This essay consists of an inquiry into the concepts of “time” and “movement” in Hjalmar Söderberg’s second novel, Martin Bircks ungdom, as well as a discussion of what the consequences of this inquiry are with regards to genre. The analysis is based on close reading, an adaptation of Michail Bachtin’s concept of the “chronotope” and, to a lesser extent, the narratological work of Gérard Genette. Through the analysis an interpretation of the novel is formed. This interpretation is then related to genre theory, especially that of Bachtin and Tommy Olofsson. In the discussion of genre, the results of the textual analysis are found to corroborate the hypothesis that Bachtin’s “novel of experience” is the category and tradition that Martin Bircks ungdom should be placed into.

In this bachelor’s essay, I examine the importance of place in Marguerite Duras’ The Lover from 1984. By using an ecocritical approach I find that the concepts of “culture” and “nature”, or “human” and “environment”, are made undistinguished. I also find that colonialism is highly present, and the novel accords to the theories of the overlapping literary fields of ecocriticism and postcolonialism. Ecocritical postcolonialism maintains that non-white people have historically been likened to animals and thus have a similar relationship with colonisers as humans have with the non-human. In addition, I apply Michail Bachtin’s concept of the chronotope to the novel and conclude that the Mekong River, the Cholen district, the mother’s home, the desert, and France are the most significant chronotopes. They all represent time in some way – usually in the form of cultural history or the protagonist’s lifetime – and each one plays into the novel’s overarching views of colonialism and nature.

The aim of this essay is to investigate to which extent the novel Kvinnor och äppelträd by Moa Martinson can be classified as a polyphonic novel. The concept polyphony was established in literary theory by the Russian language theorist and literary critic Michail Bachtin in 1929, in his book Problems of Dostoevsky’s poetics. In order to understand and comprehend the concept of polyphony I have used an interpretation due to the literature scholar Robyn McCallum. She notes that the characters in a polyphonic novel function as focalizers. All fictional characters create their own basis of social, cultural and ideological opinions and values, from which they provide their particular perspective on the story. Therefore, when fictional characters and their socio-ideological viewpoints intersect, a rather complex structure of interaction, dialogues and intersubjectivity is created between them.  Kvinnor och äppelträd is according to the most prominent scholar in the field, Ebba Witt-Brattström, a polyphonic novel. Her presumption is based upon the plurality of voices that is expressed in the novel, and the ambiguous interaction between them. However, to the best of my knowledge, no profound investigation of the novel’s polyphonic structure has yet been undertaken, and therefore this essay is dedicated to this task. For this purpose I have performed an analysis of the narratology in the novel, resulting in the overall conclusion that Kvinnor och äppelträd is indeed a polyphonic novel. Since the concept of polyphony also implies a modernistic feature, one can discuss the fact that Kvinnor och äppelträd has been classified as working class literature, and not modernistic literature. The final conclusion of the essay is that the complex polyphonic structure of the novel, and its controversial and pioneering content, have been underestimated and ignored. Regarding this aspect Moa Martinson should have been categorized under the Swedish literary modernism.

