Syftet med denna uppsats är att göra en komparativ karaktärsanalys med fokus på genus, genom en närläsning av romanerna The Hunger Games och The Maze Runner. De frågor som ställs fokuserar på vilken syn det finns på könsroller i romanerna, hur protagonisterna Katniss och Thomas framställs ur ett genusperspektiv samt hur tillfällena de axlar sin hjälteroll samt de uppoffringar som görs beskrivs. Den teoretiska grunden fokuserar på genusbegreppet, könstillhörighet hos unga samt maskulinitet och femininitet. Genom att göra en närläsning av romanerna undersöker uppsatsen komparativa anslag, gör en karaktärsanalys med fokus på genusforskning och utgångspunkt i genusteori. Analysen visar att Katniss och Thomas är mångfacetterade karaktärer som naturligt placerar sig i ledarroller samt visar stort mod under pressade och farliga situationer. Genom att fokusera på sina styrkor, snarare än samhällets förväntningar, utmanar protagonisterna de stereotyper som finns inom genusteori. / The purpose of this essay is to conduct a comparative character analysis on the protagonists in the novels The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner, through a close reading and with a focus on gender theory. The questions posed is focused on how gender role is viewed in the novels, how the protagonists Katniss and Thomas are portrayed from a gender perspective, how the situations they become heroes in the story and sacrifices they make are described. The theoretical foundation focuses on the concept of gender and young people's gender identity. Through the close reading of the novels, this essay explores comparative aspects, conducts a character analysis with a focus on gender research, and is based in gender theory. The analysis shows that Katniss and Thomas are multifaceted characters who instantly take on leadership roles and show great courage in dangerous situations. By focusing on their strengths rather than society’s expectations, the protagonists challenge the stereotypes that exist within gender.

This essay analyses Curtis Sittenfeld’s novel Sanning och Skvaller as an adaption of Jane Austen’s Stolthet och fördom. The purpose of this essay is to take a closer look at how the characters and the plot changes in Sittenfeld’s version compared to the original. The character analysis mainly focuses on Mr. Wickham, lady Catherine de Bourgh and Caroline Bingley as characters, as well as Mary Bennet and how her sexuality is portrayed. Elizabeth Bennet’s relationship with Mr. Darcy and the importance of a proposal and a marriage is also something that this essay analyses. The reception of the novel is something that will be addressed by highlighting some of the negative, and positive, reviews that the novel received upon publication. The discussion at the end brings up whether or not Sittenfelds novel can be classified as an adaption after changing so much of the story, how the elements in the new version changes its believability and how the problematic aspects may ruin the story.

During the last decades, a Hindi Dalit literary movement has emerged in North India. This essay is a study and comparison on character portrayals in short stories by two authors from this movement, Jayprakash Kardam and Ajay Navaria. The aim of this essay is to explore the implications of these portrayals considering these authors’ views on social change, their literary affiliations and a theoretical discussion on Dalit literature. The methodical basis for this study is a detailed character analysis of these short stories’ protagonists, antagonists and other relevant characters, supported by narrative- and conceptual analyses. This essay argues that the theoretical abstraction of Dalit consciousness [cetnā] has a mainstreaming effect on the Dalit experience [anubhūti] when it is portrayed in literature. These dynamics are visible in Kardam’s stories, in which his portrayals of the Dalit protagonist follow the conventional Dalit character template, a forthright and innocent archetype juxtaposed against an evil Brahmin. The pivoting moment in Kardam’s stories is when consciousness awakens in the Dalit protagonist and he joins the corporate resistance against a casteist society. In comparison, Navaria makes the individual the site for change in his stories—reflecting the Gandhian notion of hṛday parivartan (“change of heart”). Navaria foregrounds alternative perspectives to Dalit cetnā in his stories and seeks to understand his characters from