This essay examines the importance of decadence in the generational novel Gentlemen (1980) by Klas Östergren. The aim is partly to draw attention to a neglected authorship, partly to apply a theory that can illuminate Gentlemen. That is why I ask how decadence is reflected in the novel's main characters, community atmosphere and form.

My definition of decadence is based on Paul Bourget's Theorie de la decadence (1883), in which he portrays society, individuals and the language's decline. With these thoughts in mind, I assume a broad definition of decadence that focuses on man's ambivalence towards life in a world that is fallen in sense of values. The theory of decadence is thus the starting point of this analysis through close reading, where I discern prominent aspects of decadence.

Especially significant is the so-called Makten (The Force), and its claims for loyalty, as a cause of apocalyptic atmosphere. In order to deal with this dark, contemporary period, art becomes a refuge in similar ways as the artificial paradises of the Decadent era. Henry, like a dandy turns himself and his comforting everyday rituals into art; Leo, faithful to his disloyalty, tries to uncover the truth about the lies of Makten in his poetry; and Klas the narrator tells the truth about Henry and Leo by writing Gentlemen. By a homodiegetic narrator the characters are dissolved into their actions and the plot into details. Thus, both the book's aesthetics and themes can be traced to decadence.

The text analyzes and compares the presence of the Anthropocene discourse in picture books from the northern hemisphere, both published in 2007, I skogen (In the wood) by Swedish author Eva Lindström and Winston of Churchill: One Bear’s Battle Against Global Warming by Canadian Jean Davis Okimoto. The books depict the tripartite relation between man-animal-nature as interdependent, but differently. While the Canadian book has an overt mission to enlighten the public about the effects of climate change for the artic region, in the Swedish book there is no overt message, but can be spotted and understood from an ecocritical perspective.

According to Anthropocene discourse nature is no longer a passive and static context for human actions (Crutzen 2000) and human control is an illusion (Carson 2002) [1962]. With Darwin man is defined as one species among many and after the rise of Ecology man is regarded as a species subsumed into an ecosystem. Ecologist Tormod Valaand Burkey advocates therefore for a new ethics where economy and man´s practices and values must adapt to a larger ecological context (2013).

The picture book analysis focuses on the combined pictorial and verbal narrative depiction of climate change and its threat to biodiversity. The focus is on how the representation of man as a species is depicted as well as its relation to other species of fauna and flora. The analysis will concentrate on attitudes, actions and ethical values expressed by protagonists when dealing with climate change in relation to an ecological ethics where human rights are closely knit with animal rights and biodiversity.  

Nesser’s most popular crime novel Kim Novak and its pendant Piccadilly, set in the 1960’s in Midsweden, share time, location, and the adolescence’s search for identity. In that quest the merging popular culture plays an important role. (Grossberg 1997) Nesser catches the characteristics of the time; Erik, 14 years, reads and writes comics; Mauritz, 17 years, listens to the latest pop music and constantly adds to his album collection. He also writes poetry and reads classics while listening to his rock music. The preferences of music, film and literature as well as the media practices by the protagonists convey authenticity to the setting but also serve as a narrative device to characterize the protagonists. The paper illustrates how the references to popular culture are used to depict the complexity and the dynamics of the main characters’ development.

Konstetablissemanget speglar en patriarkal värld i vilken olika spelregler gäller för kvinnor och män. Detta förhållande påkallar en undersökning för hur förutsättningarna ter sig för manligt och kvinnligt konstnärskap i bilderböcker i barnlitteraturen. Den västerländska bilderboken är ett lämpligt undersökningsobjekt eftersom den sedan modernismen har varit en konstform som uttrycker, speglar och experimenterar med bildkonst och konstnärskap. (Beckett 2012, Druker 2008). Beckett undersöker i sin översikt av crossover-bilderböcker en del av detta fenomen, nämligen bilderböcker som alluderar till bildkonst. I hennes redogörelse framkommer det att anmärkningsvärt få böcker handlar om kvinnliga konstnärer, liksom om konst skapad av kvinnor, Frida Kahlo undantagen. Om Becketts översikt är representativ bekräftar den att framställningar av kvinnligt konstnärskapande är försummat i bilderböcker. 

