This essay provides a queer theoretical, non-biographic reading of Karin Boye's novel Crisis from 1934. The analysis aims to focus on how Christian faith, constituting a major part of the book, can be connected to and be read as a symbol of heteronormativity. Furthermore the analysis describes how the queer aspect in the novel reveals heteronormative and intersectional structures. The investigation is set against previous research on Boye’s literary works, and other queer theoretical texts to show how the protagonist Malin Forst’s queer desire and identity develops as opposed to authoritative voices present in her life.

My aim with this essay is to analyse how the theme of sexuality and love in two dystopian novels – We  (1924),  by Yevgeny Zamyatin and Kallocain  (1940), by Karin Boye – relate to “the modern project”, a term I use to identify a cluster of important ideas that profoundly impacted society in the first decades of the 20th century. My analysis is based on a theoretical point of view claiming that dystopian novels present a critical perspective on society, and that they deal with issues, problems and values specific to the period in which they were written. Using a comparative method, where “the modern project” works asan “Ansatzpunkt”, I explore a variety of texts studying the theme of love and sexualityin We  and Kallocain  from different perspectives. I further discuss how both novels criticize societies where some of the ideas from “the modern project” are realized in unexpected ways: the “bourgeois family” is gone and the state performs some of its duties, sexuality is reduced to biological needs and reproduction, and love relationships are seen as egotistical and irrational. Even though these societies are trying hard, they can’t stop their citizens from using love and sexuality as a means to connect to one another and build a resistance. My conclusion is that both Zamyatin and Boye most likely were inspired by the writings of Sigmund Freud, who at that time was highly influential. In this light their novels can beinterpreted as presenting the human libido (We) and insights gained through psychoanalysis (Kallocain) as defences against collectivistic totalitarian states.

This essay is about how lesbian love is being portrayed in two Swedish novels. The material consists of Karin Boye’s Crisis (1934) and Louise Boije af Gennäs’ Stars without Vertigo (1996). By using theories of heteronormativity, discourse analysis and a historical perspective, the essay aims to explain the similarities and differences in the way that lesbian love is being portrayed in these books. The results are organised through themes by using the methods close reading and comparative method.               The heteronormative discourse is ruled by norms and assumptions about normality in relation to sexuality and gender. The protagonists in both Crisis and Stars without Vertigo are in different ways being confronted with the heteronormative discourse in the Swedish society, Christianity and amongst their family and friends. In Crisis, the main character, Malin struggles to handle her non-heterosexual feelings in relation to her faith, and not to expose her emotions. In 1934 homosexuality was considered a crime in Sweden and at the same time homosexuality was looked upon as a disease, which controls how Malin looks upon her non-heterosexual feelings and keeps her from telling anyone about them. For Sophie, the main character in Stars without Vertigo the society’s values and norms are present, but the social climate for homosexuals is different in comparison to Crisis. The heteronormative discourse concerns her private life, her choice in a spouse/partner and her ability to start a family, since the homosexual community was being considered as something different from the universal heterosexuality and therefore should not have the same rights.               Although the novels where published more than 60 years apart there are some similarities in what kind of words Malin and Sophie are using about non-heterosexuality. Both women choose not to name their non-heterosexuality because any type of word or category is limiting. Thus both Malin and Sophie create their own identity through their sexuality.

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This master thesis deals with the Nobel Prize and highbrow culture as portrayed in Karin Alvtegen’s Skugga. From a sociology of literature perspective, it aims to analyze how these highbrow themes can be understood in relation to Alvtegen’s position in the literary field as a lowbrow crime novelist. The method used is hermeneutic, and the analysis is based on two theoretical models: Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural sociology, and the postmodern tradition where the distinction high/low and its traditional hierarchy is said to be decomposed. The analysis shows how Alvtegen gets inscribed in a detective genre she doesn’t really fit into, which is of great importance for our understanding and reading of Skugga. In relation to the history of the detective genre, this essay explains how Alvtegen uses both the whodunit’s integrating of highbrow symbols, as well as the social critique frequently used in more recent crime fiction. The conclusions drawn are that Alvtegen’s use of highbrow symbols illustrates the literary field, while they also discuss her own position on the very same field – text and context here operates closely intertwined. The highbrow theme in Skugga functions as both a dissociation from as well as a rapprochement to highbrow culture, while it also criticizes a contemporary commercialized culture. The Nobel Prize here plays a significant role, as it has become a highbrow symbol known to everybody. Skugga illustrates that intertextual markers in our contemporary post-modern culture is transformed in both directions in the cultural hierarchy – which doesn’t mean that it has vanished.

