With this essay I aim to illustrate the simultaneous tension between and entanglement of narratives of mire and modernity in Sara Lidman’s novel Hjortronlandet. Both mire and modernity are understood wide concepts; as temporal as well as spatial markers relating to nature. Through the theoretical frame of Kate Soper’s What is Nature?, Yi-Fu Tuan’s Space and Place and Doreen Massey’s Space, Place and Gender I explore how concepts of nature, time and place are conceptualized, discussed and rewritten in the novel. The analysis shows that nature, time and place are simultaneously understood through narratives and through the intimate experience of material surroundings. Narratives are thus discussed and rewritten when applied to new material surroundings, and the natural surroundings are experienced through already established narratives. Hjortronlandet explores the lives of poor settlers in northern Sweden during the first half of the 20th century in their attempt to convert their allotted wetland to farmland. Throughout the novel the propaganda narratives of the Swedish state clash with the settlers’ intimate experience of place and natural surroundings. All the while, the settler project is undertaken on behalf of the state and plays a part in the creation of a unified modern state. I argue that though an exploration of the perceived dichotomy of mire and modernity presented by the state the entanglement of the two concepts is made visible in the novel. By examining ostensibly contrasting positions I conclude that the novel exposes the untenable approach of the modern state to material surroundings.

This essay is an ecocritical analysis on William Wordsworths “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” and Edgar Allan Poes “Alone”. It investigates the depiction of nature, the space within nature poetry and the common theme of loneliness in the poems. The ecocritical perspective plays the main part of this essay because of the similarity between the ecocriticism and romantic poetry in the upliftment of nature, and the erasure of the dividing line between human and nature. The main material is Timothy Mortons Ecology without nature, Jane Bennetts Vibrant Matter and Scott Knickerbockers Ecopoetics. The results of the essay show how the depiction of nature contributes to the representation of the poet’s emotion and relation to nature and the past. It shows how the space, the distance between human and nature, maintains because we can’t get closer to nature than through figurations, anthropomorphisms. It also shows how the loneliness further establishes the space and is quite different between Wordsworth and Poe, whereas Wordsworth doesn’t feel as alone as Poe because of his closer relation to nature.

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This thesis considers the understudied issue of genetic engineering as it has been deployed in the literature of the late 20th century. With reference to the concept of the enlightened gender hybridity of Cyborg theory and an eye to ecocritical implications, I read four texts: Joan Slonczewski's 1986 science fiction novel A Door Into Ocean, Octavia Butler's science fiction trilogy Lilith's Brood – originally released between 1987 and 1989 as Xenogenesis – Simon Mawer's 1997 literary novel Mendel's Dwarf, and the first two books in Margaret Atwood's speculative fiction MaddAddam series: 2003's Oryx and Crake and 2009's The Year Of the Flood. I argue that the inclusion of genetic engineering has changed as the technology moves from science fiction to science fact, moving from the fantastic to the mundane. Throughout its recent literary history, genetic engineering has played a role in complicating questions of sexuality, paternity, and the division between nature and culture. It has also come to represent a nexus of potential cultural change, one which stands to fulfill the dramatic hybridity Haraway rhapsodized in her "Cyborg Manifesto" while also containing the potential to disrupt the ecocritical conversation by destroying what we used to understand as nature. Despite their four different takes on the issue, each of the texts I read offers a complex vision of utopian hopes and apocalyptic fears. They agree that, for better or for worse, genetic engineering is forever changing both our world and ourselves.

