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This dissertation develops an existential-aesthetic theory of the subversive power and lure of limited and recessive forms of social intimacy that it calls queer indifference. By putting queer concerns with the normative politics of identity, visibility, and inter-relationality in conversation with philosophical concepts of indifference, it responds to expectations of the self-evident value of active bodies, personal recognition, and mutual experience for meaningful social political agency, and argues that recessive relations experienced and cultivated in the fortuitous spaces of “shared-separation” constitute a queerly-imagined rapport with alterity rather than being the source of social deprivation. Queer indifferences, I argue, effect their own ethical engagements beyond the self that are not reducible to readily legible connections to the social, while they may be continuous with such modes of connection. Drawing on a number of critical resources from queer theory, poststructuralist philosophy, film criticism, dream science, and the history of AIDS activism, this dissertation seeks to discover the generative impasses in perception, consciousness, and connection articulated by queer aesthetic media that make themselves seen and heard through the involutions of social legibility and recognition. In social postures such as solitude, techno-mediated encounters with cinematic worlds, and the creative automation of dreamlife, this dissertation locates aesthetic-ethical expressions of justice oriented towards the defiant persistence of queer life. Films such as Brokeback Mountain and Last Address, and the dream diaries of American artist and activist David Wojnarowicz, access and communicate a certain inaccessible and incommunicable core of self and intimate expression that elicits relations with the other in appearances of isolation or remoteness, and that generates creative and imaginative possibilities for justice ahead of indeterminate futures. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This dissertation explores a series of limited and obscure relations marshalled under the concept of “indifference” to develop what I call a theory of queer indifference. By bringing concerns from queer theory about socially compulsive forms of inclusion and connection in conversation with philosophical concepts of indifference, this dissertation expands the political, ethical, and aesthetic potential of such ways of being to challenge existing relations of power. It argues that the dissident force of indifferent relations generates the queerly critical, imaginative, susceptible, and hospitable capacities inherent to doing justice. Experiences of solitude, film-viewing, and dreaming illustrate the social lure of indifferent relations as practices or embodiments that can be understood otherwise than as a source of deprivation. From the un-belonging spaces of solitude, to the film camera’s technological gaze, to the unwitting intelligence of dreamlife, this dissertation examines the “space of shared-separation” between self and other, viewer and camera, and waking and sleeping selves as a type of existence that produces queer relations to social order and that nurtures creative orientations to indeterminate futures. The films Brokeback Mountain and Last Address, and the dream diaries of American artist and activist David Wojnarowicz, are the aesthetic core of this dissertation’s investigation of and experimentation with ways of being that are queerly at odds with the way things are.

Inledning: Forskning om sorg handlar idag om att erövra en annan relation till den döde och kunna hantera separationen. Forskning om drömmar visar på drömmens funktion som stressreducering, lösandet av konflikter och minneskonsolidering. Men också som ett fönster för representativa processer och inre modeller av relationer, för att skapa ett sammanhang. Kan psykoterapeuten få ytterligare verktyg i förståelsen av klientens sorgeprocess om drömmen lyfts in i sorgeterapin? Frågeställningar: Hur använder psykoterapeuter drömmar i förståelsen av klientens sorgeprocess? Vad upplever psykoterapeuten är verksamt när de använder sig av klienternas drömmar vid sorgeterapi? Metod: En kvalitativ studie gjordes då fyra legitimerade psykodynamiska psykoterapeuter och en legitimerad sjuksköterska intervjuades. Resultat: Det framkommer att när psykoterapeuten identifierar olika teman i drömmarna, fångar de hur drömmen gestaltar sorgeprocessen. Det som blir verksamt i terapierna, är att klienten får hjälp att sätta ord på sorgen, får tillgång till omedvetet material och kan identifiera inre konflikter. Det hjälper även klienten att integrera och normalisera sin sorg och att känna tryggheten då drömmaterialet bekräftar att sorgeprocessen går framåt. Diskussion: Studien visar att tidigare forskning om sorg och drömmar bekräftas av de intervjuades kliniska erfarenheter. / Summary: Contemporary research about grief focuses on achieving a different relationship to the deceased and managing the separation. The purposes of dreams are to reduce stress, solve conflicts, and consolidate memories. But it’s also a window into representative processes and inner models of relationships, to create a context. Can psychotherapists enhance their understanding of the clients mourning, by using dreams in grief therapy? Questions: How do psychotherapists use dreams in their understanding of the clients mourning? What do the psychotherapist feel is working when using the clients dreams in therapy? Method: A qualitative studie by interviewing four licensed psychodynamic psychotherapists and one licensed nurse. Result: When psychotherapists identify different themes in the dreams, they capture how the dreams frame the clients mourning. What works well when using the dreams in the therapy, is when is it aiding the client in putting words to their grief, getting access to subconscious material and identifying internal conflict. It also helps the client to integrate and normalise the grief, and feeling the comfort of progress, because the dreams confirm it. Discussion: The study shows that existing research about grief and dreams is confirmed by the clinical experiences of the interviewees.

