Uppsatsen Den performativa uppväxten syftar till att studera den heterosexuella matrisens verkan i tre svenska skolskildringar. Som teoretisk grund för undersökningen används såväl Yvonne Hirdmans teori om hur genussystemet bärs upp av de logiska fundamenten isärhållning och könshierarki, som Judith Butlers queerfeministiskt filosofiska dekonstruktion av kön som kategori. De skönlitterära verk som analyseras är Agnes von Krusenstjernas Tony växer upp och Tonys läroår, Jan Guillous Ondskan och Jonas Gardells trilogi En komikers uppväxt, Ett ufo gör entré och Jenny. Genom ett textanalytiskt tillvägagångssätt med komparativa inslag undersöks hur genusstereotyper reproduceras och stabiliserar heterosexualiteten som obligatorisk norm, vidare hur dessa processer gestaltar ungdomars identitetstillblivelse i den skönlitterära skolmiljön. De tre skolskildringarna statuerar exempel som belyser hur grupptryck och okritisk medvetenhet resulterar i kollektiv könsseparerad performativitet. Den komparativa analysen av de olika skönlitterära verken framhäver genussystemets samtidigt stabila och föränderliga karaktär. De olikartade verken stärker tesen om könsnormer som kulturella, samhälleliga och tidsanpassade konstruktioner, där dock samtida manliga och kvinnliga ideal definieras utifrån varandra likt binära motsatser. Dessa, utifrån varandra definierade genus, stabiliserar en biologistisk heteronormativ beroendeställning mellan en dominant manlighet och en underordnad kvinnlighet. Genom applicerandet av Butlers teori om genussymmetri som en naturaliserad diskurs snarare än en biologisk sanning analyseras hur de olika utanförskap som gestaltas i skolskildringarna samtidigt avslöjar och stärker genussystemet.

In this essay, I employ Judith Butlers theories of gender performativity to examine the construction of the monstrosity in Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s two works The Outsider and The Thing on the Doorstep. Focusing on the character’s monstrous attributes, how they are seen by themselves, by others and not least by the reader, I examine how their monstrosity is created and strengthened by dehumanizing processes. I argue that Lovecraft through his narrative technique complicates the relation between monstrosity and humanity in his characters, the result of which is a reader left to determine how monstrous, or human, the creature really is. I claim that the beings, themselves remaining uncertain about their own human and monstrous sides throughout Lovecraft’s stories, are not in fact monsters for the reader until the very moment that they themselves acquiescein their own exclusion.

All around society, examples are found for how the debate for equality is being rhetorised, giving various suggestions for how the struggle should, or may, be fought, as well as suggestions for who and whom should be included within the term equality. Here a study is presented on the feminst equality campaign SheForHe and the debate article ”Men can – but you need our help”, in which a critique of malevolent norms of masculinity encourages women to free the man from the chains of patriarchy. The purpose is to investigate how, within the perspective of rhetorics, the article can be seen as to challenge the present discourse in the debate about equality through the following questions: Which motives are being constructed? Which rhetorical strategies are at play? Which ”men” and which ”women” as well as their internal relations are constructed? This is done based on Kenneth Burke’s theories on dramatism and the pentad as method of analysis for change of perspectives, as well as Karlyn Khors Campbell’s theories on the rhetoric of women’s liberation. The analysis is discussed drawing from Judith Butler’s terms performativity and the heterosexual matrix. The main conclusion is that the article can be seen as a rhetorical action in solidarity that through a societal critique aims to offer men new possibilties of identification. At the same time the article can be regarded as, within the scope of the equality debate, a rhetorical provocation that gives women actorship in the struggle for equality and highlights a male dominance within the debate. A further conclusion is that the article, although it may be viewed as an important act of resistance, is at risk of reproducing the view of ”men” and ”women” as homogenous collective identities, further constituting the gender system and contributing to the consolidation of a learned mandatory heterosexuality.

