This study aims to examin how the production of knowledge is intrinsic to the production of power in the New Materialist Process theology of Catherine Keller. The object of critical examination is the theology of Keller and her essay; ”Tingles of Matter, Tangles of Theology: Bodies of the New(ish) Materialism,” from her book Intercarnations: Exercises in Theological Posibility (2017). Keller’s essay will be analyzed through Linda Alcoffs, Alison Baileys and Sara Ahmeds epistemological critical theory of how power produces knowledge and vice versa.  Keller’s theology will be examined based on the study points of analysis on texts of Alcoff, Bailey and Ahmed: subjectivity, making of knowledge, epistemology, making of ignorance, power and authenticity/purity. The study shows that Keller’s notion of apophatic matter has the effect of producing knowledge practices about the object. When the object is obscured from the subject in Keller’s theology, a theological analysis of power and the subject’s position in producing knowledge through theology, is prohibited. By analyzing Keller's notion of entanglement through Ahmed’s thinking, it is shown that the subject is presupposed as free, white and independent. Entanglement among human beings exists as bodily physicality for Keller. Social and economic factors are, thus, made irrelevant for the existence of knowledge and relations between humans. Life situations that are, for example, violent or in position of dependence are incompatible with the reality constituted in entanglement. The subject’s knowledge as socially situated and possibly part of structural power, is also made irrelevant in entanglement-thinking. Thus, the study shows that through the reading of Alcoff, Bailey and Ahmed, theology has the ability to constitute knowledge making practices, that forms the subject’s production of knowledge and ignorance.

This essay analyses Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman and Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski through a phenomenological lens. Through the theoretical framework, mainly consisting of Sara Ahmed’s The Cultural Politics of Emotion and Queer Phenomenology, I discuss how feelings such as desire and shame work through the subject and influence its relationship with their surroundings. The analysis concludes that the emotion of shame is an isolating feeling, causing the subject to shield themselves from their surroundings. At the same time shame is forgotten in its own temporality, whereas the emotion itself is mistaken as permanent by the subject in the feeling state. On the other hand, the forbidden desire feels temporary and like something that could be expelled from the body. Furthermore, I discuss how desire affects the relationship between subject and object, especially through the ways that desire complicates the hierarchal division between the two. I further posit how desire affects boundaries between bodies and how the forbidden desire creates the will to penetrate boundaries while at the same time maintaining them. Through the combination of shame and desire the subject is limited in their worldview, where the desire can feel impossible to navigate through the “life-lines” that Ahmed theorizes because of the shame that follows. The essay concludes that the relationship between shame and desire affects the relationship between subject and object mainly through the internalization of societal norms.

Orientation Device is a tool for understanding the other towards recognizing alternative possibilities, for care and compassion, for expanding our culturally and politically bounded mindset, a tool of vital nausea and questioning compulsory heterosexuality. The work is a series of augmented reality (AR) experiences for mobile device that allow the audience to participate in documentary queer performances in any private or public setting. These immersive experiences challenge our perception of space. The LGBTQIA+ community is often disoriented within heteronormative spaces, and this work reverses that dichotomy by disorienting the audience. As a cisgender creator, I invite queer performers, artists, poets, and thinkers who express their identity in their creative practices. As the AR medium is widely distributable, I want to give the participants the potential opportunity to present themselves to a wide international audience through the poetics of augmented reality and documentary video holograms. / Master of Fine Arts / ORIENTATION DEVICE: poiesis of documentary volumetric video for augmented reality; location-aware interactive mise-en-scène; applied queer phenomenology; the potential of procedural worldmaking in the future

Adapting literature from a cultural context to another is the main theme of my master's thesis. The aim is to determine how publishing houses adapt a book from a different cultural context to their own, and if there are any specific marketing choices being made during the publishing process.The thesis highlights two authors, Sara Stridsberg from Sweden and Silke Scheuermann from Germany. Interviews have been made with the publishers, editors and translators of the translated novels. One of the main themes is to be able to showcase differences between the Swedish and the German publishing business and their particular cultural characteristics in working with translated novels. I have found that the brand of a publishing house is important when making publishing decisions. For larger publishing houses, the economical capital is of importance, and for smaller publishing houses the cultural capital tends to be of a higher value. The book market is becoming more defined by the economy of attention and economization of culture, which is showing in all different aspects of the business; publishing houses, newspapers and agents are all adapting towards a more economic focus.