a broader human experience. I further argue that Navaria’s stories are suggestive of an expansion of the binary discussion on anubhūti (“experience”) and sahānubhūti (“sympathy”) by the term samānubhūti (“empathy”) since Navaria, by his more complex, nuanced and personalised characterisation of both Dalits and Brahmins, provides a common ground that invites to reconciliation. This study concludes that while Kardam could be designated as a conventional Dalit author, Navaria should rather be situated in the boundaries between the Dalit and the mainstream Hindi literary field. It further concludes that more research is needed on theoretical concepts used in the Dalit literary discourse. / <p>Kandidatuppsats i indologi</p>

Estudo sobre a representação literária da figura do guerrilheiro em romances do brasileiro Antonio Callado (1917-1997) e dos angolanos Pepetela (1941-) e José Luandino Vieira (1935-). Considerando que os autores recriam ficcionalmente realidades muito diferenciadas, em países e continentes distintos, num momento histórico que só as aproxima pelo contexto da Guerra Fria, mas compartilham personagens envolvidos na contestação armada do poder, queremos examinar como essas figuras são construídas, como se aproximam ou se distanciam, e de que maneira se transformam à medida que os textos produzidos se afastam do momento histórico que lhes serve de tema. Um capítulo inicial descreve o panorama geral das lutas políticas no século XX, o fim dos grandes impérios coloniais, o contexto da Guerra Fria, e traça um paralelo minucioso entre a resistência armada à ditadura brasileira e a luta guerrilheira contra o colonialismo português, situando os autores nesse contexto. Depois há uma discussão sobre a figura do guerrilheiro como motivo literário, exemplificado em Che Guevara, um levantamento de questões teóricas sobre o personagem literário e a apresentação e discussão do corpus: Quarup (1967), Bar Don Juan (1971), Reflexos do baile (1977), Sempreviva (1981), de Callado; As aventuras de Ngunga (1973), Mayombe (1980), A geração da utopia (1992), O planalto e a estepe (2009), de Pepetela; O livro dos rios (2006), O livro dos guerrilheiros (2009), de Luandino Vieira. Seguem-se perfis analíticos-interpretativos, feitos a partir da leitura cerrada, de 28 personagens de Callado, 18 personagens de Pepetela e oito personagens de Luandino Vieira, e as conclusões que essas cinquenta figuras nos sugeriram. / This dissertation presents a study of the literary representation of guerrillas in novels by the Brazilian Antonio Callado (1917-1997) and the Angolans Pepetela (1941-) and José Luandino Vieira (1935-). In their fictional recreations of distinct realities, historically contextualized in different countries and continents in the Cold War, these authors created characters who are directly involved in the armed contestation of power. Our purpose is to examine how these characters are constructed, how they converge or diverge in their characteristics, and the transformations they undergo as the focuses in the texts move away from the historical moment associated to their themes. The first chapter draws an overview of the political struggles in the twentieth century, of the end of the great colonial empires, and of the context of the Cold War, and makes a detailed comparison between the armed resistance to the Brazilian dictatorship, which is the context of Antonio Callado\'s novels, and the guerrilla warfare against Portuguese colonialism, where Pepetela\'s and José Luandino Vieira\'s novels are contextualized. Guerrilla warfare and the figure of guerrillas as literary motifs is the subject of the following chapter. The discussion is illustrated through the analysis of literary approaches of the figure of Che Guevara. This chapter also surveys theoretical questions about literary characters and analyzes the following novels : Quarup (1967), Bar Don Juan (1971), Reflexos do baile (1977), and Sempreviva (1981), by Callado; As aventuras de Ngunga (1973), Mayombe (1980), A geração da utopia (1992), O planalto e a estepe (2009), by Pepetela; O livro dos rios (2006), and O livro dos guerrilheiros (2009), by Luandino Vieira. The lasts chapters outlines analytical and interpretative profiles extracted from the close reading of twenty-eight characters by Callado, eighteen characters by Pepetela and eight characters by Luandino Vieira, and presents the conclusions we drew from the analyses of these fifty four characters.

