The aim of this study is to examine ways of writing experiences of the strange and different, experiences of the other in his or her otherness and experiences of suffering. The study focuses possibilities and limits for the writing of these experiences and aims at finding a tangible way of writing literature. Part of the aim of this study is to elaborate a proposal for a way of writing experiences of the strange and different, experiences of the other in his or her otherness and experiences of suffering.     The material for the study consists of three different approaches to literature, in which theories on literature or analyses of literary works are presented. This material is initially analysed in separate analyses in which conceptions, strategies and methods for writing experiences of the strange and different, the other and suffering are identified. Secondly, the material is analysed in a comparative analysis, aimed at finding similarities and differences between the approaches but above all to let the approaches supplement and challenge each other. The second part of the study consists of the elaboration of a proposal for a way of writing based on the result of the first analyses.    The result of the study is a way of writing in which the limitations and inabilities of literature are used as critical and creative resources. These limitations and inabilities consists of the violence of the literary naming and designation, and the boundaries between identities that render a complete insight in the experiences of someone else impossible. With these limitations and inabilities as a starting point, conceptions, strategies and methods for writing literature are distinguished and developed. A movement between nearness and distance both in content and form is identified as a fruitful way of writing that can mediate experiences and avoid to arrange what is strange and unfamiliar in these experiences into the familiar, as well as and openness for a manifoldness of possibilities. As distinct way of writing is distinguished in the metaphor, a literary device in which the movement between nearness and distance is made concrete. In the elaboration of a proposal for a way of writing these conceptions, strategies and methods provided the framework for a way of writing which doesn’t reduce experiences or close the literary text for a multitude of possibilities.

Background: When a patient suffer from a disease and is in need of palliative care, it is normal to have existential questions and thoughts. For some patients these questions can be painful and the nurse need to have knowledge about dealing with these kind of questions and thoughts to be able to relieve and/or prevent this kind of suffering. Aim: The aim was to describe how the nurse can prevent the existential suffering among patients with palliative care. Method: A literature-based study was based on eight qualitative studies. Results: The results showed that nurses meet patients in the palliative care environment which may suffer from existential problems when their questions and thoughts don´t get answered. It showed that the most important a nurse can do is to give time to these calls and build up a safe relation to the patient. This allows the nurse to read the patients existential questions and observing possibly suffering. The result is organized in two categories "To see and confirm" and " To listen and give support" and see subcategories " Use body language", " Create reliable relationship", respond to the existential questions", "Give the patient time", " take help from others in hard situations" and "to focus on other things" Conclusion: It is easy to only focus on the physical illness while caring for a patient and believe that it is creating suffering. Extensive human suffering is not shown at first sight although it is just as important to relieve.

