Applying contemporary ideas regarding the role literature may have had in human evolutionary history to literary analysis, using Herman Melville's Moby Dick as a case study. The paper focuses on the function of male bonding in the text, the ways in which the setting is defined by humanity's evolutionary past, and the artistic function of the hunt, as it is described in the text.

This thesis intends to point out the limits of exclusively formalist literary criticism. To locate these limits with precision the thesis contrasts the formalist criticism of Monroe C. Beardsley with the critical hermeneutics of Paul Ricoeur. The idea for this thesis is based in an experience that strictly rule-governed formalist criticism does not seem to correspond to the fullness of its object,

The problem of representing animals in literature and poetry is a topic that lately has started to receive more attention from theorists and literary scholars. In her poetry book Liknöjd fauna, the swedish poet Aase Berg creates a space for negotiating and deconstructing the borders between human, animal and nature. At the same time, the poems seem to lead a discussion on the very act of represent

Literature and marketing are closely connected. This statement might be considered surprising. This thesis, however, aims to explore this connection by applying an interdisciplinary approach anchored in both marketing and literary theory. The multifaceted nature of the relationship between the fields can be discussed from various angles. The novels Syrup (1999) and Jennifer Government (2003) by Au

In the following thesis Anna Karenina, the novel by Lev Tolstoy and the literary film adaptation by Joe Wright, are discussed. The theatricalization of the upper class society in the novel was developed in the film narrative, and became a key for the analyses. The diegetic discourse of Wright’s new film appeared as an inspiration to re-inverstigate Anna’s character and her microcosm. As a result,

Utifrån Gagnon och Simons teori om sexuella script samt ett intersektionellt perspektiv så analyseras sex och sexualitet i sex romaner inom romantisk fiktion. De är: Kathleen Winsors Forever Amber, Kathleen E. Woodiwiss The Flame and the Flower, Jackie Collins American Star samt E. L. James trilogi Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker och Fifty Shades Freed. Med hjälp av teorin om sexuella scFrom Gagnon and Simon's theories about sexual scripting and through an intersectional perspective sex and sexuality is analysed through six novels within romantic fiction. They are: Kathleen Winsors Forever Amber, Kathleen E. Woodiwiss The Flame and the Flower, Jackie Collins American Star samt E. L. James trilogi Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker och Fifty Shades Freed. Aided by the t

This work studies the role of art in the novel Difficult Light, by the Colombian writer Tomás González, by applying traditional aesthetic concepts from Taoism and Zen Buddhism. To this end, correspondences between Taoist and Zen Buddhist thinking and the author's ideological stance are identified. Also, the interaction of Difficult Light with other texts that make up González's narrative u

In this thesis, Carl Sagan’s television series and book Cosmos is studied. Theories and concepts from literary studies (and related fields) are used to analyze the so-called “cosmic perspective”. The cosmic perspective is shown to be complex, composed of four different but related perspectives: space; time; humanity and cosmic evolution; and history of science and exploration. A number of ambiguit

This thesis takes a look at the origin, development and continuation of Thich Nhat Hanh’s literature (TNH). To do so, I first establish necessary Buddhist concepts and situate them in relation to Western ideas. I take special interest in the role of mindfulness and the Insight of Interbeing. I then explore the role of literature in traditional Buddhism, taking particular interest in the kōan. The

This essay analyses the novel After Dark, written by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. It examines, from a Foucaultian perspective, how the novel presents a modern panoptic society. It is discussed how surveillance and objectification are connected and how they behave within the panoptic structure. Also, it is discussed how certain characters in the novel, both male and female, respond with fear to

In the following Master’s thesis I examine two central concepts in the development of the Latin-American novel of the 20th century: the Marvelous Real (lo real maravilloso) and the American Baroque (lo barroco americano), both developed by the Cuban author Alejo Carpentier (1904-1980). In the study, following some biographical considerations, two original texts by Carpentier are presented; the fir

Africa has suffered two traumatizing events in history that have helped shape the present day individual, be it on the continent or in the diaspora. First there was the transatlantic slave trade that spanned from the 15th century to the late 19th century and saw the inhuman and forceful transportation of Africans to plantations and homes in the Americas. Then came colonialism immediately after sla

