Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wyoming, 2008. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on August 6, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-85).

Aquest treball gira entorn a la controvèrsia que, des de finals del segle XIX, va generar el passatge de les Confessions (VIII, 6-12) on Agustí relata la seva crisi decisiva, viscuda a Milà l'estiu de l'any 386, que l'acabaria portant a l'aparent definitiva conversió al cristianisme. Els motius de fons de la controvèrsia són dos de clars. En primer lloc, i a la llum del que nosaltres entenem per gènere autobiogràfic, s'imposa aclarir si un relat com el de les Confessions s'hi pot adscriure, i per tant si ens relata una sèrie d'esdeveniments viscuts per Agustí històricament, o bé si cal interpretar els elements que l'autor desplega al llarg de la narració com a símbols d'un missatge que supera la narració que es troba a la superfície. La segona qüestió, directament vinculada a la primera, és el sentit que cal donar a aquesta conversió en relació a la noció de forma de vida filosòfica, i la influència que tindrà aquesta noció en la biografia i el pensament d'Agustí. / This work analyses the controversy that arises at the end of the XIX century around the passage of Confessions VIII, 6-12 where Augustine reveals his decisive crisis, which took place in Milan during the summer of 386, and that apparently lead him to the definitive conversion to Christianity. The main reasons of the controversy are two. First of all, and in relation of what we understand by autobiographical genre, we need to understand if a narrative like Confessions can be related to autobiography, and so, if this work tells us a chain of events historically lived by Augustine, or if we must interpret the events that the author develops along the narrative as a symbolic whole that stands beyond the surface of the narrative. The second question, directly related to the first one, is the sense we have to give to this conversion in relation to the concept of philosophical form of life, and the influence that this notion will have in Augustine's biography and thought.

This essay concerns on how my novel The Teacher was influenced by the Masters course I completed in Creative Writing at Linnaeus University (2012 – 2014). Basically, The Teacher is about a love affair between a teacher and a student. With an intertextual, comparative and structurally inspired method I examine the process of writing my text. I also examine how my work relates to the great changes of the Swedish school system in the early 1990:s: deregulation, decentralisation and management by objectives. These changes are satirised in the novel. The essay also deals the role of the city in its time, the school in its town, contemporary literary texts with corresponding thematic, the moral values in their time and overall existential questions about responsibility, guilt, acceptance, non-judgmental attitudes, forgiveness and being in the present moment. The examining part of the essay shows how these premises get a concrete expression in the main conflict, main theme, characterization, narrative and stylistic choices. The essay clarifies the satirical point of view that turns The Teacher into an ironical reflection on the Swedish school system after the so-called “kommunaliseringen” (communities taking over from the state). The essay also clarifies how grown ups abdicate from responsibility in the Swedish society and how people judge each other and cling to roles. For that reason The Teacher is relevant within its time but also and even more since it is about recurring existential questions about responsibility and non-judgmental attitudes.

Self-help counselling is an important industry that not only influences its immediate users’ behavior but also society and social behaviors more generally. Since New Ageis a main branch of self-help, and since positivity is a dominant concept in (New Age) self-help discourse, it is worth analyzing how positivity might be achieved in terms of language use. The present study investigates whether the adjectives in a couple of New Age publications contribute to communicating positivity and, if yes, how. What adjectives are used and how can they be categorized in terms of positive, negative, neutral or undetermined connotations as well as semantic prosody? The findings support the hypothesis that the use of “positive adjectives” (Rozin, Berman & Royzman, 2010, p. 536) is what helps to make New Age self-help books convey a positive spirit.