Bakgrund: Litteraturundervisningen kan utgöras av olika genrer och fantasylitteraturen används allt mer frekvent. I en avhandling av Alkestrand synliggörs fantasylitteraturens användningsområden inom värdegrundsarbetet, som syftar till att ge alla elever en likvärdig utbildning och utveckla en trygg identitet. Dock visar studier att införandet av läroplanen Gy11 skapat skillnaderna mellan det yrkesförberedande- och högskoleförberedande programmet, bland annat inom litteraturarbetet. Hypotesen är därmed att programskillnader gällande inställning till värdegrundsarbete, resulterar i att gymnasieelever får olika möjligheter för att utveckla sin identitet, och att värdegrundsarbetet kan främjas av fantasylitteratur. Syfte: Uppsatsens syfte är att analysera relationen mellan elevers identitetsutveckling och gymnasielärares arbete med fantasylitteratur inom värdegrundsarbetet. Metod: Genom en webbenkät som riktades mot svensklärare på gymnasiet insamlades materialet till uppsatsens analys. Undersökningens metod utgörs av en kombination av kvantitativ och kvalitativ metod, som sammanställs i en resultatanalys. Resultat: Undersökningen visar att värdegrundsarbetet kan gynnas av fantasylitteraturen, och att ett likvärdigt värdegrundsarbete är viktigt för elevernas likvärdiga identitetsutveckling.

Onlinespel tillåter spelare över hela världen att interagera med varandra på nya sätt i virtuella världar. Genom att skapa visuella representationer av sig själva kan spelarna nu kommunicera och uttrycka sig bortom den fysiska världens gränser. I denna fenomenologiska studie undersöker vi hur och om HBTQ-personer upplever sig ha möjligheten att uttrycka sexualitet och könsidentitet i online rollspelet Final Fantasy XIV samt om detta påverkas av spelets gemenskap. Med kvalitativa metoder intervjuades spelare från Final Fantasy XIV för att fånga denna upplevelse och med en queerteoretisk lins titta kritiskt på normerna i spelet. Dessa upplevelser analyserades även ur ett dramaturgiskt perspektiv och ett fokus på identitetsteorier. Resultatet från denna studie antyder att spelaren trots begränsningar finner nya och kreativa sätt att uttrycka sexualitet och kön i spelvärlden. Spelarna gör detta genom att konstruera alternativa identiteter och uppträda med sina avatarer på scenen som är den virtuella världen. Gemenskapen är en stor del av detta då den accepterande atmosfären upplevs uppmuntra till öppenhet. / Online games allow players all over the world to interact with each other in new ways in virtual worlds. Through the creation of visual representations of the players they can communicate and express themselves beyond the limits of the physical world. In this phenomenological study we investigate how and if LGBT individuals experience that they can express sexuality and gender identity in the online roleplaying game Final Fantasy XIV and if the game community affects this experience. With qualitative methods players of Final Fantasy XIV were interviewed to capture this experience and through a queer theoretical lens critically examine the norms of the game. These experiences were also analysed from a dramaturgical perspective and a focus on identity theories. The results suggest that the player, despite restrictions, find new and creative ways of expressing their sexuality and gender in the game world. The players do this by constructing alternative identities and perform with their avatars on the stage that is the virtual world. The community is a major part of this as the accepting atmosphere is perceived to encourage openness.

The final decade of the Qing Dynasty, 1901-1911, witnessed a proliferation of works of fiction that incorporated, to a large extent for the first time, themes and images relating to material and technological progress. These "science fantasies" of global and interplanetary peregrination and travel across epochal time have typically been situated along various degrees of confederacy with the values and ideology of modernising China at large. This study however addresses the complex and oft-obfuscated relationship between much of this speculative fiction and the late-Qing tabloid press, which is more closely associated with the satirical, grotesque, narcotic and libidinal. By investigating the subverting and distorting of nominally positivist images like imagined futures, space travel and utopia, the dissertation explicates the possibility for these works of fiction to express a cynical and critical subjectivity toward the ideology of "modern China" that was taking shape at this time. The study incorporates new perspectives on oft-encountered novels, like Wu Jianren's New Story of the Stone, alongside more marginal texts, like the popular sequels to the classics authored by Lu Shi'e, and several unattributed pseudonymous works of short experimental fiction. Through close analysis of these texts, I argue that the arena of "tabloid speculative fiction" was thematically united at the level of their "grotesque fantasies," in which the images of fantasy and the values of modernity were subverted by sexuality, lassitude and boredom. In highlighting this critical grotesquery, the study stresses the internal discontinuities that undergird the superficial homogeneity often attributed to late-Qing speculative fiction.

