This study presents an empirical, qualitative investigation of transformations as they occurred in the participants' language during a fiction reading and discussion group in a community mental health setting. Session transcripts have been analyzed from the perspective of researcher as literary critic and through the Deleuzian lens of rhizomatic assemblages (Deleuze & Guattari, 1980/2005). This nonlinear, non-hierarchical and non-referential approach re-imagins the relationship among readers, texts and authors. Three themes follow from the rhizomatic perspective on transcript data. <br>The first of these, Assemblage, details the ways that participants engage in and with fictional story-worlds. This engagement is such that text, readers, author, and other elements of context join together in chains or blocks of becoming. These becomings rely on the mimetic structure of the fictional texts that simulates 'real life' experiences for readers. This special kind of engagement leads to transformations of linguistic forms, images and concepts. <br>Transformations addressed in the next segment, De-formations, include analysis of mental health talk as it encounters the poetic story world in our sessions. One result of this encounter is the vernacularization of mental health talk. Elements of clinical, usually diagnostic, language introduced in our sessions are transformed in the direction of more colloquial and 'plain-language' use. This result suggests that fiction reading moves mental health consumers away from the problem-saturated language of mental health discourse (White & Epston, 1990) that too often reifies and reinforces illness and dis-ease rather than supporting wellness. <br>The final section, Re-narration, examines implications of transformations in participants' language for narrative identity, that is, participants' self-understanding and re-contextualization in light of their encounters with the fictional story-world (Ricoeur, 2005). It is possible to discern nascent or potential changes in narrative identity in the language of discussants and to speculate on what changes participants may carry forward into their lives beyond the reading and discussion group. <br>Finally, implications are discussed for re-understanding the therapist as literary critic and for the development of locally produced bodies of literary criticism as work appropriate to community mental health providers and clients. Also, affinities between literary therapy, bibliotherapy and narrative therapy are discussed. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts / Clinical Psychology / PhD / Dissertation

Denna uppsats studerar kultserien Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003) utifrån ett schizoanalytiskt perspektiv genom att applicera tre huvudsakliga begrepp inom Gilles Deleuzes och Félix Guattaris teorier på sju avsnitt, en från varje säsong; dessa begrepp är Anti-Oidipus, begärsmaskinen och krigsmaskinen. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka huruvida vännerna i serien först och främst är en anti-oidipal familj. Den utgår från tre analysfrågor: Är de som en grupp en begärsmaskin? Är gruppen ”schizofren”? Utgör de tillsammans en krigsmaskin? Studien visar på karaktärernas samspel och sammanhållning som en grupp på ett sätt som visar att begreppet familj inte endast kan definieras av blodsrelationer utan av sammankopplingar vilka snarast är att beskriva som maskiner. Den finner emellertid att det också finns inslag av en oidipal ordning i skildringen av individers problem och lösningen av dem samt i en idealisering av det normala familjelivet. Den kommer därför till slutsatsen att serien i sig i en mening är ”schizofren”.

