This study explores the interplay between theme and form in the writings of Willy Kyrklund. It investigates the relationship between the concept of “människans villkor” (the human condition), the rules of literature and the use of mathematics. Using a combined methodology of close reading, according to the principles of new criticism and hermeneutics, with narratology, this study analyses several texts covering a wide span of Kyrklund’s oeuvre. Special attention is devoted to short prose and the narrative strategies and aesthetics of short stories. Furthermore this study looks at the strategies Kyrklund employs in order to dispel the illusions of literature and direct the reader’s attention to the textuality of the text. It concludes that the interest in “människans villkor” and the constructions of literature is widely interconnected and a part of a broader interest in structures and rules. Using the short story format, Kyrklund emphasizes the structures and conditions which shape literature and human existence. This is also achieved through certain narrative strategies heavily characterized by distance. The reader is thereby invited to follow the events from a higher perspective, where the conditions, “människans villkor”, become more evident. The scepticism towards language and literature is also reflected in the praise and use of mathematics, which elevates the human mind beyond the unreliability of language and the general calamity of earthly existence. The laws of mathematics are unreachable, and mathematical language is thus used in order to portray a longing for purity and the absolute, which the human being cannot attain.

To Begin Something New A Conceptual Analysis of Hannah Arendt’s Space of Appearance This essay is about Hannah Arendt’s political philosophy and uses her book, The Human Condition, as its main point of reference. Specifically it’s Arendt’s theory of political action and how it manifests in the world that is going to be explored. The method of the essay is a conceptual analysis and the aim is to answer the following question: “What is ‘the space of appearance?’” The purpose of this essay is twofold. Firstly, to expand on Arendt’s political philosophy. Secondly, it is an attempt to map Arendt's insights into the political turmoil of her time on to ours. To - through Arendt’s writing - find the tools to make clear what often seems cryptic. One of the core ideas that this essay depends on is a reading of The Human Condition through the lens of Arendt’s doctoral thesis, Love and Saint Augustine. Here she describes the concept of love in the work of the Christian philosopher, Saint Augustine of Hippo, as desire of something good. In this essay I then use this understanding of “love as desire” to describe why humans act politically. The essay revolves around Arendt’s notion that political action depends on the plurality of man and that a multitude of people acting together within “the space of appearance” creates the processes of unfolding events which constitute human history. The ability to create and reshape history is seen by Arendt as one of the core abilities that make up the human condition. But to create history, a desire for change is needed. By following this argument I come to the conclusion that those with the real potential to use this ability are the ones most oppressed and marginalized by tyrannical regimes or power structures. At the end of the essay I conclude with presenting two paramount crises that humanity is currently facing: The crisis of climate change and the large scale obsolescence of labor through automation. Instead of making an attempt to propose a solution to these crises, I argue that a lack of ability or willingness to act politically is what blocks potential possibilities for these challenges to be overcome.

In 1958 the German philosopher Hannah Arendt released The Human condition, a book in which she famously discusses the terms of life on earth. Amongst her many important contributions to the field of political thinking that this book contains, her understanding of the two concepts natality and plurality perhaps make up the most groundbreaking and influential ones. Natality, for Arendt, is what constitutes man’s capacity to begin. The new beginning which every newborn born into the human world inherently entails is closely related to the human condition of plurality. This essay aims at understanding how Arendts analysis of the human conditions of natality and plurality together shapes the collective life of humans. With comments from feminist philosopher Adriana Cavarero who proposes a critique of Arendt’s understanding of natality as being far too abstract, and political thinker Chantal Mouffe, who critiques Arendt for having an unrealistic understanding of the common world as devoid of antagonistic conflict. The essay also discusses the critique against modernity which Arendt forms against the background of her understanding of the modern era as a time where the human conditions are being neglected.