Estudo sobre a representação literária da figura do guerrilheiro em romances do brasileiro Antonio Callado (1917-1997) e dos angolanos Pepetela (1941-) e José Luandino Vieira (1935-). Considerando que os autores recriam ficcionalmente realidades muito diferenciadas, em países e continentes distintos, num momento histórico que só as aproxima pelo contexto da Guerra Fria, mas compartilham personagens envolvidos na contestação armada do poder, queremos examinar como essas figuras são construídas, como se aproximam ou se distanciam, e de que maneira se transformam à medida que os textos produzidos se afastam do momento histórico que lhes serve de tema. Um capítulo inicial descreve o panorama geral das lutas políticas no século XX, o fim dos grandes impérios coloniais, o contexto da Guerra Fria, e traça um paralelo minucioso entre a resistência armada à ditadura brasileira e a luta guerrilheira contra o colonialismo português, situando os autores nesse contexto. Depois há uma discussão sobre a figura do guerrilheiro como motivo literário, exemplificado em Che Guevara, um levantamento de questões teóricas sobre o personagem literário e a apresentação e discussão do corpus: Quarup (1967), Bar Don Juan (1971), Reflexos do baile (1977), Sempreviva (1981), de Callado; As aventuras de Ngunga (1973), Mayombe (1980), A geração da utopia (1992), O planalto e a estepe (2009), de Pepetela; O livro dos rios (2006), O livro dos guerrilheiros (2009), de Luandino Vieira. Seguem-se perfis analíticos-interpretativos, feitos a partir da leitura cerrada, de 28 personagens de Callado, 18 personagens de Pepetela e oito personagens de Luandino Vieira, e as conclusões que essas cinquenta figuras nos sugeriram. / This dissertation presents a study of the literary representation of guerrillas in novels by the Brazilian Antonio Callado (1917-1997) and the Angolans Pepetela (1941-) and José Luandino Vieira (1935-). In their fictional recreations of distinct realities, historically contextualized in different countries and continents in the Cold War, these authors created characters who are directly involved in the armed contestation of power. Our purpose is to examine how these characters are constructed, how they converge or diverge in their characteristics, and the transformations they undergo as the focuses in the texts move away from the historical moment associated to their themes. The first chapter draws an overview of the political struggles in the twentieth century, of the end of the great colonial empires, and of the context of the Cold War, and makes a detailed comparison between the armed resistance to the Brazilian dictatorship, which is the context of Antonio Callado\'s novels, and the guerrilla warfare against Portuguese colonialism, where Pepetela\'s and José Luandino Vieira\'s novels are contextualized. Guerrilla warfare and the figure of guerrillas as literary motifs is the subject of the following chapter. The discussion is illustrated through the analysis of literary approaches of the figure of Che Guevara. This chapter also surveys theoretical questions about literary characters and analyzes the following novels : Quarup (1967), Bar Don Juan (1971), Reflexos do baile (1977), and Sempreviva (1981), by Callado; As aventuras de Ngunga (1973), Mayombe (1980), A geração da utopia (1992), O planalto e a estepe (2009), by Pepetela; O livro dos rios (2006), and O livro dos guerrilheiros (2009), by Luandino Vieira. The lasts chapters outlines analytical and interpretative profiles extracted from the close reading of twenty-eight characters by Callado, eighteen characters by Pepetela and eight characters by Luandino Vieira, and presents the conclusions we drew from the analyses of these fifty four characters.