Sammanfattning Utgångspunkten i masteravhandlingen är att mellanmänsklig dialog är en förutsättning för tänkande i konstnärliga processer. Mitt syfte är att undersöka vilka dialogiska former som är verksamma i tänkande och hur relationen mellan dialog och tänkande kan interagera i olika konstnärliga kontexter. Masteravhandlingen är uppbyggd med tre spår: teorispåret, samtalsspåret och dramatikspåret. I teorispåret utgår jag ifrån Martin Bubers, Michail Bachtins och Hannah Arendts texter om dialog och tänkande. I samtalsspåret diskuterar jag teoretikernas idéer med en fokusgrupp bestående av yrkesverksamma konstnärer inom skilda konstnärliga discipliner. Informanternas erfarenheter kommer i dialog med teorierna. I dramatikspåret presenterar jag exempel på hur sceniska dialoger kan tillföra ytterligare en komplexitetsnivå i diskussionen om vår förmåga och oförmåga till mellanmänsklig dialog. De tre spåren visar tillsammans, utifrån skilda infallsvinklar, att dialog i konstnärligaprocesser inte är möjlig utan en ömsesidig tillit. Tilliten ska i sammanhanget förstås som en aktiv handling att vilja samtala, för att kunna samtala. Det framkommer också hur betydelsefull frågan och lyssnandet är för att kunna tänka och ha en dialog. När vi ställer frågor behöver vi öppna oss för att vi inte vet och lyssna för att höra även det vi inte förväntar oss. De oväntade frågorna och det oväntade lyssnandet. Spåren visar också hur tänkande inbegriper ett görande, i en konkret och fysisk bemärkelse, som en förutsättning för att fördjupa tankeprocesser. Kroppen som en del av tanken. Till detta utmärks konstnärligt arbete av att ha en riktning utanför sig själv, en riktning vars vilja är att kommunicera med den andre. Utan riktning till konstverkens mottagare faller dialogen samman. / Abstract The premise of this master’s thesis is that - within the context of the artistic process -interpersonal dialogue is a prerequisite for the act of thinking. My aim is to investigate which dialogue forms are active in such acts of thinking and how dialogue and thinking can interact in different artistic contexts. The thesis consists of three tracks: a theory track, a conversation track and a drama track. In the theory track, I expand on Martin Buber’s, Michail Bachtin’s and Hannah Arendt’s texts on dialogue and the act of thinking. In the conversation track I discuss these theories with a focus group of professional artists active in a variety of fields. Here the practical experiences of the informants come into dialogue with the theories expressed in the thesis. In the drama track, I show how different scenic dialogues are able to add yet another level of complexity to the discussion of our ability (or inability) to participate in interpersonal dialogue. The three tracks show from a variety of perspectives that dialogue within the artistic process is not possible without mutual trust. In this context trust is understood as an act of intending to engage in dialog. Mutual trust also exposes the importance of questioning and listening in order to be able to think and participate in dialogue. When we ask a question we must be open to that which we do not know and to that we do not expect to hear. The tracks also show that the act of thinking is also an action, in a physical, practical sense, which is itself a prerequisite to being able to think more deeply. It is also important that artistic work be characterized by having an aim beyond itself - an ambition to communicate with an Other. Without such an aim, dialogue can only fail.

It has always been important to study history. But what we can’t forget is that there’s more than one way of doing so. One of those is literature. In this thesis I will therefore study two contemporary historical novels: The Night Watch by Sarah Waters and The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. The aim is to explore how they portray different kinds of historical experiences and how that may relate to questions that are relevant even in a contemporary context. Because both novels have an interestning relationship with time and space, I’m going to use the russian literary theorist Micheal Bachtins concept of the chronotope to explore how time and space operates and relate to eachother. In the end, this thesis also aims to show that literature can be a valuable object to study for those that are intererested in histiography.

This study aims to examine the norm-breaking body in Sara Stridsbergs literary fantasy Drömfakulteten (2006) or The Faculty of Dreams (English translation, 2019) which explores Valerie Solanas’ life. Solanas is known for the feminist text SCUM Manifesto (1968, Swedish translation, 2003) and for shooting the artist Andy Warhol.  Solanas has a very distinct separation between body and mind that is apparent in the novel. She ignores her body and whishes not to be aware of it. She only ever thinks about her manifesto, which becomes her mind. To explore the norm-breaking body, my essay is based on Mikhail Bakhtin’s theories of the grotesque body. In this work, I also present different theories that have been inspired by the grotesque, for instance; the female grotesque and the gurlesque. While the grotesque focuses more on the body as a biological organism, the female grotesque and gurlesque focus more on how the female body and femininity is perceived in society and how they break the societal norms. The women are making a “spectacle of themselves”, in Mary Russo’s words. I want to apply these theories on the protagonist, Valerie Solanas, and analyze how the grotesque and norm-breaking body is portrayed in the novel. To further the exploration between body and mind I have the decided to analyze the meaning of the manifesto for Solanas, and also the narrator’s role in how her body is described to the reader.

