This paper presents an opportunity for the uncertainty that has plagued the novel's criticism to appear as absences in the body of historical knowledge, particularly regarding the notion of life after death. Taking appearance (eg. proof of existence), as opposed to disappearance, as a universally accepted value allows this analysis to interrogate the novel's logic in relation to a variety

This paper addresses the issue of a rising class-consciousness in the mid-nineteenth century, which threatened to challenge formerly stable power positions. The focus lies specifically on parts of Charles Dickens’s literary production as several early as well as contemporary critics, such as G.K. Chesterton and Andrzej Diniejko, have ascribed his works a rather critical position in the representat

The thesis deals with the representation of fantasy in modern film with special regards to parallel-world stories. In order to demarcate parallel worlds from other types of magical worlds in fantasy stories, the thesis contains an extensive chapter of definitions. Starting out with Todorov’s and Jackson’s well-known theories on fantasy / the fantastic, the thesis turns to other approaches allowing

This thesis explores the functions of memory, collective identity, and communication of those same categories to the reader by means of the poetic form in Hanna Rajs’ poetry collection Under månen (2020). Situated or framed within a discussion on Holocaust Literature, Rajs’ poetry is considered in the light of a general historical purview of Holocaust writing, and her specific place within an auth

The aesthetic and literary genre of dark academia has become popular due to its romanticisation of immersive academic learning and lifestyles. It has however been criticised for its frequent glorification of and focus on Eurocentric educational institutions which celebrate Western patriarchal exclusivity. This thesis examines in how far this is true of the genre’s prominent novels Donna Tartt’s Th

This thesis was written to bring attention to a group that is still largely invisible in our society - nonbinary people - and examine how nonbinary identities are characterized in children’s literature. It does so by comparing the books Månen, Varelsen och Jag and Euphoria Kids, and discusses them from the perspectives of the intended reader, trans theory, as well as “skev och monster” theory. Thi

Narratives focusing on People of Color often suffer from neocolonial treatment with narrow focus on race at the expense of character development, working with stereotypical monoliths rather than complex individuals. These types of narratives tend to use Whiteness as a “neutral” reference point. In this thesis, I demonstrate how novelist Junot Díaz crafts The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao around

This thesis argues for the significance of worry in Mark Haddon’s A Spot of Bother (2006) and The Red House (2012). All of Haddon’s novels can be said to be a study of the human consciousness, containing a variety of worried characters, but it is notable that worry is most predominantly present in the two novels that centre around complex family dynamics. For this reason, these two novels will be

This thesis explores how Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Mister Pip (2006) by Lloyd Jones engage with the issue of the white male outsider’s activity of writing black people’s stories. It shows that Adichie counters the discourse that entitles the Western subject, Richard, to tell African stories by transferring his interpretive privilege to the African object, Ugwu. Jo

This master’s thesis deals with the current situation of World literature in a French perspective. It elaborates how theoretical and critical contributions surrounding the polemic Manifeste pour une littérature-monde en français, signed by 44 writers and published in Le Monde 2007, in essence point toward a critique of La Francophonie and French universalism, and also toward a reconfiguration of t

Neo-Victorian literature is a subgenre of historical fiction that is set during the reign of Queen Victoria, from 1837 until 1901. There are divergent opinions on the emergence of the genre; however, the time frame established in this dissertation spans from 1990 until the present moment. One of the principal characteristic of neo-Victorian novels is that through their Victorian setting they displ

Since book covers have become the focus of critical attention only in few recent years, there is a small number of studies published that examine the interaction between the text and the book cover. This interaction seems to be especially significant in the case of autobiographies as there are at least two ways for the author to present himself: as the narrator of the text and as the subject visua

This thesis explores the topic of interpellation and subjugation in fantasy computer role-playing games (CRPGs). Using an assemblage-based framework, I argue that CRPG players are hailed and manipulated by the interplay of several texts and dynamics—mainly prose, code, numerical values, rule sets, and mechanics. My research focuses on games with extensive textual narratives that match—or exceed—th

Bland rävar och igelkottar. Ibsen, Strindberg och det moderna dramat som kunskapshistoria (Among Foxes and Hedgehogs: Ibsen, Strindberg, and Modern Drama as History of Knowledge) is an exploration of modern drama as it relates to one of main features of modernity – specialization. The thesis is meant to function as a pilot study for a larger research project wherein the twofold aim is i) to shed l

This thesis explores expressions of anger in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. Firstly, a brief survey of how anger has been interpreted by philosophers, theologians, doctors and scientists allows for better understanding of how anger has been conceptualised in the past. Secondly, contextual information specifically about nineteenth-century beliefs and practices

This thesis is a combined critical, biographical, and bibliographical study of American poet Frank Stanford (1948-1978). A prodigious, prolific poet's poet, Stanford is a long-underappreciated artist whose unwavering legacy, in recent years, has grown to be an undeniable force in contemporary American poetry. Stanford was an adoptee, and this study investigates his preoccupation with his loss

The famous novel by Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, will be the subject of this thesis. I will seek to research the character of Mr. Rochester and his use and display in four film adaptations. All the adaptations will be compared to the source as well as to each other to determine how the character of Mr. Rochester is circumstantial each time. The adaptation theories from theorists such as Robert Sta

This study intends to place the literary and cultural criticism of the Finland-Swedish writer and critic Hagar Olsson during the period 1918 to 1948 in the context of the history of ideas in Scandinavia and the rest of Europe and America at the time. While doing so she appears at the frontline of the modernist movement in Swedish literature, both as a critic and a writer, that which is often negle

Science fiction is a genre in which anything is possible. It therefore comprises the perfect litmus test of any given culture’s prevailing hopes and fears about the future. One such source of anxiety that has been particularly conspicuous in works of fiction since the Industrial Revolution is the development of automata and other machines – specifically, whether they might eventually become strong

This paper addresses the issue of gendered identity as presented in Charlotte Brontë's first and last novels, The Professor and Villette. As both of these novels are fictional autobiographies, and as the former is narrated by a man and the latter by a woman, they serve as good objects of analysis in that each of them represents its narrator’s understanding of him- or herself. Taking nineteenth