This thesis explores how writing is made in two Swedish early childhood classrooms with a focus on how processes of writing are constituted in the writing event and what writings and writers the event offers potentials for. Theoretically, the research project takes its starting point in the assumption that processes of writing are an effect of relations between different elements, where the young writer is only one part of many human and non-human matters that make way for multiple becomings of writing and writers. In this context, the figuration of the nomad thought of Deleuze and Guattari is particularly applicable as it builds on the assumption that everything is always connected, continuously moving. The questions addressed are how the processes of writers, text-like writings and educational writing processes emerge, continue and transform in the writing event, and what writers, text-like writings and educational writing processes the event offers potentials for. The thesis consists of three research articles based on different empirical data. The first article builds on data from the thinking and talking about writing and the writing child in scholarly literature since the 19th century. The second and third articles are based on analyses of ethnographic documentation of six- to seven-year-olds’ writing activities in two early childhood classrooms. The ethnographic strategies of the audio and video recordings, field notes, informal interviews and the collection of children’s text-like writings were carried out over a period of one and a half year during which the children moved from preschool class to their first year of school. The findings of the first article suggest that the image of the ideal writing and the ideal writer has changed over time. However, the image of the young writer training for adult life predominates over time. The main result of the second article shows in specific ways that the mutual production of stabilizing processes of writing and processes of experimentation are vital components for becomings of writers and writing, irrespective of pedagogical framings. The finding of the third article illustrates how the teaching method of creative writing produced over time creates multiple pedagogical trajectories of “doing method” and “doing creativity”. The thesis posits nomadic writing as a way to account for the movement, the connectivity and change in the processes of writing, thus contributing to an understanding of how the processes of writing create potentialities for multiple becomings of writers and writing. / Baksidestext/Blurb How is writing made? How do processes of writing emerge, continue and change in educational writing events? And what kinds of writers and writings can potentially emerge from the writing event? In this thesis Carina Hermansson explores how writing is produced in early childhood education, partly through analyses of the thinking and talking about writing and the writing child provided in scholarly literature since the 19th century, and partly through analyses of ethnographic documentation of six- to seven-year-olds’ writing activities in two early childhood classrooms. The research identifies how the processes of writing are an effect of many elements assembled in the writing event, such as computers, learning outcomes, bodily movements, children and teachers, and experiences based on children’s popular cultures. Hermansson posits nomadic writing as a way to account for the connectivity, the movement and change in the processes of writing, thus contributing to an understanding of how the processes of writing create potentialities for multiple becomings of writers and writing. The findings show that the mutual production of stabilizing processes of writing and processes of experimentation are vital components for becomings of writers and writing, thus offering a way to view early childhood writing classrooms as sites of experimentation. Nomadic Writing: Exploring processes of writing in early childhood education is a book about children’s writing and writing development in a society where media, digital technology and new forms of communication and literacy are conceptualized as important in education. It provides researchers and teachers with a conceptual framework for understanding the dynamic processes of writing. / <p>The online version of the thesis differs slightly from the printed version as research articles have been removed for copyright reasons.</p>

This thesis explores how writing is made in two Swedish early childhood classrooms with a focus on how processes of writing are constituted in the writing event and what writings and writers the event offers potentials for. Theoretically, the research project takes its starting point in the assumption that processes of writing are an effect of relations between different elements, where the young writer is only one part of many human and non-human matters that make way for multiple becomings of writing and writers. In this context, the figuration of the nomad thought of Deleuze and Guattari is particularly applicable as it builds on the assumption that everything is always connected, continuously moving. The questions addressed are how the processes of writers, text-like writings and educational writing processes emerge, continue and transform in the writing event, and what writers, text-like writings and educational writing processes the event offers potentials for. The thesis consists of three research articles based on different empirical data. The first article builds on data from the thinking and talking about writing and the writing child in scholarly literature since the 19th century. The second and third articles are based on analyses of ethnographic documentation of six- to seven-year-olds’ writing activities in two early childhood classrooms. The ethnographic strategies of the audio and video recordings, field notes, informal interviews and the collection of children’s text-like writings were carried out over a period of one and a half year during which the children moved from preschool class to their first year of school. The findings of the first article suggest that the image of the ideal writing and the ideal writer has changed over time. However, the image of the young writer training for adult life predominates over time. The main result of the second article shows in specific ways that the mutual production of stabilizing processes of writing and processes of experimentation are vital components for becomings of writers and writing, irrespective of pedagogical framings. The finding of the third article illustrates how the teaching method of creative writing produced over time creates multiple pedagogical trajectories of “doing method” and “doing creativity”. The thesis posits nomadic writing as a way to account for the movement, the connectivity and change in the processes of writing, thus contributing to an understanding of how the processes of writing create potentialities for multiple becomings of writers and writing.