Working within the filmic fairy tale adaptation cycle that emerged between 2005 and 2015, this thesis investigates how girlhood is cinematically constructed through the lens of fantasy, in relation to gendered representation in media. The relationship between femininity and fairy tales is well-established. By reading contemporary filmic adaptations of the tales, the thesis deconstructs gendered myth-making and reveals the extent to which fairy tale imagery and plot continue to inform cultural constructions of girlhood. It argues that by centring upon young female protagonists and often targeting a young female audience, this cycle constitutes a newly emerging young woman’s cinema. In doing so, the thesis relates the contemporary fairy tale adaptation cycle back to gendered histories of media and genres traditionally associated with female audiences (such as the Female Gothic, the Melodrama, the Costume Drama and so on). The thesis analyses their similar narrative strategies of using iconographical objects, haunted spaces and evocative settings. The cycle’s cultural denigration is critiqued for its association with mainstream and primarily female audiences. The act of adapting fairy tales to construct girlhood through fantasy thus necessitates exploring the ideological implications of gendered genres, their narrative strategies as well as complex processes of adaptation, from tale to screen. How these films, by centralising girlhood, explore female fantasies and desires, trauma, gendered violence and coming of age, is explored throughout. The thesis argues that a highly specific mode of girlhood comes to the fore in this cycle, within particular cultural (social, racial and narrative) parameters. This mode of fairy tale girlhood is imperilled, spectacular and exclusionary, generating disturbing implications of how young women are represented and addressed in popular media. As in women’s films of previous eras in film history, however, the fairy tale adaptation cycle both reinforces and challenges the rigid parameters in which girlhood is cinematically imagined.

La littérature « stupéfiante » apparaît à travers les substances addictives prises par les poètes dès le milieu du XIXe siècle ; cela permet une nouvelle forme d’écriture liée à la drogue. Celle-ci apparaît alors aux yeux des aliénistes, des psychologues, mais aussi des artistes, comme un véritable instrument d'exploration mentale. Entre 1870 et 1914, dans le roman réaliste et naturaliste, les comportements addictifs et obsessionnels chez les personnages de fiction prennent une importance spécifique. L’aspect de la dépendance à une substance ou à un objet devient un sujet littéraire mais voué à une description précise de phénomènes mentaux. La dépendance est définie comme la répétition d'actes censés procurer du plaisir par l'intermédiaire d'un objet matériel ou d'une situation, recherchés et consommés avec avidité. Nous traiterons dans cette thèse l’addiction aux produits psycho-actifs en vogue à l’époque : l’alcool, la morphine, le haschisch, l’opium et l’éther. L’invention romanesque à visée scientifique a pour but de montrer ou démontrer des faits de manière réaliste afin d’informer, d’avertir ou de théoriser à travers une apparence artistique plaisante. Néanmoins, l’écrivain naturaliste veille a rester dans l’axe du concret sans jamais pervertir son roman de données non vérifiées, d’extrapolations, d’exubérances qui ne permettraient alors plus à son texte d’être crédible. Face aux théories médicales et à l’étiologie de la dépendance, les auteurs utilisent leur imagination pour décrire des phénomènes médicaux d’intoxication et de dépendance à des substances. [etc.] / The addictive literature appears through addictive substances taken by poets in the middle of the 19th century; it allows a new dimension of writing influenced by drugs. This appears not only in psychiatrists and psychologists but also to artists as a real instrument of mental exploration. Between 1870 and 1914, in the realist and naturalist novel, the addictive and obsessional behavior of fictional characters has significant importance. The aspect of specific dependence to a substance or to an object becomes a literary subject but is dedicated to a specific description of mental phenomena. Dependence is defined as the repetition of certain behavior in order to get some pleasure from a material object or a situation, desired and consumed with greed. We will restrict ourselves in this thesis to work on the addiction of substances at that time: alcohol, morphine, hashish, opium and ether. Fictional invention with scientific intent shows or demonstrates facts in a realistic way in order to inform, warn or theorize by giving a pleasant and artistic appearance. However, the naturalistic author has to stay within the realms of reality without ever corrupting his novel with unchecked information, exaggeration, exuberances which would prevent the text from being credible. Confronted by medical theories and the etiology of dependence, the authors use their imagination to describe the medical phenomena of poisoning and dependence on psychoactive products. [etc.]