Syftet med mitt paper är sålunda att studera hur bildkonstnärer och konstnärlig aktivitet representeras på den svenska bilderboksmarknaden med hänsyn till genus. Till min hjälp har jag genusstudier utförda på barnlitteratur (Andrae 2001, Söderberg et al. 2013) och på bilderböcker (Österlund 2009). Min metod är att jämföra framställningar av kvinnliga och manliga konstnärliga aktiviteter ur ett genusperspektiv. Min analys kommer också att inkludera en inledande kvantitativ undersökning av bilderböcker som behandlar konstnärer och konstnärlig kreativitet på marknaden. Hur många är de? Hur många representerar kvinnors konstskapande? Min avsikt är att kvantifiera antalet böcker som behandlar kvinnliga konstnärer i förhållande till manliga, liksom att skissera typiska karakteristiska i dessa bilderböcker för konstnärskap och konstnärlighet med hänsyn till genusmönster.

Föredraget kommer att ge exempel på representationer av konstnärskap i vilken också paratexter (biografier och marknadsföring) har undersökts. Den preliminära studien är ur ett genusperspektiv betraktad en besvikelse (2014). Det finns inte en enda bilderbok som endast ägnar sig åt en svensk kvinnlig konstnär. I de fall de förekommer är de i egenskap av hustru, till exempel Karin Larsson i böcker om maken Carl.

Eftersom den kvinnliga konstnären är marginaliserad är nästa steg att finna ut om och hur kvinnligt konstnärskap kan definieras i andra termer än manligt? I så fall, hur ser villkoren ut? Eftersom materialet är så tunt med historiska karaktärer kommer jag att inkludera bilderböcker som porträtterar fiktiva karaktärers kreativa aktiviteter, till exempel Lundbergs Vita Streck, Wirséns Nallen och Höglunds Mina, vilka kan betecknas som konstnärliga, om än inte utifrån ett konventionellt synsätt. 

The aim of this paper is to investigate transmediations of the Anthropocene discourse into two picture books from the northern hemisphere, both published in 2007, I skogen (In the wood) by Eva Lindström and Winston of Churchill: One Bear’s Battle Against Global Warming by Jean Davis Okimoto.  The analysis is focused on how the combined pictorial and verbal narrative transmediate scientific media of climate change and its threat to biodiversity. The focus is on how the representation of man as a species is transmediated as well as its relation to other species of fauna and flora. In the Anthropocene discourse nature is no longer a passive and static context for human actions. (Crutzen 2002).  Rachel Carson was among the first to state that the human control of nature is an illusion born in an age “when it was supposed that nature exists for the convenience of man”. (2002)[1962]. Since Darwin man is defined as one species among many and since the rise of Ecology man is defined as a species subsumed into an ecosystem. Ecologist Tormod Valaand Burkey sketches an ethics where economy and man´s practices and values must adapt to a larger ecological context (2013). In this paper I will direct my attention to how man is depicted in relation to other species of fauna and flora from an ecological perspective. The analysis will concentrate on attitudes, actions and ethical values shown by protagonists when dealing with climate change in relation to an Anthropocene ethics where human rights are closely knit with animal rights and biodiversity. 

Since modernism picturebook typography and its visual display in cooperation with the image have been used to produce iconotext (Druker 2008; Beckett 2012). Typographical arrangement can for example create the illusion of movement, time and space and sonorous effects (Druker 2008). It can also imitate a still image as is the case in artists’ books (Beckett 2012). The use of picturebook typography has parallels to visual poetry (Druker 2008). The connection Druker detects between visual poetry and picturebook text has, however, major focus on the influences on the plot, character and setting, and less on the influences from the poetry-genre.