The aim of this essay is to show how the relationship between credit and critique is important for Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction of law. I will start from Force of Law, in which law, as well as justice, is deconstructed by Derrida. My purpose is further to show how the two concepts, credit and critique, are intertwined in the discourse of law and thereby crucial for Derrida’s deconstruction. As Derrida always states, the rational projects need to have a master concept, which the project revolves around, and this master concept needs at least one other subordinate concept to contrast itself against. In this context, I argue that critique can be that master concept. I base this argument upon the fact that critique in its ancient Greek sense, krinein, can be translated into the verb ‘to separate’, ‘to decide’ or ‘to judge’, which shows that there is an obvious link to the task of a judge. This puts critique in center of the discourse of law. Credit on the other hand is not rational, which makes it opposed to critique, but it is still important for law. It is a typical subordinated concept that just appears in the discourse without any further explanation but is present by its implicit importance to the discourse. I argue that credit is the subordinate concept that is needed for the concept of critique to be a master concept. Both concepts are important for the foundation of law, and this is why I believe that Derrida in the end states the importance to take responsibility for the law. In other words, one must take responsibility for both founding aspects of credit and critique when deconstructing the law.

In this essay, I analyze and compare the representation of social actors in six different author presentations from the teaching aid Svenska Impulser 2, (2012). More specifically, I investigate similarities and differences in the representation of men and women and, thus, what meanings are ascribed to these gender categories. Consequently, these presentations belong to three different literary epochs or -isms: the enlightenment (Jean-Jaques Rousseau and Anna Maria Lenngren); romanticism (Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley), and modernism (James Joyce and Virginia Woolf). The analysis is further grounded on Judith Butler’s theory on performative gender and systemic functional grammar as developed and defined by Michael Halliday. The method of analysis is critical discourse analysis (CDA) where I quantify and analyze different types of representational strategies and process and participant functions (transitivity). In addition, these two sections of quantifications are each followed by a qualitative analysis with a certain focus on different epiteths, attributes, general descriptions, and agency. My findings show that the presentations of women are more populated and, that they are portrayed as dependent on men, whereas men are portrayed as independent explorers, innovators, influencers, rebels or radical political debaters and thinkers. While some of these qualities are implied, however more or less muted, in the presentations of women, they are explicated or, by other means, more evident in the presentations of men. Moreover, my analysis shows that the women’s gender identity is marked and thus emphasized in their presentations to a significantly greater degree than the men’s gender identity is in their presentations.

Denna studie avser att utforska identitetsskapandet inom den komplexa konstformen performance. Genom att fokusera på Marina Abramovićs och Frank Uwe Laysipens (Ulay) liv och kollaborativa performance ur ett performativt och psykoanalytiskt perspektiv angrips handlingarnas tyngdpunkt i skapandet av jaget under diverse omständigheter och sammanhang. / This study aims to investigates the creation of identity within the complex artform performance. By observing the life’s and collaborative performance of Marina Abramović and Frank Uwe Laysiepen (Ulay) though a performative and psychoanalytic perspective focuses the act in the creation of self in different circumstances and contexts.

Syftet med studien är att bidra med kunskaper om vilka förståelser av vetenskaplig grund och beprövad erfarenhet som konstrueras i kommunikation mellan förskollärare. Studien styrs av två frågeställningar: Vilka språkliga kategorier konstrueras i förskollärares kommunikation om vetenskaplig grund? och Vilka språkliga kategorier konstrueras i förskollärares kommunikation om beprövad erfarenhet?. Studien har en kvalitativ metodansats, med en teoretisk utgångspunkt i kontextuell socialkonstruktionism. Studiens data samlas in genom två fokusgrupper med tio verksamma förskollärare i förskolan. Datan analyseras med hjälp av begreppen performativitet och fabrikationer. Performativiteten relateras till uppdraget i läroplanen och Skollag som förskollärare är ålagda att följa. I läroplanen för förskolan (Lpfö 18) står det att "undervisningen med innehåll och arbetsätt ska vila på vetenskaplig grund och beprövad erfarenhet". I studien synligörs fabrikationer som innebär att förskollärarna framställer eller rättfärdigar sin undervisning på ett bättre sätt än vad som överensstämmer med verkligheten. Studiens reslutat visar tre slutsatser: mångtydlighet, otydlighet i ansvar och brist på gemensam förståelse av begreppen vetenskaplig grund och beprövad erfarenhet. Begreppen har inte tidigare diskuterats av förskollärarna i studien, vilket innebär att egna tolkningar och förklaringar över begreppen uttalas. Förskollärarna saknar en tydligare definition av vetenskaplig grund och beprövad erfarnehet, vilket överensstämmer med vad tidigare forskning belyser. / The Purpose of the study is to contribute knowledge about which understandings of scientific basis and proven experience are constructed in communication between preschool teachers. The study is guided by two questions: What language categories are constructed in preschool teachers' communications about the scientific basis? and What language categories are constructed in preschool teachers' communication about proven experience?. The study has a qualitative methodological approach, with a theoretical starting point in contextual social constructionism. The study data is collected through two focus groups with ten active preschool teachers in the preschool. The data are analyzed to the concepts of performativity and fabrications. The performativity is related to the assignment in the curriculum for preschool (Lpfö 18) states that "teaching with content and working methods must be based on scientific grounds and proven experience". The study highlights fabrications that mean that preschool teachers present or justify their teaching in a better way than what corresponds to reality. The results of the study show three conclusions: ambiguity, ambiguity in responsibility and lack of common understanding of the concepts of scientific basis and proven experience. The concepts have not previously been discussed by the preschool teachers in the study, which means that their own interpretations and explanations of the concepts are pronounced. Preschool teachers lack a clearer definition of scientific basis and proven experience, which is in line with what previours research sheds light on.

