In this paper, I study the bodies in Mare Kandre’s two novels Bestiarium (1999) and Xavier (2002), with the help of Mikhail Bakhtin’s theories of the grotesque. I examine the worldview that is portrayed in the novels – focusing on the attitude towards death – and seek answers to the following questions: how do the human bodies look and how do they relate to their surroundings? What does the way they are portrayed say about the world the novels portray? And what role does laughter play in the novels? I also examine the similarity between a grotesque body, and a gothic monster. As a result, I find that one body may exist both in life and death at the same time, that the bodies can merge together, and that the boundaries between body and world may be exceeded. I also find the grotesque abilities of the body not to be threatening, but filled with possibilities. Here, even monsters are not harmful. / I den här uppsatsen undersöker jag kropparna i Mare Kandres två romaner Bestiarium (1999) och Xavier (2002), med utgångspunkt i Michail Bachtins teorier om det groteska. Jag söker svar på hur hans begrepp kan öka förståelsen för den värld som målas upp i romanerna, med ett fokus på inställningen till döden. Jag ställer mig frågor om hur de mänskliga kropparna ser ut och hur de förhåller sig till resten av världen, vad sättet de gestaltas på säger om romanvärlden och vilken roll skrattet spelar i romanerna. Jag undersöker också likheten mellan groteska kroppar och gotiska monster. I min analys visar jag att kropparna i Mare Kandres romaner kan befinna sig både i livet och döden samtidigt, att de ständigt är i rörelse och kan uppgå i varandra. Dessutom kan gränsen mellan kropp och värld upplösas. Jag visar också på att den glädje som kännetecknade medeltidens grotesk bara kan förnimmas, men att de groteska kropparna trots det besitter positiva möjligheter. Inte ens monster måste här besegras, då de inte utgör något hot.

The dissertation takes as a point of departure that 1945 is usually mentioned as a start for a new type of Swedish children’s literature. In the majority of handbooks in and reviews of the history of Swedish children’s literature this is repeated as a fact. A reason for this is that three famous authors of children’s literature in Swedish all had their breakthrough this year: Lennart Hellsing, Tove Jansson and Astrid Lindgren. They are regarded as the most important examples of the new type of children’s literature. Especially Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Långstrump [Pippi Longstocking] has been seen as a symbol for the free child and for the revolt against the adult world and the stiff rules of etiquette. At the same time as 1945 has been assigned as the birth date for a new children’s literature the general view of the preceding period, between the two world wars, has been that it was stagnant and uninteresting. In this study, the hypothesis was that the new did not emerge from an empty space. After extensive reading of children’s literature from the time between the wars it was discovered that there were new tendencies in this literature similar to those ascribed to the literature from the period after 1945. A more detailed analysis was performed comparing Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Långstrump with works by the Swedish author Ester Blenda Nordström and the Danish author Karin Michaëlis’. The results show that the children’s literature produced between the wars was much more complex than previously stated and has several characteristics similar to the literature produced after 1945. As a consequence it seems necessary to modify the notion of 1945 as the definite starting point for the modern Swedish children’s book. A comparative analysis of the three authors is used as verification in the thesis. The analysis use among others the theories of Bachtin about the “popular laugh culture” and shows that the main characters in the books by Nordström and Michaëlis to the same extent as Pippi Långstrump illustrates the norm-breaking and independent child. The similarities between the work of Astrid Lindgren and Nordström and Michaëlis are obvious in terms of content as well as in expressions and type of language. The main focus in this dissertation is a textual analysis against a background of social context analysis. The conclusions state that there clearly were predecessors to the work of Astrid Lindgren. To simply state that 1945 was the year when the modern children’s book was born thus no longer seems relevant. / <p>Akademisk avhandling för avläggande av filosofie doktorsexamen i litteraturvetenskap vid Göteborgs universitet, som med tillstånd av</p><p>humanistiska fakultetsnämnden kommer att offentligen försvaras fredagen den 27 maj 2011, kl. 10 i Lilla Hörsalen, Humanisten, Renströmsgatan 6, Göteborg</p>

