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The seventeenth-century epic poem Paradise Lost is one of the most widely studied texts in all of literary history. The work, written by John Milton, depicts Satan's fall from Heaven and subsequent deeds on Earth and in Hell. One of the more remarkable and, often, most overlooked scenes in the story involves the distinctive personification of Sin and Death. Milton depicts Sin as the daughter of Satan, with no mention of a mother, born through a process of spontaneous generation. Satan then becomes so captivated by his daughter's wickedness that he forces himself upon her, causing Sin to bear a son, Death. This illustration is striking, especially given that it also appears in the opening pages of the fourteenth-century Mirour de l'Omme (c. 1376) by John Gower. In both Milton and Gower's poems, Satan, Sin, and Death are personified as having this familial, incestuous relationship which ultimately creates the world's evils. Their depictions are not merely reminiscent of one another, but rather, often match up in nearly identical fashions. John S. P. Tatlock was the among the first to notice these similarities, but was also quick to express his hesitance to say with any sort of assurance that Milton had read Gower: "Since only one manuscript of the Mirour is known, and that was never published until seven years ago [1899], the chance is infinitesimal that Milton ever heard of the poem. But that his and Gower's sources are ultimately the same seems to me highly probable." Yet to date, no studies have been conducted to determine which shared sources could possibly lead Milton and Gower to construct such similar personifications of Sin and Death. Indeed, John Fisher notes that currently "the influence of the Mirour upon Paradise Lost remains an open question." It is upon this open question that I now attempt to help fill this century-old void in literary research / Master of Arts

This dissertation tries to locate Milton's optimistic view of man and nature as expressed in Comus, Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, and Paradise Lost in the long tradition of natural law that goes back to Aristotle, Cicero, and Aquinas.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how power structures concerning gender and sexuality emerge through the use of language in the Swedish reality show Paradise Hotel. Of particular interest is the representation of heterosexual relations in the show. Because of its interest in the relationship between power, gender and sexuality, the thesis is based on theories from gender and discourse studies. The specific theories referred to are Michel Foucault’s understanding of power, stereotypes according to Stuart Hall, Yvonne Hirdman’s gender system and contract theory, Judith Butler’s heterosexual matrix and R.W. Connell’s theory of hegemonic masculinity. The empirical data consists of eight episodes of Paradise Hotel from 2014, which has been transcribed and analysed through the use of Norman Furlough’s critical discourse analysis (CDA). The results showed that Paradise Hotel portrays the male and female participants as fundamentally different and therefore they are allowed to behave in different ways. Among other things, it appeared that men have a high sex drive and they expect to get this need satisfied. The women on the other hand are discredited if they have sex with many partners. As a part of the concept of Paradise Hotel is to share rooms with a partner of the opposite sex there are certain expectations of intimacy. The male participants exercise power by claiming their partners as possessions. Neither do they respect the female boundaries regarding their bodies and sexuality. The women also participate in maintaining the patriarchal order in the show. However, some of the female participants oppose to a norm saying women should be sexually passive. For competition purposes they use their bodies and cunning in order to influence the men. Notably, while some of the discourses that emerged in the analysis reflect social power structures, others are reserved to Paradise Hotel since there are rules that only apply to the show.

Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka på vilka sätt köns- och sexualitetsdiskurser kommer till uttryck i sociala medier i relation till framställningen av kön och sexualitet i tv, och vad det kan bero på. Syftet är även att undersöka vilken betydelse meningsreproduktionen och diskurserna på sociala medier kan ha för användarnas föreställningar om kön och sexualitet. Frågeställningarna är: “Reproduceras köns- och heteronormer under hashtagen #paradisehotelse på Twitter? I så fall, på vilket sätt och vad kan det bero på?” och “Skulle interaktionen med tv-programmet Paradise Hotel via Twitter kunna ha någon betydelse för Twitter-användarnas föreställningar om kön och sexualitet? I så fall, på vilket sätt?”. För att uppnå syftet genomförs netnografi och kritisk diskursanalys av inläggen på hashtagen #paradisehotelse. För att sedan analysera resultatet och besvara studiens frågeställningar, använder vi oss av teori om nya och sociala medier samt kultur- och genusteori. Det material vi utför den netnografiska analysen på kom att bli ungefär 2500 Twitter-inlägg. Materialet avgränsas dock inför den kritiska diskursanalysen. Resultaten visar att skribenterna på #paradisehotelse reproducerar köns- och heteronormer i en stor utsträckning, ofta implicit. Detta sker genom att de manliga Paradise Hotel-deltagarna ges ett större spelrum än de kvinnliga i sitt agerande, utseende och sexuella anspelning, utan att de uppfattas negativt. Köns- och heteronormer kan reproduceras i skribentens försök att själv passa in i dem samt att man förväntas uttrycka sig om givna saker och på ett givet sätt på hashtagen. De få skribenter som uttrycker kritik mot köns- och heteronormer gör detta enbart i relation till tydligt könsstereotypa händelser i Paradise Hotel. Meningsreproduktionen på hashtagen skulle kunna ha en betydelse för föreställningarna hos de Twitter-användare som är passiva i sin mediekonsumtion, vilket resultaten tyder på då majoriteten av skribenterna accepterar och återger, utan reflektion, det normativa innehållet i Paradise Hotel. Konsekvenserna kan vara skeva värderingar kring vad som är “rätt” och normalt kring kön och sexualitet, vilket är normer som skribenterna själva strävar efter att passa in i för att uppfattas normala. / Aim: This research aims to investigate how gender and sexuality discourses are expressed in social media, in connection with how gender and sexualities are presented in tv, and what reasons that could be behind it. The aim is also to research if and how the messages on social media could affect the Twitter users’ ideas of gender and sexuality. The research questions are: “Are gender norms and heteronormativity reproduced on the Twitter hashtag #paradisehotelse? If so, how and what could the reason/s be?” and “Could the interaction with the tv-show Paradise Hotel through Twitter affect the Twitter users’ ideas of gender and sexuality? If so, how?”. Method/Material: The methods that are used in order to achieve the purposes of this study, are netnography and critical discourse analysis. The material consists of approximately 2500 tweets that are produced on #paradisehotelse. To analyse the results and answer the research questions, theories about new and social media, gender and culture are applied to the study. Main results: Gender norms and heteronormativity are reproduced to a large extent on the hashtag, often implicitly. This happens by the Twitter users accepting and celebrating the male Paradise Hotel participators’ manners, sexuality and looks, whereas the females mostly are criticized for these aspects. The reasons behind the reproduction of norms of gender and heterosexuality on the hashtag could be that the writers are trying to represent themselves as normal by pointing out when someone else is diverging from the norms, or that one is expected to express in a certain way and about certain things on the hashtag. The few writers that question the norms only do so in relation to extreme incidents of Paradise Hotel that are obviously characterized by gender and heterosexuality norms. The tweets could affect the ideas of gender and sexuality of the Twitter users that are passive in their media consumption, which the results tell us that most of them are, based on their reproduction of the normative content of Paradise Hotel. The consequences could be narrow perspectives about gender and sexualities – what is considered “right” and normal – which are the norms that the writers themselves are striving to fit into to represent themselves as normal.