I Dune: Messiah (1969) sker en förändring av klimatet, en terraformning som människan initierar. Vatten introduceras i rikliga mängder på planeten Arrakis och detta påverkar planetens ekologi såväl som människans kultur. Uppsatsen granskar Frank Herberts roman genom att teoretiskt utgå ifrån ett ekokritiskt perspektiv och tematiskt ifrån vatten, dess varande och relation till människan samt planeten. Människans medvetenhet av sig själv som en art på planeten och sin kulturella koppling till både planeten och vatten är centralt i analysen. Klimatförändringen som sker när människan terraformar planeten och hur detta påverkar människan behandlas också. Även postkolonialism väger in i analysen.  I Dune: Messiah är vattnet, människan och planeten starkt kopplade till varandra. Människan utgår från sin antropocentriska världssyn och betraktar planeten som en plats vilken kan förbättras till människans fördel. Eftersom fremenfolkets kultur är djupt grundad i naturen skapar terraformningen av planeten en identitetskris. Kulturen blir kopplingen som får människan att vilja bevara planeten som den är. Vattnets värde kulturellt men även som valuta gör den till en maktskapande vara. För människan är terraformningen en strävan mot förbättring, vilket speglar de teman av stora strukturer som finns genomgående i Dune-serien. Den här långsiktiga visionen som Frank Herbert målar upp, avbildar människan med en större medvetenhet, en möjlighet att tänka stort. Jag menar (likt andra inom ekokritiken) att detta större tänkande är en väg framåt som ger mänskligheten ett större perspektiv – därmed förståelse av – ekologiska förhållanden. / In Dune: Messiah (1969) the climate changes due to terraforming caused by humans. Water is introduced on the planet Arrakis, and this affects the planet’s ecology as well as the people’s culture. This paper is an exploration of Frank Herbert’s novel, theoretically anchored in ecocriticism and thematically in water, its nature of existence, relationship to humankind and the planet. Humanity’s awareness of themselves as a species on the planet, and their cultural connection to both the planet and water is central to the analysis. The climate-change which occurs when humanity terraforms the planet and how this affects humankind is also touched upon. Post-colonialism also plays a role in the analysis. Water, people, and the planet are strongly connected to each other in Dune: Messiah. Humans see the planet as a place which can be improved to their own benefit due to their anthropocentric worldview. Because the Fremen culture is deeply rooted in nature, an identity-crisis occurs when the planet is terraformed. It is culture that enables humans to want to preserve the planet as it is. Water is a resource that creates power due to its cultural and economical value. The terraforming is humanity aiming for improvement, which mirrors the themes  of larger structures that can be found continuously in the Dune-series. This long-term vision which Herbert paints, pictures humans with a broader consciousness, a capability to think in a larger magnitude. This I (as others within ecocriticism), consider to be a path forwards which offers a broader perspective – therefore an understanding of – ecological conditions.

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<p>This dissertation draws on a broad range of postcolonial literature in order to explore literary representations of environmentalism in the global South. Although this project draws heavily on the particular environmental histories of different nations and geographic regions, I am also interested in areas of overlap. In this study I do two interrlated and simultaneous things that I hope will refine postcolonial ecocriticism. The first involves a broadening of the definition of 'environment,' informed by the environmental justice movment, in ways that make it more applicable and accountable to people's lived lives. This expanded definition of the environment includes those spaces where people live and work. Such a redefinition, I argue, is a crucial counter-measure to ecocriticism's Anglo-American focus, where traditional American environmental values of conservation, preservation, and the cult of the wilderness prevail. The second intervention involves using ecocriticism alongside this expanded notion of the environment to unearth the everyday environmentalisms at work in postcolonial literature that may go unnoticed through traditional ecocritical approaches. I argue that this everyday approach successfully avoids some of the common hurdles in postcolonial ecocriticism. These hurdles include debates over the origins of environmental thought, questions about the link between affluence and environmental consciousness, and the contentious space of animals in postcolonial thought and literature. By beginning with an examination of the ways in which people interact with their own local environments, I am able to explore environmental thought and action on the ground and can begin theorizing there. What is revealed through these analyses is that this expanded definition of environmentalism and this new ecocritical approach open the door to viewing environmentality as a common and foundational feature of postcolonial literature. My chapters explore various facets of these everyday environmentalisms, including ecofeminist perspectives, anthropocentric versus biocentric representations of the environment, urban space, and finally the idea of going back to the land. The issues that I explore throughout these chapters include legacies of colonialism, globalization, racism and speceism, ecolocial/ecocritical imperialism, and postcoloniality.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Mon mémoire explore les représentations d’environnements matériels et naturels dans des œuvres littéraires de Virginia Woolf et Mina Loy, et comment ces écrivaines conçoivent les connections entre leurs personnages féminins et leurs environnements. À travers l’analyse de leurs œuvres respectives et à l’aide de préceptes de l’écocritique et de sujets connexes tels la matérialité, l’écoféminisme et la trans-corporalité, j’établis la possibilité de réévaluer la perception anti-nature du Modernisme et des opportunités pour enrichir les études écocritiques et modernistes. En premier lieu, j’observe l’inséparabilité entre l’humanité et ces environnements de vie dans Between the Acts, dernier roman complété par Woolf, et comment cela constitue une évolution par rapport à sa nouvelle « Kew Gardens ». De plus, je présente les bénéfices de cette relation pour les femmes et leurs ambitions artistiques en me basant sur les arguments de Woolf dans son essai A Room of One’s Own et en conversant avec des études qui explorent les éléments écocritiques de l’œuvre de Woolf. En deuxième lieu, je m’intéresse à une sélection des premiers poèmes de Mina Loy pour leurs examens de thèmes féministes et leur intégration dans les représentations des lieux visités dans les poèmes. J’illustre le rôle actif d’espaces domestiques et publics dans le maintien de discours dominants du patriarcat, et donc dans la résultante subjugation des femmes à son pouvoir. Ce travail d’analyse me permet de conclure avec de nouvelles avenues de recherche pour solidifier la place des femmes modernistes au sein du mouvement à l’aide de leurs intérêts environnementaux et pour reforger les liens ignorés ou effacés entre elles. / My thesis explores the depictions of material and natural spaces in literary works by Virginia Woolf and Mina Loy, and how both writers conceive the interconnections between their female characters and their surrounding environments. With the help of precepts of ecocriticism and of related fields such as materiality, ecofeminism and trans-corporeality in analyzing Woolf’s and Loy’s respective works, I demonstrate how the misguided preconception of Modernism’s contempt for nature can be reassessed to offer new opportunities for both ecocritical and modernist studies. Firstly, I observe the inseparability between humanity and its living environments in Woolf’s last completed novel Between the Acts and how this evolved from her earlier short story “Kew Gardens.” I also discuss the benefits of this relation for women and their artistic ambitions with the aid of Woolf’s own claims in her essay A Room of One’s Own and in conversation with studies which have attested the ecocritical elements of Woolf’s work. Secondly, I take an interest in Mina Loy’s early poetry for its exploration of feminist themes and how those intertwine with her depictions of her poems’ environments. I illustrate the active role of domestic and public spaces in the maintenance of ambient ruling patriarchal discourses and the subjugation of women to their power. This work of analysis allows me to conclude with new avenues from which to solidify the places of women modernists in the movement by the means of their environmental interests and to reforge the ignored or erased affiliations between them.