This dissertation uses Masny’s Multiple Literacies Theory (MLT) to problematize assumptions about literacy underpinning the Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program. In addition to teaching English, LINC aims to orient adult immigrants to “the Canadian way of life” which I argue constitutes a form of peace education: teaching peaceful, multicultural values as part of being/becoming Canadian. How do language, literacies, and lessons about peace intersect? MLT foregrounds the Deleuzean-Guattarian concept of becoming: reading intensively and immanently disrupts and transforms individuals in unpredictable ways. I deploy Deleuze and Guattari’s war machine to think about peace as a text that is read and violence as a revolutionary, disruptive force essential for the invention of peace. Accordingly, this research focuses on how experiences of peace AND violence contribute to becoming (i.e. transformation) through reading, reading the world, and self in LINC. Over a 4 month period, 2 teachers and 4 students participated in qualitative inquiry strategies including: video-recorded classroom observations, individual interviews (based on the viewing of video footage of classroom events), and student audio journals. I also collected classroom artifacts used during the observations. Through Deleuze’s transcendental empiricism I frame my research approach as rhizoanalysis. Rhizoanalysis is a (non)method that views data as transgressive (exceeding representation), analysis as a process producing rhizomatic connections (immanence), and reporting as cartography (mapping different assemblages). This research affirms that there is more going on in LINC than its mandate implies and raises questions pointing to the complexities of teaching and learning English in LINC. How might lessons about multicultural values be taken up in ways fraught with tensions between peace AND violence? Becoming-Canadian is an event that unfolds through reading, reading the world, and self. As sense emerges, how might the collision of worldviews around experiences of peace AND violence create encounters that potentially disrupt? How are students, teachers, and even the concepts of “Canadian” and “peace” transformed? I posit rhizocurriculum as a way to account for the affective and transformative powers of multiple literacies in language learning and to view adult immigrant language classrooms as sites of experimentation.

This dissertation uses Masny’s Multiple Literacies Theory (MLT) to problematize assumptions about literacy underpinning the Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program. In addition to teaching English, LINC aims to orient adult immigrants to “the Canadian way of life” which I argue constitutes a form of peace education: teaching peaceful, multicultural values as part of being/becoming Canadian. How do language, literacies, and lessons about peace intersect? MLT foregrounds the Deleuzean-Guattarian concept of becoming: reading intensively and immanently disrupts and transforms individuals in unpredictable ways. I deploy Deleuze and Guattari’s war machine to think about peace as a text that is read and violence as a revolutionary, disruptive force essential for the invention of peace. Accordingly, this research focuses on how experiences of peace AND violence contribute to becoming (i.e. transformation) through reading, reading the world, and self in LINC. Over a 4 month period, 2 teachers and 4 students participated in qualitative inquiry strategies including: video-recorded classroom observations, individual interviews (based on the viewing of video footage of classroom events), and student audio journals. I also collected classroom artifacts used during the observations. Through Deleuze’s transcendental empiricism I frame my research approach as rhizoanalysis. Rhizoanalysis is a (non)method that views data as transgressive (exceeding representation), analysis as a process producing rhizomatic connections (immanence), and reporting as cartography (mapping different assemblages). This research affirms that there is more going on in LINC than its mandate implies and raises questions pointing to the complexities of teaching and learning English in LINC. How might lessons about multicultural values be taken up in ways fraught with tensions between peace AND violence? Becoming-Canadian is an event that unfolds through reading, reading the world, and self. As sense emerges, how might the collision of worldviews around experiences of peace AND violence create encounters that potentially disrupt? How are students, teachers, and even the concepts of “Canadian” and “peace” transformed? I posit rhizocurriculum as a way to account for the affective and transformative powers of multiple literacies in language learning and to view adult immigrant language classrooms as sites of experimentation.

This thesis deals with professionalism in early childhood education in relation to «race» and whiteness in primarily a Norwegian landscape. The overall aim of the study is to investigate how sociomaterial «race»-events can be understood as constitutive of preschool teachers’ subjectivity. The thesis is a theoretical experimentation with strong ties to a real social landscape. One of the main problems that the study evolves around is how «race» is silenced in the dominant discourse contributing to how preschool teachers can create socially just and indiscriminating pedagogical practices in a current «multicultural society». Hence, there seem to be a lack of tools for preschool teachers to think through how «race» might be part of their pedagogical practice in preschools, and how «race» is an important issue to address when working with how to perform pedagogy ethically and politically. More specifically and in a philosophical-theoretical manner, the study explores «white» preschool teachers’ relation to «race». The philosophical-theoretical-methodological conceptual toolbox for the study is mainly constructed from the philosophical work of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari (1977, 1987). E.g. machinic assemblage, stratification, Body without Organs, nomadic subject, affect, individuation, micropolitics, becoming, actual/virtual and event. The methodological approach is highly inspired by decolonizing-, feminist poststructural- and critical methodologies. However, immersed with Deleuze and Guattaris philosophy of desire, what started out as a poststructural autoethnography transformed into a cartography of «my own» racial becomings in/with an early childhood landscape. The study shows how subjectivity, when understood as produced through sociomaterial «race»-events, offers another understanding of doing professionalism. Further, it offers an alternative understanding of how to create more socially just pedagogical practices in early childhood education.