Forskningen om Emilie Flygare-Carléns (1807-1892) författarskap har länge framhävt en särskild relation till naturen, men sedan dess inträde i det sena 1900-talets genusvetenskapliga litteraturhistorier har denna relation komplicerats. Den här uppsatsen undersöker därför naturskildringar i författarens roman En natt vid Bullar-sjön (1847) med utgångspunkt i ekokritiska, dekonstruktivistiska perspeStudies of the authorship of Emilie Flygare-Carlén (1807-1892) have previously emphasised a distinct way of relating to nature in her writing, but the strengthened position of gender studies in examinations of literary history has complicated this relationship. For this reason, this essay analyses portrayals of nature in the author’s novel En natt vid Bullar-sjön (1847), from ecocritical, deconstr

Uppsatsen undersöker hur berättarjagets maskulinitet fungerar i fiktion av Aurora Ljungstedt, genom att analysera berättelserna ”Nattlogi för ungkarlar” och ”Var det hon?” ur Dagdrifverier och drömmerier (1857), samt ”En gubbes minnen” och ”Harolds skugga” ur En jägares historier (1860-61). Undersökningen utgår från de intersektionella perspektiv på genusperformativitet och hegemonisk maskulinitetThe thesis examines how the masculinity of the narrator functions in fiction by Aurora Ljungstedt, by analysing the stories ”Nattlogi för ungkarlar” and ”Var det hon?” from Dagdrifverier och drömmerier (1857), as well as ”En gubbes minnen” and ”Harolds skugga” from En jägares historier (1860-61). The analysis uses the intersectional perspectives on gender performativity and hegemonic masculinity a

Jane Austen’s juvenilia, though their originality and sophisticated irony make them fascinating objects of study, have seldom been allowed to be the focus of critical attention. One of the main concerns of Austen’s early works is to deconstruct the workings of narration, but a narratological perspective has never before been applied to them in order to shed light upon their irony. This study inves

Both Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness and Francis Ford Coppola's film Apocalypse Now are regarded as outstanding works in their respective field of art. Their reputation rests partly on their artistic value and partly on their preoccupation with topics which were highly relevant at the time of their publication/release. They are for the most part regarded as independent works of a

Uppsatsen undersöker hur graviditet gestaltas i samtida svensk prosa, genom närstudie av romanerna Hysteros (2013) av Helena Granström, Förvandling (2005) av Eva Adolfsson och Värddjuret (1995) av Marie Hermanson. Aspekter av graviditetstematiken som ägnas särskilt fokus är kroppslighet, främmandeskap, bruk och underminerande av traditionellt könade dikotomier, subjektivitetsproblematik och identiThis thesis investigates how pregnancy is mediated in contemporary swedish prose, through a close reading of the novels Hysteros (2013) by Helena Granström, Förvandling (2005) by Eva Adolfsson and Värddjuret (1995) by Marie Hermanson. Aspects of the theme of pregnancy that are especially emphasized are corporeality, alienation, the use and deconstruction of traditionally gendered dichotomies, prob

In the last few decades, dissatisfaction with the prevailing critical paradigm ¬– what Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick as early as 1997 dubbed “paranoid” or “suspicious” reading – has grown significantly. This thesis is a survey of three recent works, The Albertine Workout (2014), Unfinished Business: Notes of A Chronic Re-Reader (2020), and A Ghost in the Throat (2020), that emerge from this discontent. Pa

This paper is an analytical study of the Indian cultural elements in Ginsberg’s life and work, focusing on Indian Journals: March 1962 - May 1963. The aim is twofold: firstly the study explores close-readings of poetry and prose from Indian Journals. The study also focuses on his poetic aesthetics and specific themes in Indian Journals and relates them to incidents of his personal life in a larger

Eternity and time are central concepts within the Prophetic Works. In the Prophetic universe, eternity is defined as a positive state of infinite potentiality, whereas time is depicted as a state founded on the exclusion of possibilities; hence, the existence of the human mind in time rather than in eternity severely limits the sum of his existence. Viewed as a whole, the Prophetic cycle can be se