Dieser Aufsatz verfolgt drei Linien, die sich ineinander verweben.  Erstens bilden Michail M. Bachtins Begriffe ‚Außerhalbbefindlichkeit‘, ‚Dialogizität‘, ‚Polyphonie‘ und ‚Intertextualität‘ wie auch einige von Bachtin beschriebenen genretypischen Romanhelden den Ausgangspunkt für Überlegungen zu Franz Kafkas Texten Der Heizer, Das Urteil, Die Verwandlung und Brief an den Vater sowie zu Briefen und Tagebuch­aufzeichnungen. Es handelt sich dabei um Untersuchungen zu dem Themenkomplex ‚Macht, Schuld und Liebe‘. Zweitens wird Franz Kafkas Kritik gegen die bürgerliche Moral und das patriarchalische Machtstreben geschildert. In diesem Zusammenhang wird der Psychoanalytiker Otto Gross präsentiert. Franz Kafkas Beziehung zu Otto Gross und die Rolle Kafkas im Kontext der Psychoanalyse werden beleuchtet. Zudem werden Franz Kafkas Neugestaltung der persönlichen Beziehungen und sein Eintreten für eine freiheitliche Pädagogik beschrieben. Drittens wird, ausgehend von Franz Kafkas Lesen von Texten von Franz Werfel und  Jonathan Swift, wie auch von seiner Begegnung mit dem Dadaisten Raoul Hausmann, über Kafkas Einstellung zum Lesen und Schreiben und über seine dialogische Praxis reflektiert. Bei diesem Gewebe, das auch Bezüge zur Nachkriegszeit beinhaltet, wird deutlich, dass sich Bachtin und Kafka in einem gemeinsamen europäisch-russischen Kontext bewegt haben, und dass Franz Kafkas Literaturverständnis auffallende Ähnlichkeiten mit Michail Bachtins Theorien aufweist.  Innerhalb von diesem Kontext haben sich Kafka, Bachtin und Gross für eine Kultur eingesetzt, welche die autoritären, monologischen Machtstrukturen unterwandert, indem sie freiheitliche Beziehungen und dialogische Literatur gestaltet.

In this essay Murakami Haruki’s novel The Wind Up Bird Chronicle was analysed from the perspective of Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of the chronotope. The aim was to explore the concept of time and space as presented in the novel. In particular, the analysis focused on how Bakhtin’s chronotopes can be applied to The Wind Up Bird Chronicle, how the chronotopes can enhance our understanding of the novel, and finally how the chronotope theory can be applied to the concept of ‘magic realism’ that is often used to describe Murakami’s authorship. Four chronotopes, presented by Bachtin, were selected and applied to the novel: every-day life, the road, crisis and the castle. The concept of the chronotope allows analysis of how time and space work together in literature and how they form patterns of correlation in the sujet. Results showed that the four chronotopes were found in the novel, and that they also interacted with each other. The chronotope of everyday-life was apparent throughout the novel, and the narrator was under its control. The narrator also seemed to create every-day life out of the chronotopes of the road and crisis by re-living the crises in the road. These three chronotopes seemed inseparable in The Wind Up Bird Chronicle. Finally, the fourth chronotope, the castle, illustrated how a concrete room in the novel, a house, became a part of time and space through a character who, by his presence, gave the impression of slowing down time. When this character disappeared, time made its way through space, making the chronotope of the castle visible. The essay concludes that the chronotope theory was a relevant way to analyse The Wind Up Chronicle as it provided a concept of how time and space appeared together in a novel where time and space is always present. The analysis helped creating a way of understanding the patterns in the novel, which were not always clear, thereby also increasing the understanding of The Wind Up Bird Chronicle.