This study describes and analyses the treatment of male characters in the work of the East German author, Irmtraud Morgner. The main focus of the thesis is on Morgner's handling of masculinity in relation to her treatment of the fantastic. Given that the majority of scholarship on Morgner concentrates on feminist aspects of her work, the aim of this thesis is to redress this imbalance by concentrating on the importance to her fictional narratives of male figures. The ways in which Morgner portrays her male characters shed significant new light on the function of the fantastic in her work. A detailed analysis of her texts shows that Morgner excludes all but a few of her male characters from the fantastic. By investigating the reasons for this, the thesis seeks to contribute to a better understanding of Morgner's complex views on gender issues. The argument is advanced that Morgner's treatment of her male characters and their interaction, or lack of interaction with the fantastic, reveals a more nuanced disillusionment with society than emerges from examinations of her female characters alone. Such a reading therefore permits a deeper and more differentiated understanding of her work.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Este trabalho tem como objetivo investigar pontos de convergência nas obras de dois autores britânicos, Angela Carter (1940-1992) e China Miéville (1972- ). Os romances a serem estudados são Nights at the circus (1984) e The infernal desire machines of Doctor Hoffman (1972), de Angela Carter, e Perdido Street Station (2000) e The city & the city (2009), de China Miéville, e, como ponto de partida, ambos demonstram elos representativos com a ficção de gênero, evidenciados pelas obras escolhidas. Ao esmiuçar paralelos entre os romances, busca-se em especial dissecar as interseções temáticas e estilísticas, bem como as divergências e contradições que despertem interesse. Entre os temas investigados está a alteridade e o hibridismo ambos autores fazem uso de personagens ex-cêntricos e usam o hibridismo de modo a acentuar a Alteridade reservada ao Outro. Também será examinada a abordagem dos autores à ficção de gênero e o tratamento reservado aos tropos e clichês da Ficção Científica e da Fantasia. Por fim, a pesquisa observará o conceito que ambos compartilham de que discursos podem não ser uma mera reflexão da realidade, mas também criar e moldar o que tomamos por real. A todos os temas são aplicadas a teoria e crítica do pós-modernismo, além do material específico que lida com a ficção especulativa, Fantasia e Ficção Científica / This research aims at exploring shared themes in works from two British authors, Angela Carter (1940-1992) and China Miéville (1972- ). The novels chosen are Nights at the circus (1984) and The infernal desire machines of Doctor Hoffman (1972), from Angela Carter, and Perdido Street Station (2000) and The city & the city (2009), from China Miéville. As a starting point, both authors exhibit strong links with genre fiction, expressed by the chosen works. In investigating parallels between the novels the focus is going to remain on revising thematic and stylistic intersections, as well as divergences and contradictions. Among explored themes, Alterity and Hybridity are used by both authors in portraying ex-centric characters, Hybridity being used in order to emphasize the Alterity distinctive of the Other. The approach both authors direct towards genre fiction and how they deal with tropes and clichés of Science Fiction and Fantasy is also going to be examined. Finally, the research is going to deal with the concept both authors share that discourses might not be a mere reflection of reality but instead they might create and shape what we accept as real. All themes are going to be studied under the lens of postmodern theory and critic, as well as specific criticism on Speculative Fiction, Fantasy and Science Fiction

É da natureza do ser humano encantar-se, ao menos em determinada fase da vida, pela narrativa de um conto de fadas, deixando-se levar pela fantasia da Literatura, acreditando que nas páginas de um livro tudo é possível. Essa crença na fantasia, no entanto, pode não lhes acompanhar a vida toda, uma vez que a passagem da infância para a adolescência e a fase adulta, bem como as exigências do mundo moderno, cerceiam essa capacidade de fantasiar, ao mesmo tempo inata e necessária ao homem. A escola, então, teria o papel fundamental de preservá-la, perpetuando nos alunos o gosto pela fantasia, tão essencial ao seu desenvolvimento cognitivo e psicológico, além da percepção estética; afinal, Literatura é arte. Nem sempre é isso o que ocorre, e o ambiente escolar torna-se um espaço de reprodução de conhecimentos, com o ensino focado na norma gramatical, na historiografia literária, sendo o texto relegado ao simples papel de pretexto para análises dissociadas do que realmente importa: o texto e os recursos que o compõem. No caso da Literatura, arte da palavra, parte-se do pressuposto de que um dos recursos essenciais para sua concepção sejam as metáforas, instaurando a fantasia. Chega-se, então, a um ponto crucial desse trabalho: as metáforas são componentes essenciais da fantasia, mas ambas são relegadas pela escola, que não se pauta por um ensino produtivo. Ao invés de compreenderem o potencial metafórico, aos alunos cabe a simplória tarefa de reconhecê-las e classificá-las. Essas constatações despertaram o desejo de entender melhor a relação existente entre fantasia, metáfora e literatura infantil, gerando alguns questionamentos: afinal, o que é fantasia? É o mesmo que fantástico? A fantasia caracteriza, apenas, a Literatura infantil? Essas indagações propiciaram reflexões acerca da importância do texto literário na sala de aula e no trabalho feito com ele. Assim, lançando à teoria um olhar docente, empreende-se uma análise do livro A casa da madrinha, de Lygia Bojunga, verificando a fantasia presente na obra perfeita fusão entre o real e imaginário e como ela se instaura: pelas metáforas / It is of the human nature the fascination, at least in some phases of the life, by fairy tales, where they are carried away by the fantasy present in literary texts. People believe that, on the pages of a book, everything is possible. Such belief in the fantasy, however, may fade away as time goes by since the passage of time from childhood into adolescence and yet into adulthood, as well as the demands of modern life restrict our potential for daydreaming. Schools, therefore, undertake a pivotal role to preserve and cherish it alive in the students. Still, it is crucial to their psychological and cognitive development, and, of course, to the development of their esthetical sense; after all Literature is art. Unfortunately, it hardly ever occurs and the classroom reality turns out to be a mere knowledge-passing resource, privileging the grammar rules and the literature background. Conversely, text is relegated to a mere pretext for analyses unrelated to what really matters: the text itself and its respective resources. We believe that, as to Literature, one of the essential resources to conceive it is metaphors by means of fantasies. We have now come to a key point where metaphors are major components of fantasies. However, both are poorly regarded by schools, which do not embark on a productive policy. Rather than effectively understanding the metaphorical potential, students are held to primary (and witless) tasks of recognizing and classifying metaphors. Such verifications arouse the interest in better figuring out the existing relation between fantasy, metaphor, and literature for children. It all poses questions: after all, what is the meaning of fantasy? Is it the same as fantastic approach? Fantasy characterizes literature for children only? Such questions make us ponder over the importance of literary texts and the respective tasks carried out as in classroom. In view of it all, we have taken a teaching look at the book A casa da madrinha (Godmothers house) by Lygia Bojunga, verifying the fantasy present in the work perfect fusion of reality and imagination and how it takes place by means of metaphors