Denna uppsats hanterar hur kvinnliga karaktärer porträtteras i romantisk komedi genom att närmare studera begreppet ”Manic Pixie Dream Girl”. Detta begrepp leder till missförstånd om kvinnans roll i filmens värld och skapar diskussioner om jämställdhet och västerländsk berättarkultur. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka två kvinnor i två olika romantiska komedier uppfyller de kriterier som nämns av Manic Pixie Dream Girl-begreppets myntare, Nathan Rabin, har lagt fram och om det således är motiverat att argumentera att karaktärerna upprätthåller sexistiska synsätt. Den teoretiska grund som uppsatsen bygger på kommer främst från feministisk teori, men även från Laura Mulveys teori om skopofili och den manliga blicken. För att analysera det utvalda materialet används en skräddarsydd karaktärsanalytisk metod. Resultatet visar att, trots att de kvinnliga karaktärerna må uppfylla några eller flera av de kriterier som Rabin ställer fram så innebär inte det direkt att karaktärerna är endimensionella och, i förlängning, overkliga porträtt av kvinnor i allmänhet. / This essay deals with how female characters are portrayed in romantic comedies by studying the "Manic Pixie Dream Girl"-phenomenon closer. This concept leads to misunderstandings about women's roles in the world of cinema and creates discussions about equality and Western storytelling. The purpose of this essay is to study two women in two different romantic comedies and study if they meet the criteria Nathan Rabin, the man who coined the term “Manic Pixie Dream Girl”, has announced to be qualities of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl and whether it is justified to argue that the female characters maintain sexist ideals. The theoretical basis on which the essay is based primarily comes from feminist theory, but also from Laura Mulvey’s theory of scopophilia and “the male gaze”. To analyze the selected material I have chosen to use a customized method of character analysis. The results show that, despite the fact that the female characters may meet some or more of the criteria Rabin have announced, the material does not directly imply that the characters are one-dimensional and, in extension, improbable and unreal portraits of women in general.

No description available.

「人觀」注重「人」與「社會」、「自然」與「自我」之間的互動關係，以及依據不同脈絡下，如何思考「人」的意義與定位，進以建構「社會人」、「自然人」或「自由人」命題，形成「人觀」的理論體系。當中特別凸顯「人」所具道德、藝術、宗教、文化的多向度事實，注重諸向度間的相互作用，抉發「人」於此關係迴環下呈現的「形象」蘊涵，依此可作為體現人物豐富生命義蘊的方法。 　　在儒家「人觀」視域下，「好學進德」的顏回形象，可視作「君子之學」典範，豁顯「仁」「禮」修身的「具體實踐」內涵。《莊子》則建構「心齋坐忘」的「體道」顏回形象，內容多與「至人」身心修養和主體轉化相關，故顏回實為深入莊子「人觀」的「思想符號」。漢代揚雄、王充依「用氣言性」態度，創構「氣化大賢」的顏回形象，由是發展出「潛心學聖未至」的說法，又用「未達一間」詮釋孔顏聖賢位階之分，甚至將顏回短命早亡視作「性善命凶」、「以才自殺」的必然結果。魏晉南朝綰合「玄理思辨」與「人物品鑒」，如講求天資、智愚、識量、言語的觀人識鑒情境，對照「本末」、「形神」、「言意」概念的玄學《論語》詮釋，反映出會通儒道、玄化孔顏的聖賢觀，故有「玄化顏回」的特殊形象面目。就「玄化顏回」現象的實踐面觀，如黃憲「顏子復生」或謝尚「年少一坐之顏回」稱譽，背後便以「淵粹玄遠」、「天才神悟」的顏回形象為品鑒依據。待及唐宋，退之、習之、伊川皆據《中庸》、《易傳》立義，闡發「體道學聖」的顏回形象命題和「聖學」理論。如濂溪將「顏回之學」提升至「體天明誠」的「證體」超越層次。「顏學」與「顏樂」互相包含，「聖學」踐履以「學顏回」、「求至樂」為目標。明道則匯流「識仁」與「觀氣象」命題，塑造「體之而樂，反身而誠」的顏回形象，發揚濂溪「尋顏樂」的體道美學與聖賢觀，「體道」即含「樂道」，更是「觀聖人氣象」和「觀天地生物氣象」前提，也是探討明道孔顏觀的關鍵線索。 　　要之，本文認為，顏回「好學進德」、「心齋坐忘」、「氣化」、「玄化」、「樂道」、「學聖」諸「形象」，彼此相互作用與轉化之際，組織成儒道「人觀」體系圖像的運行圓周，「形象」與「人觀」猶如珠網牽連相即的共生關係。依此脈絡，不管是如詩劇美趣的玄化顏回觀到向上超拔的理學「體天樂道」顏回觀，當中包含身體與社會間的關係互動，名教與自然間的調和抗爭，道德相與超道德相的工夫分際，都是學者試圖還原與建構顏回形象的珍貴線索。故本文所論，實與採取「類型化」或概念結構理解模式的顏回形象研究有別，望藉此對顏回於儒道思想、身體觀、工夫論及人物品鑒學具有的關鍵意義，提出不同的理解視域和詮釋路徑。 / The “idea of the person” is a concept that centers on the interrelationship between “man” and his interaction with “society” and “the self” and its relation to “nature”. Different philosophical thought systems have differing definitions of “man”`, and use their specific definition of “man” as a basis for the development of their unique concepts of “man in society” and “natural man” or “free man”. These concepts together construct the philosophical system for the “idea of the person”. These philosophical systems place a strong emphasis on the interaction between virtue, art, religion, culture and the multiple aspects of man’s existence. Through the interaction between these different aspects of