Den befriade sången. Stina Aronsons berättarkonst Liberated song. Stina Aronson’s narrative art Abstract This thesis discusses the narrative art of the Swedish author Stina Aronson (1892-1956) with special emphasis on Hitom himlen (“This Side of Heaven”) from 1946. This work forms the subject of the first part, with formal aspects like narrator construction, composition and genre as the starting-point. These aspects, and the originality with which they are treated by Aronson, are put in relation to modernist æstheticism. In the next step the modernist approach is linked to a discussion of modernity. The basis of this thematic analysis consists of entities like language, time, faith and individuality, all of which play an important part in Aronson’s writing. The thematization of individual freedom versus determinism makes the work a counterpart to existentialism, the current philosophy of the time. What becomes especially apparent is a striking ambivalence towards modernity, but also towards a more traditional, almost pre-modern, attitude to life prevailing in the severe Læstadianist village community described. This interpretation deviates from the idea of pure civilization criticism and of the near idealization of the world described, which has dominated earlier analyses of the Aronson’s work. Gender issues, too, play an important part in the thesis, especially in the section analyzing the main characters and the attitudes they represent. The two central characters of the text are women and they are fundamentally different. The criticism of the village community and the destructive effects on the individual of the austere faith is most evident in the portrait of Mira, one of the women. She emerges as a more modern character than the others, driven by an urge to break free and make her own destiny, a project which, however, fails completely. There are several reasons for this, but the decisive factor is that as a woman she is more strictly bound by conventions and norms in the surrounding environment and interpretative community. Part II discusses the author’s other works published in book form. The textual forms and their possible relation to modernism are discussed to some extent, but above all the same issues concerning modernity and gender are tested as outlined in the first part. Ambivalence vis-à-vis the modern is also noticeable in the early works, albeit in a less sophisticated way. The problematization of gender roles is a marginal but essential element in these works, most evident in those produced around 1930 and gradually becoming more and more complex. What is striking is the recurrent existence of gender-transcending characters. Aronson’s characters are depicted over and over again as untypical of their sex, which altogether conveys the image of a world where there is something fundamentally wrong with expectations. In the collected works of Aronson these themes remained constant throughout the great variation in genre, form and contents ever since the début in 1921 to her last work in 1952: opposition against all forms of normalizing categories prescribing how people should believe, communicate, experience time and function as man or woman.

After the Meiji Restoration of 1862, Western philosophy was imported and infused into Japanese culture and its intellectual climate. By the early 20th Century, Kyoto School philosophers and romantic authors sought to reaffirm Japanese culture, believed jeopardised by the hastened development of Western capitalist modernity. This movement became politically charged, and is not without fascist allegations. After the Second World War modernism again became a primary intellectual concern, as modernists and Asianists alike attempted to struggle with the idea of fascism in Japan. Works of Nishida Kitaro (1870-1945) and Watsuji Tetsuro (1889-1960), and the prewar contexts within which they were written, will be compared to the postwar thinkers Maruyama Masao (1914-1996) and Takeuchi Yoshimi (1910-1977). The purpose of this thesis is to examine how Japanese thinkers before and after the Second World War understood and responded to the global process of modernity, and how it relates to such political movements as liberalism and fascism.

This thesis critically analyzes the dynamics wherein the artistic field- the art world per se possessing both &#039 / glocal&#039 / and &#039 / universal&#039 / attributes- has been constructed as an autonomous field within the discourses produced about art. The research focuses on some of the moments during which the field, as becoming an &#039 / institution&#039 / inside the framework of modern state paradigm, has been imbricated and freed from social history by designating some of the fundamental arguments about its epistemological, historical and structural qualities and it shows how &#039 / autonomy&#039 / has been a stake of struggle. The narratives about how &#039 / commodification of culture&#039 / and &#039 / autonomy of the field&#039 / proceed in the &#039 / West&#039 / and in Turkey are discussed in comparison in this ethnographic study that is realized by Constructive Grounded Theory and carried out by centering a group of art professionals living in Istanbul.

This thesis critically analyzes the dynamics wherein the artistic field- the art world per se possessing both &#039 / glocal&#039 / and &#039 / universal&#039 / attributes- has been constructed as an autonomous field within the discourses produced about art. The research focuses on some of the moments during which the field, as becoming an &#039 / institution&#039 / inside the framework of modern state paradigm, has been imbricated and freed from social history by designating some of the fundamental arguments about its epistemological, historical and structural qualities and it shows how &#039 / autonomy&#039 / has been a stake of struggle. The narratives about how &#039 / commodification of culture&#039 / and &#039 / autonomy of the field&#039 / proceed in the &#039 / West&#039 / and in Turkey are discussed in comparison in this ethnographic study that is realized by Constructive Grounded Theory and carried out by centering a group of art professionals living in Istanbul.