This essay aim to explore how human and nature is presented in Bröderna Lejonhjärta and Ronja Rövardotter, by Astrid Lindgren. It also tries to answer the question how the relationship between the two is shaped; can any hierarchic structures be exposed in the relationship, and how do these, in that case, appear? The essay also problematize words and concepts along the way, such as nature, anthropocentrism and ecocentrism. The method for this study is an ecocritical theoretical base, with thematic analyzes of the books, regarding plot, relationships between characters and their surroundings, and also linguistic narratological techniques, such as the use of metaphorical elements. The different thematic episodes are put in relation to theories about vital materialism, presented in Vibrant Matter – A Political Ecology of Things, by Jane Bennett. I also do a comparative analysis between the two books by Lindgren, with the purpose of highlighting important differences and similarities. The essay ends by discussing how the main characters can be seen as very caring in their relationship to their surroundings, and how one, by applying the theories presented by Bennett, can interpret this caring as a strive towards existing in harmony with, and equal to, nature; a sort of mode or view that Bennett describes as a horizontal position. During the discussion I describe how this strive and position is expressed, and how these are interacting with cyclical systems such as the changes of the seasons and shift between life and death. The books as literature for children, and the main characters as children, is discussed in relation to this, supported by the text “När du är bättre än vi – Jantelagen, skammen och barnlitteraturen” by Maria Jönsson, from the book Du ska inte tro att du är något – Om Jantelagens aktualitet. / Denna uppsats behandlar och syftar till att undersöka hur människa och natur skrivs fram i Bröderna Lejonhjärta och Ronja Rövardotter, av Astrid Lindgren. Den försöker även att svara på hur relationen mellan dessa ser ut; huruvida man kan se hierarkiska strukturer i förhållandet, samt hur dessa i så fall ter sig. Uppsatsen gör det även till sin uppgift att längs vägen problematisera begrepp som bl.a. natur, antropocentrism, ekocentrism. Metoden för studien är en ekokritisk hållning, som går ut på olika tematiska nedslag i de båda verken, där handling, karaktärers förhållande till varandra och till sin omgivning, samt språkliga berättartekniska grepp så som användning av metaforiska inslag, lyfts och analyseras. De olika tematiska avsnitten prövas även mot Jane Bennetts vitala materialitetsteorier som presenteras i Vibrant Matter – A Political Ecology of Things. En komparativ analys görs mellan de båda verken av Lindgren, i syfte att synliggöra viktiga likheter och skillnader. Uppsatsen avslutar med att diskutera hur man kan se ett, hos huvudkaraktärerna, påtagligt vurmande för omgivningarna, samt hur man genom att applicera Bennetts teorier kan tolka detta vurmande som en slags strävan mot att existera likställt med naturen, ett slags läge som Bennett beskriver som det horisontella planet. Under diskussionen lyfter jag hur denna strävan och detta läge yttrar sig, samt hur dessa samspelar med cykliska system, så som årstidernas växlande, samt skiftet mellan liv och död. Verken som barnlitteratur och huvudkaraktärerna som barn lyfts och diskuteras i relation till detta med hjälp av Maria Jönssons ”När du är bättre än vi – Jantelagen, skammen och barnlitteraturen”, ur Du ska inte tro att du är något – Om Jantelagens aktualitet.