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This project analyzes the intersections between idealized representations of nature in both pastoral literature and early modern exploration literature published before the establishment of England's first successful American colony at Jamestown in 1607. Scholars have often seen the use of the golden age trope by early modern explorers of the Americas as nothing more than propaganda. At the same time, in literary studies, scholars have not done enough to appreciate the symbolic potential of idealized landscapes. By examining the landscapes depicted in both types of texts, this project seeks to change how we view pastoral settings. These settings reveal more than just fantasy landscapes; they tell us about English attitudes towards humanity's place in the natural world. Rather than offering overly sentimentalized, naïve representations of nature, authors depict pastoral settings that idealize labor, including a georgic trope for its ability to shape and control the natural world. Labor, then, not leisure becomes the new ideal for pastoral works, as it is through cultivation and the establishment of "place" that the English feel that they can demonstrate power and sovereignty.

Dire wolves are considered to be one of the most common and widespread large carnivores in Pleistocene America1, yet relatively little is known about their evolution or extinction. Here, to reconstruct the evolutionary history of dire wolves, we sequenced five genomes from sub-fossil remains dating from 13,000 to more than 50,000 years ago. Our results indicate that although they were similar morphologically to the extant grey wolf, dire wolves were a highly divergent lineage that split from living canids around 5.7 million years ago. In contrast to numerous examples of hybridization across Canidae2,3, there is no evidence for gene flow between dire wolves and either North American grey wolves or coyotes. This suggests that dire wolves evolved in isolation from the Pleistocene ancestors of these species. Our results also support an early New World origin of dire wolves, while the ancestors of grey wolves, coyotes and dholes evolved in Eurasia and colonized North America only relatively recently.

There exist less than thirty known comedias treating Spain's engagement with the New World. With access to the entire corpus, I analyse the genesis of the representative stereotype of the Indian, and trace its transposition from festival pageantry and allegorical iconography to the stage of the comedia. I relate scenes from the plays to works of triumphalist sculpture and the semiology of modem staged spectacle, and compare the sexual metaphor of the iconography of the First Encounter, with a similar tableau from the corpus. I then analyse the emblematic representation of female Indians in the corpus, and their role in securing the inscription of Spanish male "hegemony" and "closure". There follows a discussion of the role of the Devil in the deception of the Indians. I consider several plays in the light of research on the origins of ethnology, and discuss the extent to which the depiction of the Indians on stage can be ascribed to their idolatry and its rituals. I then analyse the plays' demonisation of native orality. The "performance" of the politico-religious Requerimiento, both in history and on the stage, is measured in literary terms against the "fetishisation" of Western writing in the Conquest, followed by an assessment of the interrogation of these issues by Lope de Vega according to the notion of his manipulation of rhetorical "politeness". Finally, I contrast the function of scenes of horror and violence perpetrated by Indians, with those carried out by Spaniards. I return to the topic of staged spectacle and analyse the use of such scenes in "serious" and then "burlesque" mode,as defined according to theories of genre within the comedia. I link this to "carnival humour", and apply this to the comic treatment of topics of cannibalism and mutilation involving the Indians, and ask how this informs upon their representation in the corpus as a whole.

Using the travel writings of Amerigo Vespucci, the voyage of Pedro Álvares Cabral and Jean de Lérys book, History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil, Also Called America, this thesis will investigate the role of the individual in the narrative of New World contact. This thesis specifically moves against the tendency in New World historiography to rely upon meta-narratives and a singular, universal European presence to explain the circumstances of the New World contact. This project seeks to gain greater understanding of the unique and divergent representations of indigenous cultures contained within travel writing by being sensitive towards the travel writers individual characteristics such as educational background, religion and participation in intellectual endeavours. The specific example used in this thesis will be the Tupínamba of coastal Brazil and will be supported by the anthropological understandings we have about this extinct indigenous group. Overall, this thesis seeks to show that in the creating of metanarratives regarding the New World experience of Europeans, it is easy to forget that the word European is as meaningless as the word Indian in terms of academic usefulness.

I den här uppstatsen undersöker jag temat manipulation. Jag tittar på vad det har för inverkan på berättelsers utformning samt om det finns andra teman som ofta kombineras med manipulationstemat. Min utgångspunkt är Karin Boyes Kallocain och därifrån kommer jag dra paralleller till William Shakespeares Othello och Aldous Huxleys Brave New World. Genom att vända mig till just de här två berättelserna får jag en inblick i såväl genretillhörighet som temats utveckling över tid. Uppsatsens teoretiska utgångspunkt är C.G. Jungs teori om det kollektiva omedvetna med mänskliga grundläggande urbilder som återkommer i arketyper. Resultatet är ett grundläggande händelseförlopp och en insikt om den djupare mänskliga samhörighet som berättelsernas hjältar först inte vågar tro existerar.

This essay analyzes and tries to untangle the meaning and intention of dystopian literature, by analyzing two novels (Neal Shusterman‟s “Unwind” and Aldous Huxley‟s “Brave New World”). From this analysis, whether or not the futures portrayed in dystopian literature relate to our own future is riddled out, furthermore the importance of the authors‟ intention is debated and a conclusion is reached. As the dystopian future unravels, ethnicity, gender, class and sexual orientation, to mention a few factors, find their own place in the new world; this essay tries to establish their roles in the new society. When discussing the characters in the novels, Bourdieu‟s theories on fields, habitus and social capital are used to figure out what they are competing for and in what ways they struggle for the reward. Furthermore, the development of dystopian imagining is discussed and its function as a reflection of contemporary society and the state of science. Delineating the roles of social classes in dystopias is an important task in figuring out whether social power still reduces minorities depending on class or gender. Our antiquated morals and ethics aren‟t suitable anymore and need to be reformed; this is discussed based on dystopian literature and the image of the future. Furthermore, this essay gets into detail with the reduction of man and by what means we are enslaved and made to believe in the faux utopias. In the end, the conclusion reached is that dystopian literature delivers a hefty and important point that needs to be heeded and used as a rare look into the future.

Using the travel writings of Amerigo Vespucci, the voyage of Pedro Álvares Cabral and Jean de Lérys book, History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil, Also Called America, this thesis will investigate the role of the individual in the narrative of New World contact. This thesis specifically moves against the tendency in New World historiography to rely upon meta-narratives and a singular, universal European presence to explain the circumstances of the New World contact. This project seeks to gain greater understanding of the unique and divergent representations of indigenous cultures contained within travel writing by being sensitive towards the travel writers individual characteristics such as educational background, religion and participation in intellectual endeavours. The specific example used in this thesis will be the Tupínamba of coastal Brazil and will be supported by the anthropological understandings we have about this extinct indigenous group. Overall, this thesis seeks to show that in the creating of metanarratives regarding the New World experience of Europeans, it is easy to forget that the word European is as meaningless as the word Indian in terms of academic usefulness.

No description available.