Le but de ce travail est de fournir des informations qui peuvent aider à clarifier le mécanisme par lequel se produit la précipitation d’asphaltènes afin d'optimiser les modèles qui prédisent ce phénomène. Premièrement, la composition chimique des fractions aromatiques et saturées est analysée au regard à la stabilité des asphaltènes dans le brut. Plus précisément, la composition SARA de différents bruts vénézuéliens est corrélée au seuil de floculation des asphaltènes. Nos résultats mettent en évidence que les saturées, semblables aux résines, ont un effet significatif sur la stabilité des asphaltènes dans le brut. Deuxièmement, la teneur en Ni et V dans les asphaltènes et leurs sous fractions A1 et A2 a été déterminé par spectroscopie d'émission atomique avec plasma inductif. Les données expérimentales établissent que A1 a une concentration en V et en Ni supérieure à celle de A2, quelque soit la stabilité des bruts. Nous interprétons ces données comme l’illustration d’interactions fortes, telles que des liaisons covalentes entre pétroporphyrines et les molécules d’asphaltènes. Finalement, un dispositif haut pression est utilisé pour détecter visuellement la pression seuil de floculation d'un système modèle correspondant à une solution d’asphaltènes dans un mélange toluène/heptane/CO2. Les résultats confirment, pour ces systèmes gazés, que les augmentations de pression conduisent à une augmentation de la solubilité des asphaltènes et que pour la température il y a deux régimes opposés. Le premier correspond à une diminution de la stabilité du fluide avec l’augmentation de la température et le second, passé une valeur seuil proche de 80°C, conduit au phénomène inverse. / The purpose of this work is to provide information that can help in clarifying the mechanism by which asphaltene precipitation occurs in order to optimize the models that predict the phenomenon. The study is divided into three chapters. In the first one, the constituents of aromatic and saturate fractions of some Venezuelan crude oils were associated with the asphaltenes stability. SARA composition was correlated with asphaltene flocculation onsets and the results showed that saturates, similar to resins, have a significant effect on the flocculation process of the asphaltenes. In the second chapter, the concentration of Ni and V was determined in asphaltenes and their fractions A1 and A2. The samples were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry and elemental combustion analysis. Results show that A1 presents higher Ni and V concentrations than A2, in both stable and unstable crude oils. These results can be explained by strong interactions, such as covalent bonds between the petroporphyrins and the asphaltene molecules. In the final section, the asphaltenes phase envelopes were obteined for a system consisting of asphaltene in a mixture toluene/heptane/CO2. The temperature ranges 10-150 °C with varying concentrations of CO2 between 10 and 20 wt%. The experimental results confirm that increase of pressure leads to increase of solubility of the asphaltenes in the medium. Also, there are two temperature regimes having opposite trends. First, the solubility of the asphaltenes increases with the temperature, then after a threshold value of 80 °C, the stability is getting worse with the temperature

This thesis focuses on the possibilities of precarity as a perspective in the field of literary studies in order to analyse how insecurity is portrayed in literature. Sweden has a great tradition of proletarian literature, but researchers in the neoliberal era find it problematic to understand the emancipating aspects of the new proletarian literature that does not focus on collective movement and articulated emancipation. This thesis explores the possibilities of precarity as a perspective for analysing how literature narrated through an individual and passive perspective can work as a social critique. The analysis focuses on the novels Kärlekens Antarktis [The Antarctica of Love] by Sara Stridsberg and De afghanska sönerna [The Afghan Sons] by Elin Persson and tries to answer questions about how these novels portray precarity and how the perspective of precarity enables an understanding of how the novels work as social criticism. The thesis mostly uses theories by Judith Butler and Isabell Lorey, and the analysis uses a comparative method in combination with a reading that focuses on the thematics of precarity. This is disposed in connection to Lorey’s three dimensions of precarity – precariousness, precarity, and governmental precarization. The analysis results in an understanding of how these kinds of novels can capture the biopolitical perspective, where politics and life emerge. The reading’s focus on the aspect of the body, followed by the hierarchical and societal aspects, shows how the novels’ individual perspectives can have collective tendencies in connection to the reader’s ability to feel solidarity with the characters.

In this essay I study how humans and nature are portrayed in three Swedish picture books: Sprätten satt på toaletten(1970) by Annika Elmqvist, En blommas liv (2008) by Stefan Casta and Sara Lundberg and Naturen (2020) by Emma Adbåge. This is done based on the concept of ecomimesis from Timothy Morton's Ecology without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics (2007) and other ecocritical terms such as: anthropocentrism, anthropomorphism and nature. In order to analyse the picture books I also use relevant ideas from Maria Nikolajeva’s Bilderbokens pusselbitar (2000). In addition to this, I discuss environmental literature for children and examine the didactic and aesthetic properties of the works.  Finally, I conclude that the books portay humans and nature differently but that they all have the message that we should cherish nature. Sprätten satt på toaletten has an anthropocentric worldview with humans shown as both the problem and the solution to the environmental crisis. En blommas liv gives a clear example of ecomimesis and anthropomorphism with its romantic illustrations of a conscious flower. Naturen ridicule antopocentrism and makes an attempt to redefine the concept of nature. All the works have both aesthetic and didactic qualities. They contain thought-provoking illustrations and stories but they also have clear messages. In other words, they are created based on the idea that literature can change the world. I question the phenomenon that adults, which cause the environmental crisis, speak for other peripheral groups. That we think we know what nature is and needs and hand over the responsibilities to the children. / I denna uppsats undersöker jag hur människa och natur gestaltas i tre svenska bilderböcker: Sprätten satt på toaletten (1970) av Annika Elmqvist, En blommas liv (2008) av Stefan Casta och Sara Lundberg samt Naturen (2020) av Emma Adbåge. Detta görs utifrån begreppet ekomimesis från Timothy Mortons Ecology without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics (2007) samt andra ekokritiska termer såsom: antropocentrism, antropomorfism och natur. Till grund för bilderboksanalysen ligger relevanta begrepp från Maria Nikolajevas Bilderbokens pusselbitar (2000). Utöver detta för jag även en diskurs kring miljömedveten litteratur för barn och undersöker de nämnda verkens didaktiska och estetiska egenskaper.   Slutligen kommer jag fram till att verken gestaltar människa och natur på olika sätt men att de alla har budskapet att vi ska värna om naturen. Sprätten satt på toaletten visar en antropocentrisk världsbild med människan som både problemet och lösningen till miljökrisen. En blommas liv ger ett tydligt exempel på ekomimesis och antropomorfism med sina romantiska bilder av en tänkande blomma. Naturen förlöjligar antopocentrismen och gör ett försök till att omdefiniera naturbegreppet. Samtliga verk har både estetiska och didaktiska egenskaper. De innehåller tankeväckande illustrationer och berättelser men har också tydliga budskap. Med andra ord är de skapta utifrån idéen om att litteratur kan förändra världen. Jag ifrågasätter företeelsen att vuxna, som orsakar miljökrisen, för andra perifera gruppers talan. Att vi tror oss veta vad naturen är och behöver och lägger över ansvaret på barnen.