This dissertation uses Masny’s Multiple Literacies Theory (MLT) to problematize assumptions about literacy underpinning the Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program. In addition to teaching English, LINC aims to orient adult immigrants to “the Canadian way of life” which I argue constitutes a form of peace education: teaching peaceful, multicultural values as part of being/becoming Canadian. How do language, literacies, and lessons about peace intersect? MLT foregrounds the Deleuzean-Guattarian concept of becoming: reading intensively and immanently disrupts and transforms individuals in unpredictable ways. I deploy Deleuze and Guattari’s war machine to think about peace as a text that is read and violence as a revolutionary, disruptive force essential for the invention of peace. Accordingly, this research focuses on how experiences of peace AND violence contribute to becoming (i.e. transformation) through reading, reading the world, and self in LINC. Over a 4 month period, 2 teachers and 4 students participated in qualitative inquiry strategies including: video-recorded classroom observations, individual interviews (based on the viewing of video footage of classroom events), and student audio journals. I also collected classroom artifacts used during the observations. Through Deleuze’s transcendental empiricism I frame my research approach as rhizoanalysis. Rhizoanalysis is a (non)method that views data as transgressive (exceeding representation), analysis as a process producing rhizomatic connections (immanence), and reporting as cartography (mapping different assemblages). This research affirms that there is more going on in LINC than its mandate implies and raises questions pointing to the complexities of teaching and learning English in LINC. How might lessons about multicultural values be taken up in ways fraught with tensions between peace AND violence? Becoming-Canadian is an event that unfolds through reading, reading the world, and self. As sense emerges, how might the collision of worldviews around experiences of peace AND violence create encounters that potentially disrupt? How are students, teachers, and even the concepts of “Canadian” and “peace” transformed? I posit rhizocurriculum as a way to account for the affective and transformative powers of multiple literacies in language learning and to view adult immigrant language classrooms as sites of experimentation.

This study seeks to understand the forces initiating and sustaining colonialism, specifically the German colonial expansion in Africa. The history of this colonialism, and the relations between Germany and Africa, is difficult to understand holistically, given its complex and contentious nature. In order to best comprehend the composite interactions within the expansion of German control over Africa, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s theory of deterritorialization will provide the interpretative framework. This analysis begins by grappling with the notion of deterritorialization and then relates the theory to the social, cultural, economic and political manifestations of German colonial expansion. By taking a broad perspective upon the diverse articulations of power in Africa, the multiple elements of colonial control and resistance are manifest. In conclusion, this study finds difference, syncretism and negotiation between German and African to determine the history of German colonialism in Africa.

There is great potential for the work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari in the realm of queer theory, and specifically discussions of gender variance. Their critique of psychiatry, capitalism and the unitary subject in Anti-Oedipus (1983) fits well within the current discussions surrounding transgender and genderqueer experiences including Gender Identity Disorder classifications, the commodification of queer culture, and the challenges put forth to our the "modern subject" by the fluidity of genderqueer. Yet strangely, there has not yet been an explicit, in-depth Deleuzoguattarian ontological reading of genderqueer. This thesis helps to foster such discussions by focusing on Deleuzoguattarian understandings of subjectivity, bodies and politics and how they relate to both gender and genderqueer. Through a method of involution, gender is transformed into molecular gender, into a productive, immanently relational, multiplicitous gender that has substantial implications for gender(queer) politics and activism. / Graduate