Denna uppsats syftar till att undersöka hur man kan analysera och tolka två av Bruce Springsteens låttexter, för att visa på hur lämpliga de kan vara som underlag för att i undervisning beröra de viktiga livs- och identitetsfrågor som nämns i styrdokumenten för högstadiet. Frihet kan anses vara en särskilt viktig livsfråga och därför undersöks skildringen av frihet i låttexterna närmare. Dessutom undersöks hur genus, klass och ålder skildras i relation till makt. Låttexterna som analyseras är ”The River” och ”Land of Hope and Dreams”. Analysen visar att ”The River” skildrar en mörk, nostalgisk bild av hur dystert livet kan bli som konsekvens av ett för tidigt frihetsberövande. Den belyser hur faktorer så som klass, ålder, kön och etnicitet samverkar och tillsammans påverkar människors livsöden, samt hur de livsödena i sin tur hör ihop med frihetsbegreppet. I ”Land of Hope and Dreams” skildras istället en ljusare, mer positiv och hoppfull bild av Amerika, livet, himlen eller vad man än väljer att tolka låten som en symbol för. Låten skildrar en framtidstro, optimism och tanke om solidaritet, medmänsklighet och jämställdhet som alla lärare borde sträva efter att förse sina elever med. I ”Land of Hope and Dreams” skildras de fördelar som frihet innebär på ett positivt sätt, medan de nackdelar som en brist på frihet innebär skildras på ett mer negativt sätt i ”The River”. Utifrån analysen av de båda låttexterna kan man dra slutsatsen att de visar hur frihet är av ytterst stor betydelse för samhället i stort och människan som enskild individ, samt att de även berör många andra viktiga livs- och identitetsfrågor, vilket gör dem användbara i undervisningssituationer. / This essay aims to examine and show how two of Bruce Springsteen’s songs could be analyzed and how useful they could be in teaching situations, to touch upon some of the important questions that are mentioned in the curriculum. The main focus of the analysis in the essay is questions regarding life and identity. Freedom could be considered an especially important question and the depiction of the concept is therefore analyzed closely. Furthermore, the depictions of gender, class and age are analyzed in relation to power. The songs that are analyzed are “The River” and “Land of Hope and Dreams”. The analysis shows that “The River” depicts a nostalgic image of how dark life can become as a consequence of loosing freedom at an early stage in life. It illustrates how concepts such as class, gender and ethnicity affect the destiny of life, as well as how that destiny is affected by the concept of freedom. “Land of Hope and Dreams” depicts a more positive and hopeful image of America, life, heaven or whatever one chooses to interpret the song as a symbol for. The song depicts a belief in the future, optimism and idea about solidarity and equality that all teachers should aim to pass on to their students. “Land of Hope and Dreams” depicts the advantages of freedom in a positive way, while the disadvantages of freedom are depicted in a more negative way in “The River”. Based on the analysis, one can conclude that the songs illustrate how freedom is of outmost importance to society and to individuals, and that they touch upon many other important questions about life and identity, which makes them appropriate to use in teaching situations.

Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 114-120).

