in the female private sphere, it was easier to strengthen women's authority by rejecting men based on sex, but that in the public sphere, men were the citizens that women aspired to become. By using the contract theory of political theorist Carole Pateman, I illustrate how the contradictions inherent in the original citizenship led to conflicts in their aim for female citizenship, which are evidenced by their ambivalence towards masculinity. Since their definitions of men either reinforced womanhood or confirmed the masculinity of citizenship, they reproduced the patriarchal sexual contract.

The purpose of this paper is to examine a philosophical basis for the biohacker movement. The paper discommends the dominating narrative of the movement, which portraits it as being exclusively motivated by scientific progress. In contrast, I argue that the biohacking phenomenon, besides scientific discoveries, has social, cultural and above all religious incentives. The hypothesis is that the concept of biohacking cannot be fully understood within the bounds of a modern scientific discourse.  The proposed narrative is put into practice via a comparison between the biohacking community and eighteenth-century mystic Emanuel Swedenborg. The comparison is established by this paper; Swedenborg is not recognized by biohackers at large. By associating Swedenborg with the phenomenon, I intend to present a tangible example that the questions raised by the biohackers outdates the scientific discoveries that is normally regarded as their primordial cause. By way of the parallel, the paper aims to highlight a structure of reasoning that would not be as protruding if the movement was to be examined on its own. The comparison centers around how Swedenborg and the biohacker community uses metaphors to depict new and presumably better ways of being human. Their usage of the figure puts the traditional Lakoffian understanding to question. With this paper I explore the possibility of the metaphor shaping not only their understanding of the world, but also their understanding of the human condition. By examining how the rhetorical device is used by both traditions respectively, I intend to bring to light how they dissolve the border between man and the concept of god.