O objetivo desse estudo foi investigar a origem e a função da fantasia na obra de Sigmund Freud, por meio do papel que desempenha na constituição do psiquismo humano e da sua importância em produzir um sentido para a vida. A pesquisa - de cunho bibliográfico - buscou esclarecer os diferentes usos e modificações do termo "fantasia" no decorrer das descobertas realizadas por Freud ao longo de sua vida e obra, desde o período denominado de pré-psicanalítico (1886/1899) até os últimos textos publicados no Esboço de Psicanálise (1940 [1938]). A análise da investigação revelou três grandes eixos descritivos, complexos, por vezes contraditórios e submetidos a constantes redefinições que caracterizam a fantasia como um sintoma, uma criação e um enigma da transmissão geracional. A conclusão corrobora o pressuposto de que a vida não tem sentido sem a capacidade de fantasiar. A fantasia ocupa um lugar de fundamental importância no pensamento freudiano, comparecendo como um elemento essencial na constituição do psiquismo e revelando horizontes, para que os estudiosos da psicanálise pudessem ampliar essa investigação tão reveladora da psiquê. / The aim of this study was to investigate the origin and function of fantasy in the work of Sigmund Freud, through its role in the constitution of the human psyche and its importance in producing a meaning for life. The research - bibliographic die - sought to clarify the different uses and modifications of the term "fantasy" in the course of the discoveries made ​​by Freud throughout his life and work, from the period known as pre-psychoanalytic (1886/1899) till the last texts published in the Outline of Psychoanalysis (1940 [1938]). The analysis revealed three major research overviews, complex, sometimes contradictory, and subject to constant redefinitions featuring fantasy as a symptom, a creation and a puzzle of generational transmission shafts. The conclusion corroborates the assumption that life is meaningless without the ability to fantasize. The fantasy occupies a place of primary importance in Freudian thought, appearing as an essential element in the constitution of the psyche and revealing horizons, so that the scholars of psychoanalysis could extend this research as revealing of the psyche.

This thesis examines and explores the process of coming of age in successful fantasy fiction series, including J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings novel and its prequel The Hobbit, Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea series and Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. In particular, it is suggested that the huge popularity of fantasy stems from the fact that it provides a representation of human agency significantly at odds with the everyday experience of an increasingly bureaucratized and financially-determined world. Analysis shows how fantasy texts provide a universal model that help younger readers to understand the process of maturity as individuation and entry into the intersubjective social world. The central protagonists of such texts have to learn to master concepts such as seeing oneself in the other through intersubjective dialogues, objectifying one’s self in the world, and coping with their own battles, in the process of finding their way to maturity. This fictional “quest” or “journey” provides a model for readers to assess their own realities and actions, which in turn has the effect of changing their understanding and enabling them to critique their own lives. It is demonstrated how these classic and widely translated works of fantastic literature, which reach a huge crossover readership, may be understood in terms of parallel transformational stages such as confusion, inattentional blindness, fear, courage and various attempts of learning the need for moderation. Overall, this analysis, comprising the disciplines of psychology, philosophy, anthropology, education, behavioural economics, sociology, media, and history, explores the processes of transformation and maturation within fantasy literature. At the same time, the case for fantasy literature’s uniqueness in its capacity to reveal the mechanisms of human agency is substantiated within a theoretical framework.