Endometrios är en kronisk sjukdom som drabbar cirka 10 procent av alla fertila kvinnor. Världen över beräknas 176 miljoner kvinnor vara drabbade av sjukdomen. Endometrios medför ett stort lidande då sjukdomen påverkar det fysiska, psykiska, sociala samt sexuella välbefinnandet. Det krävs god kunskap om hur kvinnorna upplever sitt tillstånd och sin kropp för att sjuksköterskan på bästa sätt ska kunna främja kvinnornas hälsa och ge en god vård. Syftet med studien var att beskriva kvinnors upplevelser av att leva med endometrios. Studien genomfördes som en litteraturstudie och bestod av 12 vetenskapliga artiklar varav åtta kvalitativa och fyra kvantitativa. De vetenskapliga artiklarna var genomförda i England (2), Norge, Nya Zeeland (2), Danmark, Österrike, Australien (3), Iran och USA mellan åren 2004-2014. Resultatet visade att kvinnorna upplevde stora brister i vården vilket medförde ett stort vårdlidande. Sjukdomen påverkade även livssituationen negativt vilket gav upphov till livslidande samt sjukdomslidande. Trots att endometrios är en av de vanligaste sjukdomarna i världen finns det stora kunskapsbrister och oförståelse inom vården och bland allmänheten. En slutsats var att personer som arbetar inom sjukvården bör bli bättre på att uppmärksamma kvinnor med endometrios och tro på deras sjukdomsupplevelser. Det behövs mer kunskap om sjukdomen bland vårdpersonal samt bland allmänhet. Endometrios och sjukdomens konsekvenser bör även uppmärksammas i sjuksköterskeutbildningen. / Endometriosis is a chronic disease affecting approximately 10 percent of all women in their reproductive years. Worldwide are 176 million women estimated to be affected by the disease. Endometriosis causes a tremendous suffering affecting the physical, mental, social and sexual wellbeing of women. Indepth knowledge about how women experience their condition and their bodies is required to provide high quality care and promote wellbeing. The purpose of this study was to describe women’s experiences of living with endometriosis. The research was conducted in a literature review consisting of 12 articles eight of which were qualitative and four quantitative. The scientific articles was completed in England (2), Norway, New Zealand, Denmark, Austria (3), Australia (3), Iran and USA between 2004-2014. The result showed that women experienced tremendous dissatisfaction as regards the care they received resulting in suffering. The disease affected aspects of life negatively which gave rise to life suffering and disease suffering. Although endometriosis is one of the most common diseases in the world, there is a detrimental lack of knowledge and incomprehension among health care professionals and the general public. There is thus a great need for improvements. Health care professionals must develop a better understand of how endometriosis affect women, avoiding a diminishing attitude to personal testimonies of grave suffering. More knowledge about endometriosis among health professionals and among the general public is necessary. There is a need for more education on the subject in the context of nursing studies.

A definitive identification of the Servant figure of Second Isaiah is notoriously difficult, as attested by centuries of conjecture and debate. The interpretive obstacles are profuse: the Servant is addressed as Israel-Jacob, but then spoken of in terms that are not consistent with the nation’s experience; in some texts he seems to represent a community, while in others he speaks as an individual; he seems to suffer extreme hardship and persecution, but then is said to experience new life; some of his experiences appear to be historical, while others are best described as idealistic. Further hampering objective interpretations are the pervasive traditional approaches among Christian and Jewish readers, which associate the Servant, equally emphatically, with Jesus or Israel. But a primary reason the Servant is so difficult to pin down is rarely considered, and that is that there exists no objective image of the Servant anywhere in Second Isaiah. As a literary character he is constituted entirely by dialogue; that is, by discourse addressed to him, spoken by him, and spoken about him by others in the form of a confession. His actions are never described, and his person is never defined. Scholars have referred to this as his “fluid” nature, but have lacked the methodological tools for a fuller study of this literary curiosity. The ideas of literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin speak to this type of characterisation. His “polyphonic hero” is a fictional character who is constituted by what is spoken to him or her, by what they overhear said concerning them, and by how they make that discourse, and the discourse of the wider world, an aspect of their own self-knowledge. They become known only by the discourse that converges on them, much as the Servant of Second Isaiah is constituted. This thesis develops a reading strategy based on Bakhtin’s theory of the polyphonic hero, as well as his broader theories of dialogism. It reimagines the inner discourse of the Servant in order to comprehend him according to the dialogue by which he knows himself, and not according to conventional reading strategies that seek for a fixed, opaque image. In the process it discovers that there are not multiple Servants, which is often posited as a solution to the problem of his fluid nature, but one Servant, Israel-Jacob, whose self-knowledge as the faithful Servant of Yahweh calls empirical Israel to faith in a time of national distress. It concludes that the Servant is present in the collection of Second Isaiah as a “voice-idea”, the embodiment of a theologically critical position that calls many of Israel’s theological and ideological presuppositions into question, in order to liberate her for a renewed history as a faithful “witness” to Yahweh her redeemer.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Melbourne, Dept. of English, 2006. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 323-367).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Regent College, Vancouver, BC, 2007. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [227]-249).

Thesis (doctoral)--Osnabrück, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 509-544) and index.

Thesis (M.A. (Health Social Scinece))--Mahidol University, 2006. / LICL has E-Thesis 0012 ; please contact computer services.

Mémoire (M.Th.)--Université du Québec, 1994. / Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU

Thesis (D. Min.)--Concordia Seminary, 2000. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 131-132).