During the last decades picturebooks with traits that correspond to those defining the genre of poetry have emerged. (Rhedin 2004). The poetical picturebook is characterized by Rhedin as depicting rather than narrating, but her focus is mainly on the picturebook illustration, not on the poetical traits of the text.

The aim of this paper is therefore to explore the influence of poetry in the text of poetical picturebooks and contribute with knowledge about how the use of visual devices in cooperation with the picturebook image creates a poetic iconotext. What influences from poetry in the picturebook text, and particularly from visual poetry, can be found in the material?

This study will be carried out by combining findings by Druker and Beckett with Rhedin’s about the poetical traits in picturebooks, but also by adding theories/findings concerning visual aspects of poetry (Olsson 2007; Elleström 2011) and poetry combined with images (Almgren White 2011). Elleström develops a typology for visual iconicity of poetry and distinguishes between visual and auditive material signs, that also will be tested.

The expected result is to show examples of how the figurative language of poetry about instant moments, atmospheres, emotions and mental states contributes visually to create a poetic iconotext.

In our presentation we analyse how the chapter book Seacrow Island (1964 in Swedish), the original television series of the same name and the subsequent films have been reimagined as two new picturebooks illustrated by Maria Nilsson Thore (2019, 2020). We will discuss the artistic/didactic/considerations given to at once remaining respectful to the source material and to making the story an understandable and enjoyable experience for a new generation of readers.

Astrid Lindgren’s works belong to Sweden’s cultural heritage and many of her books have been translated into multiple languages and are read around the world. It is interesting to ponder which of Lindgren’s books will live on as classics and what adaptations are required in terms of their content, language, style and form for this to happen. Here, it is also appropriate to consider what Göte Klingberg called medium-choosing adaptations, in order to give due consideration to how a story can maintain the reader’s interest in a new millennium (Klingberg 1972: 95). Likewise, to observe the artistic deliberations involved in the illustrator’s visualisations (Nikolajeva & Scott 2001: 41-60). In the context of children’s literature, classics are often adapted works that are more or less reworked versions of the source material, whether originally intended for children or adults. Many of the works we now call classics would not have survived without this reworking (Ehriander 2015: 26-27). It is also striking that the story of Seacrow Island, the archipelago and the people who live there, is now being reworked for a younger readership in much the same way as many of Lindgren’s other works, in keeping with the changing times and changes in reading habits over the half century since the first generation of children encountered the fictional world of Seacrow Island (Almgren White & Ehriander 2020).

Selected Bibliography

Astrid Lindgrens bildvärldar (ed.) Helene Ehriander & Anette Almgren White, Göteborg: Makadam 2019.

“Ett litet djur åt Pelle” – en bilderboks relationer till Vi på Saltkråkan. Anette Almgren White & Helene Ehriander, HumaNetten, 2020, p. 231-255.

“Pictures of Alma in Katthult: Emil’s Mother the Writer in an Intermedial Light”, LP Publishing Contemporary Literary Criticism series: Astrid Lindgren, to be published 2021.

The aim of this essay is to highlight tendencies of postmodernism in Harry Martinson’s Aniara (1956), a work that has traditionally been placed in a modernist context. The analysis centers around two aspects in the text with the aim of finding traces of a postmodern world view.

First the “mima”, an enigmatic machine that consoles the passengers in the first six years of the journey, is reasoned to be a mass cultural phenomenon rather than an elitist poetic device, as pre­vious studies have suggested. The cultural production of the machine is then analyzed in the light of the theories of hyper reality and simulacrum, as conceived by Jean Baudrillard. The analysis renders two possible implications, one where the machine can be viewed as a precursor to a post­modern positive attitude of mass culture, and one more modernistic where the machine in its role as mass culture numbs the passengers and prevents them from acting on their situation in time.