Psychologists investigating dreams in non-Western cultures have generally not considered the meanings of dreams within the unique meaning-structure of the person in his or her societal context. The majority of dream studies in African societies are no exception. Researchers approaching dreams within rural Xhosa and Zulu speaking societies have either adopted an anthropological or a psychodynamic orientation. The latter approach particularly imposes a Western perspective in the interpretation of dream material. There have been no comparable studies of dream interpretation among urban blacks participating in the African Independent Church Movement. The present study focuses on the rural Xhosa speaking people and the urban black population who speak one of the Nguni languages and identify with the African Independent Church Movement. The study is concerned with understanding the meanings of dreams within the cultural context in which they occur. The specific aims of the study are: 1. To explicate the indigenous system of dream interpretation as revealed by acknowledged dream experts. 2. To examine the commonalities and the differences between the interpretation of dreams in two groups, drawn from a rural and urban setting respectively. 3. To elaborate upon the life-world of the participants by the interpretations gained from the above investigation. One hundred dreams and interpretations are collected from two categories of participants referred to as the Rural Group and the Urban Group. The Rural Group is made up of amagqira [traditional healers] and their clients, while the Urban Group consists of prophets and members of the African Independent Churches. Each group includes acknowledged dream experts. A phenomenological methodology is adopted in explicating the data. The methodological precedure involves a number of rigorous stages of explication whereby the original data is reduced to Constituent Profiles leading to the construction of a Thematic Index File. By searching and reflecting upon the data, interpretative themes are identified. These themes are explicated to provide a rigorous description of the interpretative-reality of each group. Themes explicated within the Rural Group are: the physiognomy of the dreamer's life- world as revealed by ithongo, the interpretation of ithongo as revealed through action, the dream relationship as an anticipatory mode-of-existence, iphupha as disclosing a vulnerable mode-of-being, human bodiliness as revealed in dream interpretations and the legitimation of the interpretative-reality within the life-world. Themes explicated within the Urban Group are : the physiognomy of the dreamer's life-world revealed in their dream-existence, the interpretative-reality revealed through the enaction of dreams, tension between the newer Christian-based cosomology and the traditional cultural-based cosmology, a moral imperative, prophetic perception and human bodiliness, as revealed in dream interpretations and the legitimation of the interpretative-reality within the life-world. The essence of the interpretative-reality of both groups is very similar and is expressed in the notion of relatedness to a cosmic mode-of-being. The cosmic mode-of-being includes a numinous dimension which is expressed through divine presence in the form of ancestors, Holy Spirit or God. These notions cannot be apprehended by theoretical constructs alone but may be grasped and given form in meaning-disclosing intuitions which are expressed in the lifeworld in terms of bodiliness, revelatory knowledge, action and healing. Some differences between the two groups are evident and reveal some conflict between the monotheistic Christian cosmology and the traditional cosmology. Unique aspects of the interpetative-reality of the Urban Group are expressed in terms of difficulties in the urban social environment and the notion of a moral imperative. It is observed that cultural self-expression based upon traditional ideas continues to play a significant role in the urban environment. The apparent conflict revealed between the respective cosmologies underlies an integration of traditional meanings with Christian concepts. This finding is consistent with the literature suggesting that the African Independent Church is a syncretic movement. The life-world is based upon the immediate and vivid experience of the numinous as revealed in the dream phenomenon. The participants' approach to dreams is not based upon an explicit theory, but upon an immediate and pathic understanding of the dream phenomenon. The understanding is based upon the interpreter's concrete understanding of the life-world, which includes the possibility of cosmic integration and continuity between the personal and transpersonal realms of being. The approach is characterized as an expression of man's primordial attunement with the cosmos. The approach of the participants to dreams may not be consistent with a Western rational orientation, but nevertheless, it is a valid approach. The validity is based upon the immediate life-world of experience which is intelligible, coherent, and above all, it is meaning-giving in revealing life-possibility within the context of human existence.

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Moving from the basic assumption that media and television are vital sites of memory, pivotal spaces in which we learn about the past, this thesis argues that the most productive and progressive representations of the past are those that allow the past to interact with the present. Yet the past is not simply a representation in the present, it is also performed as cultural memory. One of the key concepts here is the idea that if we do indeed find historical knowledge on television and in everyday life as well as in museums and textbooks, then we might apply the concepts, roles and institutions of the museum, concepts like the archive and the curator, to television and historical consciousness in everyday life. Through this logic television programs are archives and audiences are curators, selecting music and fashions from the representation of the past and using them, performing them in everyday life. To explore this, I begin with textual analyses of the television shows American Dreams and Mad Men. Examinations of music and fashion in each show then gives way to inquiries into how the musical and sartorial artifacts contained in each program are brought out into everyday life. While these chapters primarily consider gendered histories and feminist cultural memories, I conclude with a consideration of racial histories, silenced memories and how unique juxtapositions can point to alternative archives and repertoires. / text

This paper investigates how students in the humanities in four universities in Sweden reflect on their education and the current view on the humanities as an education and a science. I want to investigate what impact the past few years public debate about the humanities have had on the students. What kind of beliefs and identities do the students of the humanities form and how do they discuss the universities, the choices they made in life and how do they feel about the future. This study is based on interviews with seventeen students in Sweden from four different universities. The research is also based upon a report that The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Svenskt Näringsliv) published in 2011 and the debate following that report. I have also made participant observations on the four universities to make a broader description for the reader. The paper mainly uses post-structuralistic theory (Foucault and Althusser) to analyze the informants lifes and thoughts about their education and future.    This research highlights the complexity involved when students  make choices for the future. Idealized views of education and what is important in life exists and creates gaps between what the person want and what is perceived are normative. There is a perceived hierarchy among universities, students and educations. Students of the humanities often feel that their position in this hierarchy is weaker than the idealised student and that makes the interpellation of the subjects harder but not less important.