Den här uppsatsen analyserar humor i texter skrivna av kvinnor, samt humors funktion och framställning genom några utvalda kvinnliga humordrag i förhållande till tragiska, svåra ämnen. Uppsatsen utgår från två verk – Ett år av vila och avkoppling av Ottessa Moshfegh och Carrie Fishers Vykort från drömfabriken. Humorn analyseras genom en textnära och komparativ läsning som lyfter upp likheter och skillnader mellan humorns funktioner i de två olika verken. Uppsatsen tar en teoretisk utgångspunkt i John Morrealls tankar och teorier om universell humor, samt en teoribildning av kvinnliga humordrag i tre texter av Gail Finney och Regina Barreca. Med hjälp av Finney och Barreca har jag konstruerat en lista på sju punkter som visar den kvinnliga komikens mönster och hur den skiljer sig från den manliga. Analysen är indelad i tre delar som diskuterar hur humor nyttjas som självförsvar, själskadebeteende och självförstärkning i verken.

This essay examines the portrayal of present-day loneliness in the novels Eileen (2015) and My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2018) by contemporary author Ottessa Moshfegh. The main point of departure for this examination has been through a literary sociological standpoint which claims the inevitable effects of the current time and place through which a work is being produced in, therefore, enabling an examination of modern-day loneliness even though the stories take place in an imagined past. Through a thematic close reading of the two books I have analyzed the way in which loneliness is being portrayed.   Furthermore, this essay employs current studies of loneliness by professor Noreena Hertz which she explores in her book The Lonely Century (2020). In her studies, Hertz presents a nuanced inspection to the cause and effects of loneliness in current time. This examination mainly focuses on three categories presented by Hertz: political alterations, ongoing urbanization and technological advancement – all which, according to Hertz, are significant factors to the cause of modern-day loneliness.  Together, the books form a chronological timeline and with each other display developments of loneliness and its alterations. Through the literary sociological standpoint this examination demonstrates the way in which society provokes loneliness and how this is being portrayed in fiction.

This thesis explores social relations in Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2018) through Doreen Massey’s conceptualisation of space. With the assumption that social relations are formed through and by space, the thesis analyses the protagonist’s interactions with space in the novel. It is explored how the protagonist navigates space through unconscious actions, blurring imagined public/private distinctions, as well as how occupying space may be an alienating experience, pointedly sensed as a growing distance between body and mind. Continuing, the thesis examines the protagonist’s attempts to negotiate space and problematises the effectiveness of these attempts against the ubiquity of space. Following this is a reflection on the limitations of Massey’s theory, along with concluding remarks concerning potential shortcomings and opportunities for further research.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how the novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2018 / 2019) by Ottessa Moshfegh, through the lens of dissociative feminism, can be interpreted as a critique regarding commodification of the body. To explore this claim, I discuss the protagonist’s dissociative feminist behaviour in contrast to her friend Reva’s femcel-behaviour. How the protagonist and Reva react to societal pressure in the form of beauty standards becomes the evidence of a critique that I believe Moshfegh is trying to tell throughout the novel. By examining how the two women are either showing approval or rejection of beauty standards either physically or psychologically, the theory of the docile body and culture industry is brought into the discussion. This leads to a discussion of why docile bodies are subjugated to beauty standards and if self-care routines are either done for the self or the observers’ gaze. I show evidence of how the novel criticizes a society that forces oppressive ideals upon women by discussing the thought process of the protagonist. This essay is therefore written from the perspective of the protagonist being the force against beauty standards and how through continuous dissociation, the protagonist is set free from societal norms, while Reva acts as a symbol for all the women that are mouldable. This essay analyses four passages that show how Moshfegh delivers an implicit critique through four distinct ways: dissociation, power, docility, and sedation. Finally, the essay shows evidence of how the novel on its last page creates a generalization of women, signalling that women must dare to break the patterns of oppressive ideals to become free individuals.