This study seeks to question old and common misconceptions concerning the american literary genre Southern Gothic. By using the carnival theory, the theory about the "grotesque" by Mikhail Bakhtin, this study seeks to explain and reach a better understanding of some works defined as Southern Gothic - so called because of the significance that is attributed in the genre to the geographical location in the southern United states. This study analyzes carnivalesque transgression in short story collections by Flannery O´Connor, Eudora Welty and Dorothy Allison, and the main purpose is to investigate if the genre really is as dark as it is often described by critics; pessimistic, absurdly shocking and without any affirmation regarding the beauty and strength of life.  Transgression is here defined as the transgression made by fictional characters when their bodies and their actions refuses to conform to the norms established by "the official world". By using Bachtins terminology my main thesis is to investigate positive and life-affirming transgression in A Good Man is Hard to Find, A Curtain of Green and Trash. The study further investigates the ways in which the bodies of the fictional characters become grotesque and in what way the characters through their behaviour become carnivalesque. The short stories are also compared with eachother from both a tematic and historic perspective: can changes through time be observed? Does the grotesque form or expression change in any way from Welty to Allison? The conclusion of the study is that both grotesque and carnivalesque forms can be found in the short stories, and it can be considered carnivalesue in a true Bakhtinian way, as both positive and affirming. The study also finds that the grotesque tends to become more positive and life-affirming through time.

<p>Hösten 2004 sändes i SVTs Uppdrag granskning ett reportage med rubriken "Lars Ohlys syn på demokrati". Därefter blossade en massmedial debatt upp, den så kallade kommunismdebatten. Både från partikamrater och andra politiker framfördes krav på att Lars Ohly skulle sluta kalla sig kommunist och året därpå gav han med sig. Men vad avsåg man i debatten egentligen med ordet kommunism? Min hypotes är att det rådde en semantisk konflikt i debatten, det vill säga en kamp om betydelsen hos ordet kommunism/kommunist.</p><p>I den här uppsatsen visar jag, genom att undersöka nyhetsartiklar och ledare ur svensk dagspress, att min hypotes stämmer. Jag för också, med utgångpunkt i teorier om det språkliga tecknets godtycklighet, en diskussion utifrån undersökningens resultat. Där resonerar jag bland annat kring de politiska konsekvenserna av att kommunism, som det verkar med hänseende till debattens utgång, inte längre kan användas som beteckning för 'drömmen om ett klasslöst samhälle'.</p>