life, thus emerges the significance of the classical “images” or paradigms that serve as a concrete example of how these concepts are used in life. In the Confucian “idea of the person” the “virtue through learning” portrayal of Yanhui conveys the Confucian paradigm of “learning to be a man of noble character” and through this it can be known that Yanhui in the Confucian tradition is portrayed as a concrete personification of the cultivation of the self through “ren” and “li”. In Zhuang zi ,Yanhui is portrayed as the model of Zhuang zi’s “purification of the mind” and having done so portrays Yanhui as an exemplar of the Zhuang zi’s”the perfect person”. Through this it can be known that Zhuang zi uses Yanhui as a symbol for the “idea of the person”, thus highlighting the fact that the image of Yanhui is deeply engrained in the symbolism contained in Zhuang zi, During the Han dynasty, Yang Xiong and Wang Chong’s thought incorporated “qi” and used “qi” in particular in describing “nature”. In light of this, thus developing the idea of using “qi” to describe the image of Yanhui, as being the paradigm for the man of virtue. They also gave commentary and description of the difference between the levels of Confucius and Yanhui, describing Yanhui as having a”partial actualization of sagelypotential” and being ”slightly lower than a sage”. Lastly viewing Yanhui’s early death as the eventual result of a man having a “good nature but bad fate” and his practice of “self sacrifice”. During the Han dynasty Yang Xiong and Wang Chong’s usage of “qi” in describing “nature” thus developing the idea of using “qi” to describe the image of Yanhui as the paradigm for the man of virtue. They also gave commentary and description of the difference between the levels of Confucius and Yanhui, describing Yanhui as having a”partial actualization of sagely potential” and being “slightly lower than a sage”. Lastly viewing Yanhui’s early death as the eventual result of a man having a “good nature but bad fate”and “self-sacrifice”. The WeiJin and Southern Dynasty philosophers combined “Speculative Mystical Philosophy”with the “Examination of the character of cultural Figures”. They used natural endowment, wisdom/ignorance, capacity to use one’s abilities and language to analyze a historical figure. Also using these idea in concert with ideas such as: “beginning/end”, “Form/Spirit” and “language/meaning” , which then formed the essential concepts used in Xuan Xue’s commentary on The Analects. In using Daoist concepts to comment on The Analects, they combined Confucian and Daoist thought and through this mergence, the images of Confucuis and became mystified and through this creating the “Mystical Yan Hui」portrayal of Yanhui. The practical aspect of the “Mystical Yan Hui” is portrayed in the praise given to Huang Hui and Xie Xiang. Huang Hui was praised as being “Yanhui Resurrected” and Xie Xiang was said to be a “young Yanhui”, using the “mystical” and “gifted student” Yanhui as the basus for the praise given to these two philosophers. During the Tang and Song dynasties the philosopher Yi Chuan used The Doctrine of the mean and Yi Zhuan to develop the philosophical treatise for the “Practice of Dao and learning to be a sage”, and in this treatise thus using the image of Yanhui to signify these concepts. He then used this treatise to develop the “Learning to be a sage” philosophical system. For example, Lian xi elevated the idea of “The learning of Yanhui” to “actualizing the way of heaven in the self”, giving the image of Yanhui a transcendental aspect which can be specifically seen in Yi Chuan ’s concept of the “actualizing the essence of all”. Thus in his philosophy he merged the ideas of the “learning of Yanhui” and the “contentment of Yanhui” and used them both in concert, making the “learning of Yanhui” and the “pursuit of contentment” the goals of one who seek to learn to be a sage. Ming Dao used the topics of “understanding ren” and “observation of the disposition of the sages ”, two ideas that in antiquity are associated with