This thesis examines the reproduction of gender norms and the resistance against them in the Swedish reality TV show Paradise Hotel, using Raewyn Connell's theories Hegemonic Masculinity and Gender Hierarchy together with the method multimodal critical discourse analysis. Previous research has shown a reproduction of traditional gender norms in Reality-TV, along with the presence of a power imbalance between the contestants and the production itself, where the production holds the power. Despite discourses of feminist character taking a greater place in western society after the #MeToo movement, Paradise Hotel is yet today a subject of discussion in Swedish media, accused of presenting a sexist discourse. Discourses of hegemonic gender norms and resistance against them has been the subject of study in eight episodes from season 11 of Paradise Hotel. Through the usage of a theoretical framework focusing on gender, culture making and representation, the results show that typical gender norms can be spotted through the contestants' practices of stereotypical traits connected to the traditional ideas of masculinity and femininity. The study also shows resistance against these norms, primarily by the female contestants and through their practice of typical masculine traits. The maintenance of the stereotypical gender norms is dominant by the production amplifying the contestant’s actions of resistance as comedy through special effects, reducing women to sexual objects intended for male pleasure and reinforcing the image of the man as the omnipotent gender role.

Discipline was an enduring concept in the works of John Milton (1608-1674), yet its meaning shifted over the course of his career: initially he held that it denoted ecclesiastical order, but gradually he turned to representing it as self-willed pious action. My thesis examines this transformation by analysing Milton’s complex engagement in two distinct periods: the 1640s and the 1660s-70s. In Of Reformation (1641), Milton echoed popular contemporary demands for a reformation of church discipline, but also asserted through radical literary experimentation that poetry could discipline the nation too (Chapter 1). Reflecting his dislike for intolerant Presbyterians in Parliament and the Westminster Assembly, the two versions of The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1643 and 1644) reconsider discipline as a moral imperative for all men, rooted in domestic liberty (Chapter 2). Although written long after this period, the long poetry that Milton composed after the Restoration reveals his continued interrogation of the concept. The invocations of the term ‘discipline’ by Milton’s angels in Paradise Lost (1667) sought to encourage dissenting readers to faithfulness and co-operation (Chapter 3). Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes (1671) advance the concept in the language of ‘piety,’ emphasising that ‘pious hearts’ are the precondition for godly action in opposition to contemporary Anglican ‘holy living’ (Chapter 4). In analysing Milton’s shifting concept of discipline, my thesis contributes to scholarship by showing his sensitivity to contemporary mainstream religious ideas, outlining the Christian—as opposed to republican or Stoic—notions of praxis that informed his ethics, and emphasising the disciplinary aspect of his doctrinal thought. Overall, it holds that in discipline, as word and concept, Milton expressed his faith in the capacity of writing to change its reader, morally and spiritually.

The thesis pioneers a new methodology for the analysis of early modern literature: it embarks on a stylistic appreciation of Paradise Lost using early modern methods of interpretation and comprehension, specifically logic. In doing so it engages in the contest between historicist and stylistic criticism, providing a new methodology by which these two approaches are united to perform historically appropriate stylistic analysis of literary texts. Logic formed the bedrock of all early modern intellectual operations, including the literary, and it was the art used for all forms of analysis and interpretation. Yet in modern studies, logic has suffered from its own interdisciplinary dexterity: it is comparatively seldom studied, and when examined this tends to be in connection within a specific field of interest. As such there is a lack of a comprehensive developmental understanding of this subject in line with its original pragmatic purposes. This thesis addresses this quandary by examining a wide range of texts from the period to produce a syncretic appreciation of this art, similar to that acquired by early modern students. Having extrapolated the principles of early modern logic the second half of the thesis applies these in a practical way to analyse Milton’s style in Paradise Lost, reaching a new appreciation of the poem in accordance with the logical precepts that enabled its original production. The overarching aim of the thesis is to produce an innovative methodology enabling historically appropriate stylistic analysis of early modern texts, uniting the customarily disparate approaches of historicist and stylistic criticism in a literal and pragmatic way to open the possibility for future application of this methodology to other early modern literary texts.

This study arranges symptoms of polarity into a causal sequence# beginning with the origin of contrarieties and ending with the ultimate effect. The origin is considered as the fall of man, denoting both a mythic concept and a specific act of betrayal. This study argues that a sense of separateness precedes the fall or act of separation; the act of separation produces various kinds of fragmentation; and the fragments are reunited through paradox. Therefore, a causal relationship exists between the "fall" motif and the concept of paradox.