The second part of the analysis focuses on the view of metanarratives, as expressed within the fiction and in the wok as a whole. Jean-François Lyotard and his explanation of postmodernism’s incredulity towards metanarratives is used as a theoretical standpoint. The analysis shows that metanarratives are considered impossible within the fiction of Aniara as during the course of the journey, they are replaced with more local methods of creating meaning. On the whole, the book could be seen to replace the metanarrative of human progress by one telling of the inadequacy and inert destructibility of humanity. However, the analysis shows that metanarratives are rejected all together. The construction of a new metanarrative is made impossible by (1) the fictitious accounts clearly being a local event, (2) the text openly stating the impossibility of deeper interpretation and finally (3) the work employing a narrator too unreliable to be able to convey the unarguable truths necessary to create a new metanarrative.

The aim of this essay is to explore the using of history in post-apocalyptic fiction. This is accom-plished by reading and analyzing Dimitrii Glukhovskii’s Metro 2033. The theoretical basis for the reading is the dialogicity of Espmark and Aronsson’s theory of using of history. It posits that the production of meaning through history is made from narratives of different lengths and shape, such as metaphors, metonymies and symbols.

The chronotope of Bakhtin is also applied, but with Aronssons focus on its spatial component. A suggestion is made to apply it in a way that shows how the fiction can refer to, or create, an ab-stract spatial location, rather than a physical, and thereby evoking the feelings and worldviews intimately associated with the location and its time. In the reading of the text this is shown by ar-guing that Glukhovskii recreates the cold war as an abstract chronotope to legitimize his nuclear apocalypse scenario.

The essay presents suggestions for definitions of the historical levels in the genre. These are la-beled accepted history of the present, fictive rewriting of the same, and lastly pre- or post-apoca-lyptic speculative history, depending on whether the temporal interest lies prior to or after the im-agined apocalypse. The essay exemplifies a number of ways in which the text uses history, one of which is to use the speculative history to comment on the accepted history of the present. The essay also shows that the intent of the text, the plea to humanity to stop the process of othering, is enhanced by the use of history since the historical perspective offers a retrospective continuity that strengthens the future vision.

This is a study on the literature selection that Swedish upper secondary school teachers use when teaching Swedish, and the underlying motives and factors contributing to the selection of certain literature. Two questions form the basis for the study:Is there an implicit canon in the teaching of Swedish in upper secondary school, and if so what literature does it consist of? Against what background and knowledge do teachers select the literature they use in their teaching? To answer the two questions, a qualitative questionnaire study answered by 14 upper secondary school teachers of Swedish has been performed. The results show that the selections of litera- ture teachers make have connections to a literary canon. The similarities are greater between the authors teachers use than between the works they use by these same authors. The literature that is taught in school can be said to reflect a male, white and western perspective.The most common reason why a certain work has been selected is that the work is part of the cultural history and heritage and also part of the basic general knowledge. When teachers make their selection they are affected by things in their near surroundings like colleagues, the book selection of the school, students, curricula and to a lesser extent their own interests. A literary canon, textbooks and education have had a great impact historically on the literature taught in school, but nowadays teachers believe themselves less influenced by these things.

In this essay i examine the adaption process of the book Robinson Crusoe (1719) and the movie Robinson Crusoe from 1997. From my findings i will discuss the didactic potential of working with classic literature in a widened textual sense. I aim to answer the following questions:

1. What could be found in the adaption process between text and movie?

2. How can film be used as didactical tool in teaching classical literature in upper secondary school?

The methods i have used in this essay are narrative method which means that you study the story as a whole and it´s parts. In specific I have studied the plot, use of time and the characters. I have found that the characters have been modernized in order to fit in a changed society. Which is also shown is the polarization of the characters´ religion. A women is added to the story which change the cultural context in comparison to the original story. I found several potential didactic dimensions; for example the use of a female character in the movie which can engage a larger audience, different living conditions and the questions of different religions.