Yanhui, to construct his image of Yanhui. He portrays Yanhui as the paradigm of “using practice to find contentment, internalize this practice and actualizing virtue”. Thus developing Lian xi’s “pursuing the contentment possessed by Yanhui” and its aesthetic description of the practice of dao and the concept of the sage and the man of virtue. In his thought, the “learning of Yanhui” encompasses the “Dao of contentment” and serves as the basis for the “observation of the disposition of the sages” and “observing the qi of heaven, earth and all things” , which serves as the quintessence of Ming Dao's treatise on Confucius and Yanhui. “Virtue through learning”, “purification of the mind”, “qi approach” ,“mystical approach” , “dao of contentment”, “Learning to be a sage” are the major portrayals of Yanhui. Through the inter use and melding of these ideals they became the structure of the Confucian “idea of the person” , thus melding the relationship between “image” and the “idea of the person”. From the artistic and mystical Yanhui to the transcendental "actualization of heaven and contentment in Dao" Yanhui of the li xue philosophers and in between, all conceptions of Yanhui incorporate a few major themes: the body and its interaction with society, the harmonizing of the relationship between ethics and nature , the differentiation between the practice of virtue and transcendental virtue . These are all the attempts of philosophers to construct the importance of the image of Yanhui. Therefore this paper discusses the difference between the historical Yanhui and the conceptualized Yanhui portrayal in the hopes of offering a new research direction and a deeper understanding of Yanhui's role in Confucian and Daoist thought, philosophical treatises on the body, treatises on practice and the character analyses of ancient figures.

The current paper is a study of the male characters Simon and Jace from Cassandra Clare's City of Bones (2010), and the characters Tamlin and Rhysand from Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses (2015). The main aim is to examine whether the characters in these fantasy novels for young adults have traits and functions that previously have been used to describe and portray female characters. The study discovered among other things that vulnerability and sensitivity could be found in all the characters, especially when danger was upon them or their loved ones. Simon was also the only character that was not portrayed with skills in combat, which was mocked by the other male characters but not by the female protagonist. The two male characters in A Court of Thorns and Roses were also portraited as sexual objects in the novel, and Rhysand was exposed to sexual abuse by the novel’s antagonist, which can be seen as stereotypical female trait. The male character’s function in the novels was to have a folie function to each other, and be a love interest, a confidant, and a choir to the female protagonist. The male characters in the novels were also the ones who needed to be rescued by the female characters, and thereby found themselves in a female position.

The essay examines how characters in the Moomin novels change through relationships based on a psychosynthetic subpersonality analysis. This is a new perspective in the field of literature and therefore a solid theoretical basis in psychosynthesis is given and a presentation of my method which includes the concept of subpersonalities. Then three main constellations of characters that focus on Moomin, Sniff, Snufkin, Moominmamma, the Groke, Fillyjonk, Hemulen and Whomper Toft are analyzed. From my discussion it appears that the characters are types who each have their own way of being, thinking and feeling, and in this way Tove Jansson writes a whole where differences may exist. With my perspective, the light is directed towards how the characters integrate sides of each other and thereby develop. The results show that the characters change through the relationships between them, and that a synthesis in each constellation arises.