(in English) The main topic of this thesis is both analysis and interpretation of the relationship between funeral rites, political power and society. Funeral rites are understood as a complex of performative, symbolic social acts, which are themselves comprised of various distinctive phases and signs. The meaning of these acts and signs is important because it can change the features and practice of the collective it is assigned to. The main purpose of this thesis is not only to perform a thick description of different kinds of communist funeral rite in the given time period but to interprate it in the wider social and cultural context as well. The concept of political religion as a heuristic tool was used in the thesis in order to distinguish an ambivalent nature of communist ideology which manifested itself in funeral rites. Funeral rites are analyzed as models for human behavior, which represent key values and norms of communist ideology. At the same time, funeral rites are analyzed as forms of cultural management. That is the reason, why are put under scrutiny not only the rites which are significant for society as a whole but also the funeral rites of individual actors.

Diese Dissertation handelt von Grenz- und Fremdheitskonstruktionen in iranischen Reiseberichten (sowohl Europa- als auch Russlandreiseberichte) des 19. Jahrhunderts. Durch die Untersuchung der zentralen sozialen und kulturellen Strukturen und Prozesse der Grenz- und Fremdheitserzeugung ist in dieser Studie, die iranische Gesellschaft, in den Besonderheiten ihrer eigenen Geschichte, durch ihre äußeren Begegnungen und Interdependenzen geforscht worden. Anhand der theoretischen Fokussierung auf zwei Konzepte, nämlich Fremdheit und kulturelle und soziale Grenze, wurde die Entwicklung der iranischen Gesellschaft in Anbetracht ihrer Beziehung zu den europäischen Ländern im Laufe des 19. Jahrhunderts rekonstruiert. Zwar ist die Arbeit primär eine soziologische Studie, konnte aber den historischen Kontext der Ereignisse und die literarische Beschaffenheit der Reisetexte nicht unbeachtet lassen. / This work is a comprehensive sociological study on travelogues, specifically with focus on the Iran’s 19th century history (Qajar Dynasty). It presents an analysis that sociologically and systematically registers the staging of cultural boundaries and the socio-historical construction of foreignness in the Iranian society, on the basis of selected Persian travel literature. This study has tried to show that cultural and social boundaries are relational and historical constructs which, in case of Iran, are dramatically affected by the encounters of Iranians (statesmen, students, tourists, etc.) with western countries (Western Europe and Russia).