In this essay, the concept of gender equality is explored in terms of progressive heroines in neo-Victorian literature. In order to elucidate in what way a progression has been made, the comparative analysis is predicated upon second wave feminism. A description of the Victorian heroine is made in order to decide if the neo-Victorian heroine has progressed in relation to gender equality. Jane Eyre is explored extensively in order to expand on how a strong heroine can be defined.

Elizabeth Steele will represent the neo-Victorian heroine from the novel Blood in the Skies (2011). Her characteristics are defined as being more in likeness with male features, and this would imply that neo-Victorian authors aim at reinventing the Victorian literature in order to adhere to the second wave feminist equality and ”sameness” ideal. The Steampunk/neo-Victorian work Blood in the Skies features a heroine who is portrayed as a strong and independent woman corresponding to the feminist definition of progression in terms of gender equality, in contrast to the typical female protagonist found in Victorian fiction.

The results show that Elizabeth can be defined as a strong and independent woman, which corresponds with the feminist definition of gender equality. Heroines in neo- Victorian literature seem to have the same opportunities as men have, and this is shown by the freedom of choice exerted by Elizabeth in the novel.

Is it possible, and suitable, to use multimedia in classic literature studies at Swedish upper secondary school? What alternatives are there?  Is there any foundation in the curriculum for an expanded conception of text as in multimedia?  Will the conception literacy support use of multimedia in classic literature studies, and in what ways? How do we generally look upon the definition text, is it only printed letters, or something more? To get an answer to the questions we decided to examine a number of theories, Gardner’s theory about the different intelligences, the conception literacy and the expanded text concept. In these three theories we took our starting-point for the following work. The main subjects became two interactive sights on Internet and one CD-ROM, all containing classic literature. Our previous knowledge in this subject field was very meager.  This work has given us an opportunity to discover some of the multimedia that is available, and the result we have come to is that multimedia absolutely belongs in studies of classic literature as well as in other subjects. We think it is necessary to pay attention to multimedia in the future education, because of the text flow in the society. Text flow is much more than just printed letters, for example web sites with further more experiences such as pictures/paintings and music, which makes a comprehensive picture. As we see it, this conclusion has support in the theories.

The function of reading fictional texts in Swedish secondary school education has been questioned in public debate (e.g. Melin, 2016-07-17), even though the reading of fictional texts has been shown to be important to young people’s academic achievement (Jerrim & Moss, 2019). Swedish policy documents clearly state that upper secondary teaching of literature in the subject of Swedish is aimed at increasing the pupils’ self-awareness and their comprehension of experiences and perceptions of others (The Swedish National Agency of Education, 2011). However, results from a large-scale reading project show that Swedish teenagers find it difficult to reflect upon their own roles as readers of fictional texts (Nordberg, 2018). Therefore, this licentiate thesis targets upper secondary reading of fictional texts, and the possibility of using literary terminology pedagogically to visualize and develop pupils’ transformative learning processes. The overall research question posed is:

- How can applied literary terminology be used in upper secondary literary studies todevelop pupils’ transformative learning processes?

A pilot study was conducted based on three focus group-sessions with teachers and the librarian at an upper secondary school. The main study was based on reading journals written by pupils reading John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novel Låt den rätte komma in (2004) [Let the Right One In, 2008] as part of the Swedish 3 course. The methodological framework is inspired by participatory research. Consequently, this research-project uses an inclusive approach to the participants – 11 Swedish teachers, 1 librarian and 31 pupils – which means that they are considered as subjects rather than objects of knowledge. My own role in this project is tripartite: as a colleague, a teacher, and researcher. The pilot study was conducted in order to find out which possibilities and obstacles arose when the staff participants worked on teaching literature. The main study, within which the pupils are included as participants, focuses on advancing meta-perspectives of their own reading and made use of results from the pilot study and concepts derived from Felski’s (2008) ‘modes of textual engagement’.

