This work examines Swedish literature published during the 2000s in the context of larger debates about individual and collective belonging in Scandinavia. In each of three chapters, I describe a broad thematic domain in which I situate and compare works of poetry, prose and plays by authors such as Jonas Khemiri, Alejandro Wenger, Johannes Anyuru and Marjaneh Bakhtiari. In the first chapter, I examine the domain of Homogeneity/ Heterogeneity, describing a transition from monolithic to multiple, overlapping belongings. The second chapter concerns the domain of Transparency/ Opacity, and the legibility or opaqueness of bodies, language and clothing as markers of identity. The third and final domain, Center/Periphery, contains articulations of the public sphere at two different extremes of Swedish geography: the historic center city and the post-war suburbs. In my conclusion, I summarize how these literary works have both reflected and refracted discussions of national belonging in a time of global migration and increased cultural diversity in Northern Europe.

Cette thèse tente de fournir de nouvelles avenues pour interpréter les figures féminines scandinaves d'avant l'an mil. L'étude décrit en premier lieu les images et leur contexte archéologique, culturel, social, politique et religieux pour ensuite les interpréter à la lumière des textes qui nous sont parvenus: l'Edda de Snorri Sturluson, l'Edda poétique, le Gragas et quelques sagas. Après avoir analysé le pendentif en forme de femme, trouve à Aska (Suède), l'étude se penche sur le cas des "valkyries" et, enfin, sur celui des guldgubber à figures féminines et à figures doubles (couples). Alors que l'image du pendentif d'Aska peut être identifiee a Freyja sans aucune ambiguïté, le cas des "valkyries" et des guldgubber est plus complexe, dépendant probablement en grande partie des propriétaires originaux des artéfacts en question.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-11, Section: A, page: 4325. Adviser: Karen L. Fresco. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 319-339) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2565. Adviser: Marianne Kalinke. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 203-211) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

This dissertation explores certain attitudes towards Jews and Judaism in Old Norse literature. Regardless of an apparent lack of actual Jewish settlement in the Nordic region during the Middle Ages, medieval Icelanders and Norwegians frequently turned to the image of 'the Jew' in writing and in art, sometimes using him as an abstract theological model, or elsewhere constructing a similar kind of ethnic Other to the anti-Semitic tropes we find in medieval societies where gentiles really did live alongside Jews. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the differing histories and functions projected onto the absent Jew in medieval Scandinavia. / Germanic Languages and Literatures

<p> When an individual has suffered from repeated abuses during childhood, an intrapsychic conflict arises in which inner persecutory figures terrorize other, more vulnerable aspects of the personality (Kalsched, 1996). The aim of this dissertation is to explore how the archetype of the Self, an organizing and integrating principle within the psyche (Jung, 1952/1954), can activate within the adult trauma survivor the aggressive energies of the warrior as a means to mitigate the inner persecution that arises out of traumatic experience. </p><p> Norse myth and the epic poem <i>Beowulf,</i> both rich in war and warring, are used as the hermeneutical texts to illustrate the hypothesis regarding the function of the Self and the warrior in the face of trauma. Mythic figures such as Odin&mdash;as the Self, Thor and Beowulf&mdash;as warriors, and Loki, Grendel, and Grendel's mother&mdash;as inner persecutors, demonstrate the interplay between the Self-warrior-inner persecutory triad that can evolve out of traumatic experience. Texts on trauma, the archetype of the warrior, and the experiences of the modern warrior provide further hermeneutical material for the research. </p><p> Findings from this study indicate that archetypal warrior energies have the capacity to lessen the influence of negative internal forces within the trauma survivor, effectively breaking a form of trance commonly induced by the experience of cumulative childhood trauma. Results demonstrate that the warrior archetype has a maturational arc. In its mature form, the warrior is capable of forming cooperative relationships with formerly negative inner aspects, once the warrior's efforts have softened the impact of those aspects upon the ego. Surprisingly, studied texts also reveal that former inner persecutors, once they are brought into greater relatedness with the whole of the psyche, contain within them numerous gifts for the benefit of the overall personality. </p><p> This dissertation infers that any subject under investigation may benefit from the rich material found within the study of Norse myth and the archetype of the warrior, both topics of which practitioners within the field of depth psychology have generally overlooked. </p><p> Keywords: trauma, child abuse, warrior, trickster, Jung, Norse myth, <i> Beowulf.</i></p>