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

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

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

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

This essay argues that acedia is a helpful concept in illuminating the fiction of the American author David Foster Wallace, particularly his unfinished novel The Pale King. Following a brief biographical sketch of Wallace, the essay explores the development of the term acedia—which means something along the lines of apathy, sloth, and listlessness—and the two types of acedia: personal acedia and t

This thesis investigates similarities and differences between Emily Brontë’s Heathcliff and Anne Brontë’s Huntingdon. Moreover, their conduct is compared to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century masculinities. Neither of the two characters corresponds with ideal masculine behaviour. As the novels progress they become increasingly depraved. But the causes to their wickedness are not self-evident. Howe

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

This essay analyses how Mary Shelley challenges speciesist thinking popular at the time of the publication of Frankenstein (1818). Speciesism is a discriminatory belief that favours the human species over any species other than human, and that is manifested in how we perceive and treat nonhuman beings. Much literary criticism has touched upon Frankenstein’s monster’s otherness, mainly in relation

This thesis examines queerness in the poetry of John Donne by re-examining same-gender desire in his poetry, proposing metaphysical poetry as having points of similarity with queering strategies and queer theory, and exploring contextual and historical tensions within and around Donne’s body of works. The thesis closely analyses poems which have previously been discussed as queer, such as “Sapho t

This thesis explores the works and personas of Sylvia Plath and Taylor Swift and analyses the popular conflations of their real lives and their works. Jon Helt Haarder’s theory of biographical performativity is introduced to analyse the threshold aesthetics between reality and art and investigate the feedback loops between oeuvres andlives as well as the interpretation of these in the public spher

This thesis examines the representation of rape in J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace (1999), Shani Motoo’s Cereus Blooms at Night (1996), Ian McEwan’s Atonement (2001), and Joyce Carol Oates’ Rape: A Love Story (2003). The analysis of the novels is introduced by a background chapter that outlines the literary history of the rape metaphor and feminist attitudes towards the representation and definition of r

In the past decades, a field of so-called Wallace Studies, i.e. academic studies dedicated to the investigation of David Foster Wallace’s writings, has emerged and developed. These studies are often connected to the equally new literary concept of new sincerity. However, despite the number of articles published on the subject, the scholarly works going into any textual, exemplifying analysis of Wa