The subject of the thesis is the epistolary novel genre in the works of German and Dutch female writers Sophie von La Roche, Betje Wolff and Aagje Deken. This narrative genre continued the former novelistic tradition and is inseparably connected with epistolary culture, sentimentalism, cult of friendship and the name of the English novelist Samuel Richardson. It attracted readers' attention, especially of female audience in the period of social changes based on ideas of the Enlightenment and its philosophy. In the second half of the 18th century it became the most popular genre. Thanks to its characteristics it became the medium of female opinions' and feelings' presentation in times of the beginning women's emancipation as well as the genre which enabled more women to enter the field of literature. The issue of the thesis is the comparative analysis and interpretation of two most successful novels of the women writers in the bordering countries with cultural influences: the first German professional women writer La Roche and her novel Geschichte des Fräuleins von Sternheim and the Dutch author couple Wolff a Deken and their collective work Historie van mejuffrouw Sara Burgerhart.

När Svenska Akademien år 2016 tilldelade Bob Dylan nobelpriset i litteratur väcktes en enorm debatt i svenska tidningar rörande frågan ifall priset kan tilldelas en musiker och ifall låttexten går att betrakta som litteratur. I denna uppsats undersöks vilka argumenten i debatten var för och emot låttexten som litteratur. Utöver detta analyseras även vilka litteraturideal debattörerna baserade sina argument på. Materialet för studien är artiklar ur svenska tidningar publicerade år 2016-2018 och debatten analyseras med hjälp av den franske sociologen Pierre Bourdieus fältteori för att påvisa hur det litterära fältets aktörer reagerade på Akademiens val av Dylan och en textform utanför det konventionella litteraturbegreppet. Studiens resultat visar att det i debatten förekom åtta argument för eller emot att Bob Dylans låttexter är litteratur. De till priset negativt inställda kritikerna menade att hindren för låttexten att vara litteratur är dess beroende av sin ljudande form, dess stora popularitet och publikframgång, den separata marknaden och de säregna marknadsförutsättningarna för låttexter gentemot den konventionella litteraturen. De positiva kritikerna menade istället att låttexten är litteratur på grund av likheten med antikens och romantikens lyrik och poesi, intertextualiteten och likheten med modernismen, dess estetiska kvalitéer och rim, samt dess emancipatoriska innehåll. Utöver detta påvisar undersökningen att Svenska Akademiens val av Bob Dylan tolkades av tidningarnas kulturskribenter som att institutionen försökte bredda litteraturbegreppet till att även innefatta låttexter.  För att försvara det litterära fältets autonomi användes strategier av de positiva kritikerna som att försöka förknippa Dylan med litterärt kapital och låttexterna med konsekrerade verk ur den västerländska kanon. De negativa kritikerna anklagade Svenska Akademiens val för att vara för kommersiellt samt hänvisade till värnandet om det skrivna ordet och den smala kulturen. Avslutningsvis ges låttexter och det litteratursamhälle som omgärdar dem som förslag på forskningsobjekt för framtida litteratursociologisk forskning.

Sweden has an active and growing culture of feminist comic book artists that use comedy as a mean of disseminating political ideas and critic. In this essay I do a reparative reading of Sara Granér’s comic book All I Want for Christmas is planekonomi in order to find out if it advocates alternative orders and/or ways of expression. By exploring what the comic book does to me as a reader and how, using the term ”skev” – a hybrid of queer that examines normativity not strictly tied to sexuality – and gulesque theory – a mix of feminism, cuteness, the grotesque and riot grrrl –, I show that the comic book, through the use of comedy, works as a trojan My Little Pony, reclaiming the girly franchise, while challenging several so-called dichotomies, such as: femininity/masculinity; youth/adult; high art/kitsch. I conclude that the comic book contain feminist figures of resistance, and that it creates affects and nourishment that can be used as a means to imagine a feminist other.