The pilot study revealed tensions which obstruct the teaching of literature, including the teacher-experienced importance of pupils ‘stepping into’ stories, as opposed to a great many pupils’ reluctance both towards the text and the act of reading. Moreover, the tension between engaged reading and the heavy emphasis placed on assessable outcomes of teaching and learning was addressed by the teachers. The main study revealed that reluctance is an inherent part of reading fictional texts. Further, that the pedagogical application of concepts used in literary studies can support the reading process, make it move forward, encourage the adoption of meta-perspectives on reading and on the pupils themselves as readers, as well as supporting a cohesive view of the finalized text.

In summary, the findings suggest that applying literary concepts in literary studies supports pupils towards advancing their transformative learning and potentially points to a new way of making the goals section of the policy documents tangible for teaching and learning practices. According to this study, transformative learning-goals can be achieved if critical perspectives are preceded by individual engagement with the reading of the text. The suggested concept of transformative potential is beneficial to an analysis of the pedagogical function of a certain fictional text used in a certain learning situation geared towards transformative learning. This finding stands in contrast to trends of using reading as a means of writing practice or imaging historical epochs.

With this essay we would like to examine to what extent the ancient Icelandic literature could count as a part of Sweden’s literal cultural heritage in schools today, if it through seeking information is possible to say whether this literature have any connections to Sweden. Our questions of issue are:

1. What kind of connection is there between ancient Icelandic literature and Swedish literary cultural heritage and what are the ancient Icelandic literature premises’ in the Swedish upper secondary school?

2. In what extent is the ancient Icelandic literature used within the Swedish subject’s in the upper secondary schools social science program and how do the teachers motivate their use? 

To answer question of issue 1 will the ancient Icelandic literature role as Swedish literary cultural heritage be examined based on what texts researchers and experts regards to be representative, also the connection between the ancient Icelandic literature and Sweden the experts claim. To answer question of issue 2 we have used questionnaires with quantitative and qualitative elements. The questionnaires have been sent out to 21 upper secondary schools in Sweden and the respondents are teachers working within the social science program. The result of the questionnaires show that the teachers who have answered believe that it is important to consider the ancient Icelandic literature in school, that it belongs to the Swedish literary cultural heritage, although many of the teachers claim to work only short periods with the subject and do not look into it deeper. The results also show that the literature has an obvious but still small place in textbooks and that this literature, to a great deal, portray even Swedish mythology and culture: the ancient Icelandic literature is the oldest preserved source we have to our own culture.

Ola Larsmo’s fictional Swede Hollow (2016) maps a time of Swedish late 19th century and early 20th century immigration into the United States. Extensively researched and based on authentic, contemporary sources, he highlights their toil and hardships in the new country, but he also shows their paths to becoming established U.S. citizens. With this as a backdrop, my aim for this paper is to draw parallels to more current literary images of immigration into Sweden as shown in Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s One Eye Red (2003) and Golnaz Hashemzadeh’s She Is Not Me (2015), particularly with regard to agency, the acceptance or resistance to adaptation to the majority culture and the negotiation of power.

My study is a literary analysis of the three novels. The two latter are written by authors who themselves are well acquainted with contemporary migration and integration issues and processes in Sweden. Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s mother is Swedish and his father is Tunisian and in his novel he portrays immigrant life in a Swedish multi-ethnic suburb of Stockholm with a 15-year-old boy as its main character. Golnaz Hashemzadeh and her family’s country of origin is Iran and she arrived in Sweden at the age of three. Her semi-autobiographical novel She Is Not Me portrays her own journey growing up in Swedish almost exclusively white and middle-class Gustavsberg, a small city with roughly 40.000 inhabitants situated south of Stockholm, and her ambition as she was accepted at the most prestigious universities in Sweden as well as in the U.S. but also the costs for her personally.