This thesis is a study of how the American author Edith Wharton (1862-1937) in a number of novels and short stories written between 1876 and 1937 depicts cultural encounters between Americans and Europeans, mostly Frenchmen. Chiefly concerned with Fast and Loose, “The Last Asset”, Madame de Treymes, “Les Metteurs en Scène”, The Custom of the Country and The Age of Innocence, each of which articulates ideas relevant to the theme investigated, the thesis also contains a supplementary discussion of The Reef, The Glimpses of the Moon, The Mother’s Recompense and The Buccaneers. Borrowing terms and theoretical perspectives from Pierre Bourdieu and postcolonial literary criticism, particularly Homi Bhabha’s theories about inbetweenness, mimicry and otherness, the study contends through detailed analyses of single works that Wharton’s descriptions of Franco-American encounters are dynamic processes through which the parties involved are made aware of their own and “the other’s” distinguishing qualities and, in some significant cases, reach a heightened state of consciousness resembling Bhabha’s inbetweenness. Wharton’s cultural encounters often involve people with different levels of education and different economic and social positions, which justifies the use of Bourdieu’s method of analyzing the relationship between educational and social status in terms of different kinds of capital. While in her early works Wharton merely intimates the contours of the cultural encounter, in mature works such as Madame de Treymes and The Age of Innocence she views it as a highly complex process the many stages of which are intimated through the use of subtle narratological techniques. Throughout her work Wharton makes intricate use of imagery and keywords, some of them testifying to her interest in anthropology, to suggest the manifold dimensions of the cultural encounter, which is seen as both tempting and repelling. Her accounts of the Franco-American encounter are complexly related to the different phases of the American political and social situation described in her novels. The American experience of the meeting of the ‘old society’ and the ‘new’ is rendered even more complex by being seen as the background against which Europeans and Americans negotiate transactions of symbolic and economic capital. In most of her works these lead to tragic or tragic-comic misunderstandings; only in her last, unfinished novel does she describe a full-fledged Euro-American identity, a successful fusion of American and European experiences. / Den här avhandlingen är en studie i hur den amerikanska författarinnan Edith Wharton (1862-1937) i ett antal romaner och noveller skrivna mellan 1876 and 1937 skildrar kulturella möten mellan amerikaner och européer, främst fransmän. Avhandlingen behandlar huvudsakligen verken Fast and Loose, “The Last Asset”, Madame de Treymes, ”Les Metteurs en Scène”, The Custom of the Country and The Age of Innocence, som alla uttrycker idéer om kulturmöten; den innehåller även en kompletterande diskussion av verken The Reef, The Glimpses of the Moon, The Mother’s Recompense and The Buccaneers. Med termer och perspektiv hämtade från Pierre Bourdieu och postkolonial litteraturforskning, främst Homi Bhabhas teorier om in-betweenness (”mellanskap”), mimicry och otherness hävdar studien genom detaljerade analyser av enskilda verk hur Whartons beskrivningar av fransmäns och amerikaners möten är dynamiska processer där i bästa fall båda parter blir medvetna om sin egen och ”den andres” särart, och i vissa fall även når ett intensifierat medvetande som påminner om Bhabhas in-betweenness. Whartons kulturmöten sker oftast mellan personer med olika bildning samt ekonomisk och social position, vilket gör att Bourdieus perspektiv för analys av relationen mellan utbildning och social status som styrd av olika sorters kapital kommer till användning. I sina tidiga berättelser antyder Wharton konturerna av det kulturella mötet, i mogna verk som Madame de Treymes and The Age of Innocence gestaltar hon det som en mycket komplex process vars många skeden antyds via hennes användning av subtil berättarteknik. Alltigenom sina verk tillämpar Wharton ett komplext bildspråk och nyckelord, varav vissa vittnar om hennes intresse för antropologi, som antyder kulturmötets många dimensioner, framställt som samtidigt lockande och frånstötande/avskräckande. Hennes redogörelser av det fransk-amerikanska mötet är komplext relaterat till de olika faser av den amerikanska politiska och sociala situation som beskrivs i hennes berättelser. Den amerikanska erfarenheten av mötet mellan den ”gamla sociala grupperingen” och den ”nya” skildras som mer komplext genom att ses som den bakgrund mot vilken européerna och amerikanerna förhandlar transaktioner av symboliskt och ekonomiskt kapital. I merparten av hennes verk leder dessa transaktioner till tragiska eller tragikomiska missförstånd; bara i hennes sista, ofullbordade roman beskriver hon en fullt utvecklad euroamerikansk identitet, en lyckad sammansmältning av amerikanska och europeiska erfarenheter.

This thesis challenges core assumptions associated with the peer production of culture using the web-based collaborative film production platform Wreckamovie to understand how peer production works in practice. Active cultural participation is a growing political priority for many governments and cultural bodies, but these priorities are often implemented without a basis in empirical evidence, making it necessary for rigorous scholarship to tackle emerging networked cultural production. Existing work portrays peer production efforts as unrealistically distinct from proprietary, market-based production, incorrectly suggesting that peer production allows distributed, non-monetarily motivated, collaboration between self-selected individuals in hierarchy-free communities. In overcoming these assumptions, this thesis contributes to the development of a consolidated theoretical framework encompassing the complicated and multifaceted nature of networked cultural production. This theoretical framing extends Bourdieu’s theory of cultural production and reconciles it with Becker’s Art Worlds framework, and further embeds and draws on Benkler’s notion of commons-based peer production. Concretely, this research tackles the emergence of new collaborative production models enabled by networked technologies, and theorizes the tensions and challenges characterizing such production forms. Secondly, this thesis redefines cultural participation and considers the divisions of labour in online filmmaking materializing from the interactions between professional and non-professional filmmakers. Finally, this study considers the social economies surrounding networked cultural production, including crowdfunding, and characterizes associated conversions of capital, such as the conversion of symbolic capital into financial capital. Methodologically, this thesis employs an embedded case study strategy. It examines four feature film productions facilitated by the online platform Wreckamovie, as well as the online community within which these productions are embedded. The four production cases have completed all production stages, and have resulted in completed cultural goods during the course of data collection. This study’s findings were derived from two and half years of participant observations, interviews with 29 Wreckamovie community and production members, and the examination of archived production-related discourses (2006-2013). Ultimately, this study makes concrete proposals towards a theory of networked cultural production with clear policy implications.