<p>This essay examines expressions of power and resistance, in relation to gender and sexuality, in Karin Boye´s novel Kallocain. I read the novel´s theme of resistance on a level of sexuality. Because differing sexualities and genderpractises are often hidden within the heteronormative mechanisms of oppression, I focus my reading on the meaning of the room and the eye. With theories of Michel Foucault and queer theories, I show how the novel´s rooms in both a material and an immaterial way demarcate based on heteronoramative structures. Further I use the theoretical tools of Foucault and show how looks become the gatekeepers of normativity. I investigate how Judith Butler’s theory on how gender is performatively constructed take shape in the novel and how there can be queer leakage, for example in the potentially homoerotic relation between the two main male characters. I will argue that the heteronormative novelworld of Kallocain contains an emancipating potential in the rooms for resistance created both through the spirit of community in the “fools community” and in other relations, foremost the one between the main male character and the female who is married to him.</p>

<p>Utgångspunkten för uppsatsen är att studera relationen mellan vissa aspekter av form och innehåll i tre kortare prosatexter. Dessa aspekter är framförallt berättarinstans, berättelsens uppbyggnad, och det i två av texterna utryckliga temat förändring. De valda texterna är kortromanen <em>På Chesil Beach </em>av Ian McEwan (2007), novellen ”Döden i Damaskus” av Anna-Karin Palm (2001) och kortromanen <em>Berömmelse</em> av Daniel Kehlmann (2010).</p><p>Litteraturvetenskapliga perspektiv och analysredskap är valda med tanke på att en av texterna påstår något om berättarens funktion, och att en av de andra texterna resonerar kring vad en berättelse är. De narratologiska verktygen faller sig därför naturliga. Den hermeneutiska metoden används i begränsad utsträckning för tolkningen av texterna. Resultatet av studien visar att texternas uppbyggnad<strong> </strong>i två av fallen tydligt medverkar till att gestalta texternas teman. Den vid första anblicken postmoderna texten <em>Berömmelse</em> – <em>Roman i nio historier</em> (2010) visar sig ha en mer sammanhängande struktur än som kanske märks vid en första snabb genomläsning. I samtliga tre texter är karaktärerna bärare av temat.</p>

Inspired by the contrapuntal and relational critiques of Edward Said and Ella Shohat, this thesis conducts a comparative analysis of the literature and film of Arab Jews in order to deconstruct discourses on Jewish identity that privilege the dichotomies of Israel-diaspora and Arab-Jew. Sami Michael’s novel Refuge, Naim Kattan’s memoir Farewell, Babylon, Karin Albou’s film Little Jerusalem and b.h. Yael’s video documentary Fresh Blood: a Consideration of Belonging reveal the complexities and interconnections of Sephardic, Mizrahi and Arab Jewish experiences across multiple geographies that are often silenced under dominant Eurocentric, Ashkenazi or Zionist interpretations of Jewish history. Drawing from these texts, Jewish identity is explored through four philosophical themes: Jewish beginnings vs. origins, boundaries between Arab and Jew, the construction of Jewish identities in place and space, and, the concept of diaspora and the importance Jewish difference. As a double-diaspora, with the two poles of their identities seen as enemies in the ongoing conflict between Israel-Palestine, Arab Jews challenge the conception of a single Jewish nation, ethnicity, identity or culture. Jewishness can better be understood as a rhizome, a system without a centre and made of heterogeneous component, that is able to create, recreate and move through multiple territories, rather than ever settling in, or being confined to a single form that seeks to dominate over others. This dissertation contributes a unique theoretical reading of Jewish cultures in the plural, and includes an examination of lesser known Arab Jewish writing and experimental documentary in Canada in relation to Iraq, France and Israel.

Inspired by the contrapuntal and relational critiques of Edward Said and Ella Shohat, this thesis conducts a comparative analysis of the literature and film of Arab Jews in order to deconstruct discourses on Jewish identity that privilege the dichotomies of Israel-diaspora and Arab-Jew. Sami Michael’s novel Refuge, Naim Kattan’s memoir Farewell, Babylon, Karin Albou’s film Little Jerusalem and b.h. Yael’s video documentary Fresh Blood: a Consideration of Belonging reveal the complexities and interconnections of Sephardic, Mizrahi and Arab Jewish experiences across multiple geographies that are often silenced under dominant Eurocentric, Ashkenazi or Zionist interpretations of Jewish history. Drawing from these texts, Jewish identity is explored through four philosophical themes: Jewish beginnings vs. origins, boundaries between Arab and Jew, the construction of Jewish identities in place and space, and, the concept of diaspora and the importance Jewish difference. As a double-diaspora, with the two poles of their identities seen as enemies in the ongoing conflict between Israel-Palestine, Arab Jews challenge the conception of a single Jewish nation, ethnicity, identity or culture. Jewishness can better be understood as a rhizome, a system without a centre and made of heterogeneous component, that is able to create, recreate and move through multiple territories, rather than ever settling in, or being confined to a single form that seeks to dominate over others. This dissertation contributes a unique theoretical reading of Jewish cultures in the plural, and includes an examination of lesser known Arab Jewish writing and experimental documentary in Canada in relation to Iraq, France and Israel.

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