The use of Gilles Deleuze’s and Felìx Guattari’s concept of smooth and striated space will help me map the structures and shifts in power, agency and societal hierarchies. My paper addresses the costs as well as the benefits of  migration and adapting to the majority culture in fín de siècle United States and contemporary Sweden respectively, how the characters (attempts to) build a bridge between the old culture and the new and how they carve out new identities and create possibilities for themselves while navigating more or less visible new structures and social hierarchies.

French literature has an established position on the global book market and has proven to provide consistent cultural value to peripheral regions. Within this vast body of texts, literature written in French by authors born outside of France is increasing and claiming a space in global literary circulation. How can unequal conditions of circulation be investigated? How can we understand why some books remain invisible while others cross borders, get translated and receive media attention and reader acclaim in peripheral regions in non-francophone countries?

By examining how francophone literature by authors born outside of France is transferred to Sweden, Le transfert des littératures francophones en(tre) périphérie – Pratiques de sélection, de médiation et de lecture, explores contemporary practices that are at play in translation, mediation, and readings of francophone literature. It also examines how interactions between different peripheral regions affect global circulation of francophone literature. The inquiry includes identifications of specific authors that either are more prevalent or more invisible than others and why. The analyzes display the role and function of the editorial landscape, including translation and media reception, in determining the dissemination and impact of certain books over others.

The book is intended for students and scholars with an interest in theories and methodological applications concerning the dynamics between central and peripheral spheres, and particularly the emerging issues related to transfers between peripheries, such as North Africa and Sweden.

Sammanfattning

Undersökningen är gjord och skriven i en medelstor sydsvensk stad. Det övergripande syftet med studien är att undersöka vad det har för värde att förmedla det svenska litterära kulturarvet i vårt flerkulturella samhälle. Det underordnade syftet är att undersöka om svensklärare överhuvudtaget funderar kring vikten av att synliggöra den svenska kulturen i svenskämnet. Med denna studie vill jag uppnå förståelse och kunskap om hur jag som blivande svensklärare med hjälp av den svenska litteraturen faktiskt kan stärka eleverna i deras övergripande kulturella identitet, den svenska. Frågeställningen är: Vad anser svensklärare att det svenska litterära kulturarvet betyder för att stärka den kulturella identiteten?

Studien är baserad på nio kvalitativa intervjuer. Lärarna är utbildade gymnasielärare i ämnet Svenska och arbetar på program med olika inriktningar. Den metod som har använts är den kvalitativa semi-strukturerade intervjun med öppna väl genomtänkta frågor.

Resultatet av intervjuerna är att förutom att stärka våra elever i sin egen kulturella identitet är det viktigt att skapa gemensamma referensramar, en övergripande kulturell identitet, som ger alla oavsett bakgrund samma möjligheter att fungera i Sverige. Att läsa svensk litteratur som ger en historisk bild av Sverige och ha ett rikt språk är en del av det som krävs för att göra det möjligt att leva sida vid sida och verka i samma land. Studien visar också att det inte fungerar längre att koppla ihop etnicitet med kultur i dagens flerkulturella samhälle, utan att kultur idag är ett flytande begrepp.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how Elin Wägner depicts the middle-aged woman who lives in the country in Sweden, in the 1920’s. The question at issue is: What problems and what subjects for rejoicing does she raise? My aim is to try to understand the women’s situation, as well as how Elin Wägner describes the situation in her four novels from the 1920’s: Den namnlösa (1922), Silverforsen (1924), Natten till söndag (1926) och Svalorna flyga högt (1929). At the same time I intend to compare the woman of the 1920’s to the situation of women today.

I am writing from a feministic literary theory called “omläsning” according to the description of Gunilla Domellöf. In other words, a re-reading of the text with new eyes, in order to let the view of the woman become more visible. The method I have used is Hans Robert Jauss’ “Rezeptionsästhetik”.

I came to the conclusion that the novels describe the reality in a plain way, possibly somewhat coloured by Elin Wägner’s feministic starting point. She is commited to the public debate on problems of modern society as well as very familiar with the woman question. Her main themes are love, marriage, divorce and self-realization.