Sammanfattning Utgångspunkten i masteravhandlingen är att mellanmänsklig dialog är en förutsättning för tänkande i konstnärliga processer. Mitt syfte är att undersöka vilka dialogiska former som är verksamma i tänkande och hur relationen mellan dialog och tänkande kan interagera i olika konstnärliga kontexter. Masteravhandlingen är uppbyggd med tre spår: teorispåret, samtalsspåret och dramatikspåret. I teorispåret utgår jag ifrån Martin Bubers, Michail Bachtins och Hannah Arendts texter om dialog och tänkande. I samtalsspåret diskuterar jag teoretikernas idéer med en fokusgrupp bestående av yrkesverksamma konstnärer inom skilda konstnärliga discipliner. Informanternas erfarenheter kommer i dialog med teorierna. I dramatikspåret presenterar jag exempel på hur sceniska dialoger kan tillföra ytterligare en komplexitetsnivå i diskussionen om vår förmåga och oförmåga till mellanmänsklig dialog. De tre spåren visar tillsammans, utifrån skilda infallsvinklar, att dialog i konstnärligaprocesser inte är möjlig utan en ömsesidig tillit. Tilliten ska i sammanhanget förstås som en aktiv handling att vilja samtala, för att kunna samtala. Det framkommer också hur betydelsefull frågan och lyssnandet är för att kunna tänka och ha en dialog. När vi ställer frågor behöver vi öppna oss för att vi inte vet och lyssna för att höra även det vi inte förväntar oss. De oväntade frågorna och det oväntade lyssnandet. Spåren visar också hur tänkande inbegriper ett görande, i en konkret och fysisk bemärkelse, som en förutsättning för att fördjupa tankeprocesser. Kroppen som en del av tanken. Till detta utmärks konstnärligt arbete av att ha en riktning utanför sig själv, en riktning vars vilja är att kommunicera med den andre. Utan riktning till konstverkens mottagare faller dialogen samman. / Abstract The premise of this master’s thesis is that - within the context of the artistic process -interpersonal dialogue is a prerequisite for the act of thinking. My aim is to investigate which dialogue forms are active in such acts of thinking and how dialogue and thinking can interact in different artistic contexts. The thesis consists of three tracks: a theory track, a conversation track and a drama track. In the theory track, I expand on Martin Buber’s, Michail Bachtin’s and Hannah Arendt’s texts on dialogue and the act of thinking. In the conversation track I discuss these theories with a focus group of professional artists active in a variety of fields. Here the practical experiences of the informants come into dialogue with the theories expressed in the thesis. In the drama track, I show how different scenic dialogues are able to add yet another level of complexity to the discussion of our ability (or inability) to participate in interpersonal dialogue. The three tracks show from a variety of perspectives that dialogue within the artistic process is not possible without mutual trust. In this context trust is understood as an act of intending to engage in dialog. Mutual trust also exposes the importance of questioning and listening in order to be able to think and participate in dialogue. When we ask a question we must be open to that which we do not know and to that we do not expect to hear. The tracks also show that the act of thinking is also an action, in a physical, practical sense, which is itself a prerequisite to being able to think more deeply. It is also important that artistic work be characterized by having an aim beyond itself - an ambition to communicate with an Other. Without such an aim, dialogue can only fail.

It has always been important to study history. But what we can’t forget is that there’s more than one way of doing so. One of those is literature. In this thesis I will therefore study two contemporary historical novels: The Night Watch by Sarah Waters and The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. The aim is to explore how they portray different kinds of historical experiences and how that may relate to questions that are relevant even in a contemporary context. Because both novels have an interestning relationship with time and space, I’m going to use the russian literary theorist Micheal Bachtins concept of the chronotope to explore how time and space operates and relate to eachother. In the end, this thesis also aims to show that literature can be a valuable object to study for those that are intererested in histiography.

Zugl.: Leeds, University, Diss.