En systematisk litteraturstudie om vilka faktorer som kan orsaka matematikängslan hos elever i grundskolan och hur lärare kan arbeta för att stärka elevernas självförtroende och hjälpa dem att minska denna ängslan. Vi människor föds inte med matematiska förmågor och automatiskt blir antingen bättre eller sämre på matematik, utan vi utvecklas och lär med tiden att bli matematiska. I studien lyfts normer och attityder till matematik fram och problematiseras i samband med elevers matematikängslan. Studiens resultat visar att det framför allt är yttre sociala faktorer,normer och negativa handlingar som påverkar elevers matematikängslan. Detta kan leda till att elever utvecklar ett lägre självförtroende och negativa attityder till ämnet matematik. Det kan därmed vara svårt att bryta detta då det blir en negativ spiral, vilket kan resultera i att elever ser på sig själva som mindre matematiska. Men genom att bygga bra lärar-elev-relationer, stärka elevens självförtroende och skapa positiva attityder och goda normer till ämnet matematik så 3kan lärare hjälpa eleven att minska denna ängslan. Därför ligger ett stort ansvar på att lärare utvecklar kunskaper i hur de kan bemöta elever med matematikängslan. / A systematic literature review on factors that could cause math anxiety in primary school students and how teachers can work to strengthen students' self-confidence and help them reduce this anxiety. We humans are not born with mathematical abilities and automatically become either better or worse at mathematics, but we develop and learn over time to become mathematical. We highlight norms and attitudes to mathematics in the study and problematize them in connection with students' mathematics anxiety. The results of the study indicate that it is most social factors, norms and negative acts and comments that affect students' math anxiety. This leads to developing lower self-confidence and negative attitudes towards the subject of mathematics. This could be difficult to break as it becomes a negative spiral, which results in the student seeing themselves as less mathematical. But by building good teacher-student relationships, building the student's self-confidence, and creating positive attitudes and good norms towards the subject of mathematics, teachers can help the student to reduce this anxiety. Therefore, teachers have a responsibility to learn how they can help students with math anxiety.

This paper examines how femininity is portrayed in the Harry Potter-series. Many female characters display certain feminine traits which are deemed as negative in the novels, and they are treated as less than because of it. Specifically Dolores Umbridge, Fleur Delacour and Luna Lovegood are disliked or ridiculed because of their feminine expressions. With help from theories about gender performativity, femininity as a scapegoat and texts about feminity this essay is demonstrating how the characters' characteristics and actions of three characters contributes to a misogynistic portrayal of women. It argues that female characters are unable to succeed unless they conform to the series' established norms for women. Keywords: Harry Potter, femininity, performativity, gender norms, gender critical, Dolores Umbridge, Fleur Delacour, Luna Lovegood

In this thesis, the hugely popular online art experiment r/Place is analyzed as an interesting example of digital art making and collaborative creation on a massive scale. This is done in an effort to contribute to the exploration of how art making and the artist’s role is shaped by a digital component as well as its accompanying opportunities, in this case collaboration. In the analysis the creations and participation of ten Reddit-communities taking part in the experiment are studied through the lens of semiotics and performativity. Through the analysis it was concluded that the art-making and resulting creations were not only shaped by the digital and shared nature of the format but also by the limited resources available, resulting in a strongly competitive atmosphere. The competitiveness highlights how two concepts often seen as opposites, creation and destruction, can be two sides of the same process depending on your perspective.