Keywords: Elin Wägner, woman, the 1920’s, the church, love, marriage, divorce, feminism

Reflecting on the political nature of literature and its relation to modern democracy, the essay begins by problematizing any notion of commitment in literature. However, irresponsibility found in literature, far from undermining the political process, is what animates the political field seen as an endless contestability of our social practice. The way our notion of modern democracy informs our understanding of literary practice is explored through a selection of Derrida’s writings where democracy emerges as the possibility of imagining alternatives to the world and “of thinking life otherwise,” as Derrida (2004) says, which is to say that democracy cannot be thought without the possibility of literature. Democracy implies not political stability but a continuous call for unrest that prevents its atrophy, and literature, in its unconditional right to call everything to account, is its rearguard work as it were, keeping democracy forever open, for better or for worse.

The incursion of style upon our ability to read, indeed of stylus, of a pointed object that “might be used in a vicious attack against what philosophy appeals to in the name of matter,” as Derrida writes in Spurs, will here take the form of specific tropological concerns that will be given in terms of Paul de Man’s understanding of allegory and reading. Style, inescapably tied to rhetoric and figurativity as a mode of expression, would be a syncope of cognition present in every text. A disruptive possibility of the text that outmatches its potential to be read. Style, seen in these terms, is a certain excess/lack of text that opens to a jouissance of reading, the pain of having read always too much or too little, of always having read otherwise. What the rhetorical structure of reading points to, as we shall see in de Man’s reading of Proust, is the radical impossibility of its closure.

The humanity of man, Levinas argues in Humanism of the Other, is not defined by rationality or subjectivism of freedom, it is found instead in absolute humility and subjection of my freedom to the vulnerability of others. Indeed, for Levinas, the subject itself is constituted as singular or unique by an assignation of responsibility it cannot escape. The fact that no one can respond to the distress of others in my stead is what so imperially consigns me to my idenitity.

The critique of humanism that is implicit in Levinas does not testify so much to its failure as to the hypocrisy of the humanist projects based on reason, integrity, autonomy and the dignity of the subject, its naive rights of freedom and self-assertion often appropriated by the discourses of exploitation and used as a shameless pretext for virile imperialism and colonial aggression. Instead, for Levians, humanism has not risen to the true height of its ideals, of what it means to be human. It is the status and the menaing of this ideal that this paper will question. For to be human is to be called to goodness such that the other counts more than myself. Freedom of the subject, ‘is not the source of all right and meaning,’ as Levians writes in Ethics and Infinity. It is rather the possibility of self-sacrifice and being for the other. Being called to goodness is being sobered up to a responsibility that for Levians is manifested as the-one-for-the-other, even as ‘substitution unto death.’ To be human is to call into question the prejudice of my freedom and my self-righteousness. It is to discover onself in passivity. The other person’s vulnerability, his mortality, comes as the effraction of my being, of my rights, and exposes the injustice of my selfish will. True humanness seems, in fact, to demand more than my capacity. I am thus never responsible enough, I am never human enough. The presence of the other person, the unabated pathos of his need and vulnerability, revelas me to my own shame, to a kind of self-effacement and absolute discretion of my own presence. There is a supplication to a freedom that precedes mine and to respond to it is to be human.

This paper will point towards a certain insufficiency of humanism and the inheritance of its concept in the context of Levinas’s writing as an expression a post-Enlightenment critique both of the notions of freedom and autonomy that are put in question in the responsibility for the other but also in terms of its pre-critical naivité about ‘the human nature’ and the metaphysics of the unified subject. Self-relation is broken in Levinas by infinite incumbent responsibilities that devolve on the subject like an insolvent debt one can never settle in good conscience. The self with all its resources is in a permanent deficit.

Biografi över Lovecraft och tolkningar av hans estetik och verk

Recension av Daniel Ekeroths bok Swedish Death Metal (Tamara Press 2007) om svensk dödsmetall.