The modern principle of freedom of subjectivity sets a moral standard which radically departs from Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean: modern moral agents, exemplified by the rising middle class, are granted the right to develop extreme dispositions towards goods like honour and wealth. Given that Aristotle considers such goods divisible in the sense that when one person gets more another gets less―the basic definition of distributive injustice―it isn’t surprising that modern philosophers like Kant have trouble reconciling this right with duty to others. Failing to resolve this dilemma satisfactorily in ethical terms, Kant and others turn to aesthetics, but Kant, at least, takes no account there of moral agents’ interest in the actual existence of goods. In this respect, the alternative to the Kantian aesthetic response I document in my dissertation is more Stoic than modern. This response, the modern mediocre-artist narrative, features a mediocre artist who fails to achieve the new standard of distributive justice and a genius who ostensibly succeeds. Though other critics discuss the ethical dimension of mediocre-artist narratives, they don’t consider the possibility that the mediocre artist’s failure might be due to the ethical dilemma just described. They therefore tend to uphold uncritically the narratives’ negative judgments of mediocrity, ascribing the latter’s failure to egotism. By contrast, I examine the genius’ artistic efforts for evidence of a similar failure. Ultimately, I demonstrate that the genius does indeed fail, albeit less spectacularly, arguing on this basis that egotistical characterizations of mediocrity are unjust. But the mediocre aren’t the only victims: in “concealing” genius’ failure, mediocre-artist narratives ignore unmet claims on its fruits. Finally, I invoke Derrida’s notion of the “lesser violence” to outline a new genre that recognizes the unattainability of the modern standard of justice. I call this genre morally progressive, rejecting Jürgen Habermas’ view that freedom of subjectivity has hit a dead end, and that we must backtrack to a philosophical turning indicated but not taken by Hegel, namely, the path of intersubjective freedom.

In this thesis, I propose that Mexican water works during the Porfiriato influenced the development of modernity because of hydrology’s link between society and environment. These two canals in particular provide a window on the relationship between the state and environment that connects the two in the efforts of state formation. The Gran Canal and the Canal de la Viga both worked as tools for social and political construction for Mexicans to imagine modernity for themselves and for their country.

This paper addresses the conception that fundamentalisms are “anti-modern.” I propose that this view is a mischaracterization of fundamentalisms. I argue that an understanding of fundamentalisms would be better served by forgoing this “anti-modern” characterization and instead approaching fundamentalisms from the perspective that they are wholly modern phenomenon. In my analysis I use the writings and speeches of Pat Robertson as examples of the modern nature of America Fundamentalism in four areas. The first area examines how the Enlightenment influenced Fundamentalism’s development of inerrantism. The second area examines Fundamentalism’s prophetic interpretation. The third area examines the political nature of Fundamentalism. The fourth area examines Pat Robertson’s rhetoric to reveal that he reflects philosophically modern thought and rejects postmodernism.

The paradigm of multiple modernities proposes that alternative modernities have formed across the globe as a result of social change. This paradigm stands in contrast to evolutionary and modernization theories, as well as theories of globalizing modernity, which argue that all societies are moving in the similar direction and that Western modernity is universalizing. Focusing on two specific trends, which are the closure of the political sphere for students and young people in general versus the growing role of women in the political sphere, it is suggested in this case study that Namibia is one of the societies that is characterized by distinctive social change. Particular attention is paid to the interrelationships between customs, invented traditions and the modern Western condition drawing on quantitative and qualitative data on Namibian university students and an extensive literature review to demonstrate that Namibia has an alternative type of the modern.

¡@¡@The purpose of this essay is to examine the problems emerge from village relocation program by state apparatus. Hongmaogang, the district on Kaohsiung City in Taiwan, is a representative case of village relocation program. This program is in the largest scale in Taiwan. It is also the most significant program in Taiwan which has expended the most considerable budge and has moved abundant residents during nearly forty years. ¡@¡@This study will explores the relocation of Hongmaogang by the anthropology theory of Abrams framework that distinguish the difference from ¡§state idea¡¨ and ¡§state system¡¨ to understand what is state. Author used ¡§in-depth interview¡¨ and ¡§archival analysis¡¨ to analyze this case. This study discovers that the planning and execution model of state apparatus runs similar with the concept of the ideology of developementalism which is mentioned by Ferguson's Anti-Political Machine and Scott¡¦s High Modernity. Under the context, all the local culture, history, fisheries, and social relations in Hongmaogang are ignored by the government. That is to say that Taiwanese government simplifies Hongmaogang into an undeveloped district. ¡@¡@To summarize, this study reveals that the weak economic of the village is associated with the inappropriate planning of government. On the other hand, Taiwanese government believes that villages without relocation program are lagged. This essay is a comprehensive examination of the problems of space shaping in Taiwan.

This thesis aims to, with the aid of Anthony Gidden¡¦s and Stuart Hall¡¦s theories on modernity and identity, discuss the process of changes initiated by modernity in the societies of V. S. Naipaul¡¦s three Trinidad novels in his writing career: namely, The Mystic Masseur (1957), Miguel Street (1959), and A House for Mr. Biswas (1961). My argument is that in these Trinidad novels, the process of modernization is fragmenting the old and agrarian Trinidadian society, and therefore has caused rupture and discontinuities in people¡¦s life. This fragment is actually a pertinent chance for both the protagonists and Naipaul to regain their genuine self and cultural identity by escaping from the limiting environment. In Chapter One, there is basic historical background information of Trinidad and of V. S. Naipaul. I will list out some key concepts of Anthony Gidden¡¦s ideas of modernity, along with the ones of the importance of self-identity in a modern society. Moreover, Stuart Hall¡¦s concepts of modernity and identity will be presented as well. Chapter Two, with some comparisons with The Mystic Masseur and A House for Mr. Biswas, will mainly focus on Miguel Street and on the impact of modernity on it. The institutional and economical changes caused by modernity lead to rupture and discontinuity in people¡¦s life, and consequently, force them to search for self-identity. Chapter Three will move on to discussion of the self-identity formation of Mr. Biswas in A House for Mr. Biswas. During his growth and struggle in Trinidad, he finally gains his identity as an individual in a modern society. Moreover, his newly established sense of cultural identity will be inherited by his son, Anand. Anand serves an analogy to the boy narrator in Miguel Street whereas Ganesh in The Mystic Masseur is seen as an antithesis to Mr. Biswas. At last, I will define Naipaul¡¦s sense of identity as a Trinidad-born writer.