La ricerca si colloca nell’ambito degli studi sull’adattamento, scegliendo una prospettiva ispirata alle teorie sviluppate dal filosofo russo Michail Bachtin riguardo all’autorialità. La domanda da cui muove l’analisi di tre adattamenti audiovisivi del romanzo dostoevskiano I fratelli Karamazov si riferisce all’adattabilità sullo schermo del principio letterario della polifonia, individuato da Bachtin. I tre adattamenti, scelti per elementi di omogeneità formale e di eterogeneità rispetto alla resa polifonica sono: il film Brothers Karamazov (Richard Brooks, Stati Uniti 1958); lo sceneggiato televisivo I fratelli Karamazov, (Sandro Bolchi, Italia 1969) e il film Brat’ja Karamazovy, (Ivan Pyr’ev, Michail Ul’janov e Kirill Lavrov, Unione Sovietica 1969). Prima di procedere alle analisi, attraverso una disamina della critica e dei testi bachtinani, abbiamo voluto riconnettere la polifonia letteraria alle ricerche filosofiche dal teorico russo nel corso degli anni Venti e all’humus culturale della filosofia religiosa russa. In seguito a questo approfondimento “genealogico”, abbiamo identificato le implicazioni formali della polifonia e avanzato la nostra proposta metodologica, fondata sulla ripresa dell’elemento autoriale in senso bachtiniano. Nel corso degli anni Settanta, infatti, la critica letteraria e cinematografica è stata influenza dal concetto di morte dell’Autore e ha posto l’accento univocamente sull’intertestualità. Attraverso una disamina delle teorie dell’adattamento, dalla trasmutazione di Umberto Eco alla ri-creazione di Carlo Testa, proponiamo una nuova formulazione ispirata agli studi bachtiniani sull’eccedenza di visione, la posizione nel mondo unica e insostituibile da cui scaturisce la visione dell’autore ( e, nel nostro caso, dell’adattatore). In un secondo momento l’analisi si rivolge alla sceneggiatura e al prodotto audiovisivo, attraverso una metodologia integrata che contempli una fase comparativa, drammaturgica, strutturale, tematica e linguistica. Il proposito che orienta le fasi dell’analisi è quello di valutare la resa polifonica delle tre opere, identificando le condizioni che agevolano la polifonia in un prodotto audiovisivo. / The research pertains to the field of adaptation studies, choosing a perspective inspired by the theories developed by Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin on authorship. The question from which the whole analysis of the three audiovisual adaptations of Dostoyevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazov moves, refers to the adaptability for the screen of the literary principle of polyphony as identified by Bakhtin. The three adaptations, chosen for elements of formal homogeneity and heterogeneity in relationship to polyphonic rendition are: the movie Brothers Karamazov (Richard Brooks, USA 1958); the TV Drama I fratelli Karamazov (Sandro Bolchi, Italy 1969) and the movie Bratya Karamazovy, (Ivan Pyryev, Michail Ulyanov and Kirill Lavrov, Soviet Union 1969). Before moving forward with the analysis, through an examination of both Bakhtin’s critic and texts, we wanted to reconnect literary polyphony with the Russian theoretician’s philological research in the 1920’s and the cultural hummus of Russian religious philosophy. After this “genealogical” study, we identified polyphony’s formal implications and advanced our methodological proposal, founded on the assessment of the authorial element in a bakhtinian sense. During the Seventies, in fact, literary and film critic was influenced by the concept of the death of the Author, and focused uniquely on intertextuality Through an examination of adaptation theories, from Umberto Eco’s transmutation to Carlo Testa’s re-creation, we are proposing a new formulation inspired by bakhtinian studies on surplus vision, the unique and irreplaceable view of the world the author’s (and in our case, the adapter’s) vision stems from. At a later stage the analysis turns to the screenplay and the audiovisual product, through an integrated methodology covering a comparative, dramaturgical, structural, thematic and linguistic phase. The purpose that guides the phases of the analysis is to evaluate the polyphonic rendition of the three works, identifying the conditions that facilitate polyphony in an audiovisual product.

Hösten 2004 sändes i SVTs Uppdrag granskning ett reportage med rubriken "Lars Ohlys syn på demokrati". Därefter blossade en massmedial debatt upp, den så kallade kommunismdebatten. Både från partikamrater och andra politiker framfördes krav på att Lars Ohly skulle sluta kalla sig kommunist och året därpå gav han med sig. Men vad avsåg man i debatten egentligen med ordet kommunism? Min hypotes är att det rådde en semantisk konflikt i debatten, det vill säga en kamp om betydelsen hos ordet kommunism/kommunist. I den här uppsatsen visar jag, genom att undersöka nyhetsartiklar och ledare ur svensk dagspress, att min hypotes stämmer. Jag för också, med utgångpunkt i teorier om det språkliga tecknets godtycklighet, en diskussion utifrån undersökningens resultat. Där resonerar jag bland annat kring de politiska konsekvenserna av att kommunism, som det verkar med hänseende till debattens utgång, inte längre kan användas som beteckning för 'drömmen om ett klasslöst samhälle'.

This study explores the theme of spatiality as based on a reading of the novel Flammenwand. Roman mit Anmerkungen. by Marlene Streeruwitz, and takes as its focus points the notion of atopias/non-places, the disciplining nature of spaces, the necropolitics of division, and the idea of chronotope to discover how the story is situated. The study further considers how idyllic interpretations of the space of origin are treated as utopic in the novel. Relying as well on Jurij M. Lotman’s thoughts on the structure and limits of the text/work of art, the study aims to suggest how the theme of boundaries and transgressing them also is shown in the form of the novel.