| 1. |
- Dilworth, Cecilia, 1988-
(författare)
-
Between Death and Resurrection : Dostoevsky's Notes from the House of the Dead on the Eve of the Peasant Emancipation
- 2022
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation is a study of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes from the House of the Dead (1860–1862), a semi-documentary rendition of life in a Siberian prison of the 1850s. The work is read against the background of the pivotal historical event coinciding with its writing and publication: the peasant emancipation of 1861. On the basis of materials from contemporary newspapers and periodicals, the dissertation proposes that the years 1857–1862 saw the evolution a public “discourse of liberation” characterized by the fluctuating use of specific symbolism. The act of emancipation is conceptualized as a civic “resurrection” of the Russian people, whose life under serfdom is equated with imprisonment in the “land of the dead.” This discourse of liberation is shown to intersect with Dostoevsky’s text, which incorporates and adapts its central metaphors. Thereby, the uncertainty of the public mood in the transitional period of the early emancipation era reinforces the fundamental ambivalence of Dostoevsky’s poetics: notes of joyous anticipation and triumph are carried over into the work along with strong undercurrents of doubt and disillusionment. The narrative progression towards resurrection, culminating in the book’s final scene of release from the “dead house” of the prison, is undercut and complicated by a network of parallels and resonances.House of the Dead is also examined in relation to the genre of Russian “peasant fiction” prevalent in the decade leading up to the emancipation. Dostoevsky is shown to meet the challenge of truthfully representing the peasant voice in literature both through documentary methods, employing the so-called “Siberian notebook” of his prison years, and through fictionalization, as in the interpolated short story “Akulka’s Husband.” The narration of “Akulka’s Husband” is interpreted as an expression of the frustrated struggle of the peasant voice towards clarity and self-understanding – an unfulfilled, stumbling verbal quest for mental emancipation. It is also argued that Dostoevsky drew on two genres of Russian folklore in order to create an authentic plot and mode of characterization for his “village tale:” the tragic ballad of wife murder and the comic dancing song about the cuckolded husband. The result is a dissonant tale filled with tension, where comedy acts as the catalyst for tragedy, and silence emerges as the chief medium for truth.Finally, the dissertation analyzes the role of popular laughter in House of the Dead, focusing on the multiple ambivalent episodes where comic performance is paired with violence. These episodes are linked with elements of traditional Russian laughter culture and folk theatre. Internally connected through a series of echoes and inversions, they are shown to be integral to the book’s dual trajectories of death and resurrection. In his renditions of comic spectacle, Dostoevsky reveals the existence of two forces of laughter: one destructive and corrupting, one creative and redemptive. While both rely on the irrational, convulsive and liberating nature of laughter, each is representative of a distinct potential in the human soul for damnation and salvation.
|
|
| 2. |
- Ågren, Mattias, 1971-
(författare)
-
Phantoms of a Future Past : A Study of Contemporary Russian Anti-Utopian Novels
- 2014
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this dissertation is to study the evolution of the Russian anti-utopian literary genre in the new post-Soviet environment in the wake of the defunct Soviet socialist utopia. The genre has gained a renewed importance during the 2000s, and has been used variously as a means of dealing satirically with the Soviet past, of understanding the present, and of pondering possible courses into the future for the Russian Federation. A guiding question in this study is: What makes us recognize a novel as anti-utopian at a time when the idea of utopia may appear obsolete, when the hegemony of nation states has been challenged for several decades, and when art has been drawn towards the aesthetics of hybridity? The main part of the dissertation is comprised of detailed analyses of three novels: The Slynx (Kys', 2001) by Tatyana Tolstaya; Homo Zapiens/Babylon (Generation ‘P’, 1999) by Viktor Pelevin; and Ice Trilogy (Ledianaia Trilogiia, 2002−2005) by Vladimir Sorokin. The further development of the genre is subsequently discussed on the basis of seven novels published in the past decade.A main argument in the dissertation is that the genre has been modified in ways which can be seen as a response to social and political changes on a global scale. The waning power of the nation state, in particular, and its broken monopoly as the bearer of social projects marks a new context, which is not shared by the classic works of the genre. Analysis of this evolution in post-Soviet anti-utopian novels draws on sociological as well as literary studies.The dissertation shows how the analysed novels use the possibilities of the genre to problematize various forms of societal discourse, and how these discourses work as mutations of utopia. Prominent among these are historical discourses, which reflect the increasing importance of historical narratives in public political debates in the Russian Federation.
|
|
| 3. |
- Bergman, Peter, et al.
(författare)
-
Safety and efficacy of the mRNA BNT162b2 vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 in five groups of immunocompromised patients and healthy controls in a prospective open-label clinical trial
- 2021
-
Ingår i: EBioMedicine. - : Elsevier BV. - 2352-3964. ; 74
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Patients with immunocompromised disorders have mainly been excluded from clinical trials of vaccination against COVID-19. Thus, the aim of this prospective clinical trial was to investigate safety and efficacy of BNT162b2 mRNA vaccination in five selected groups of immunocompromised patients and healthy controls.Methods: 539 study subjects (449 patients and 90 controls) were included. The patients had either primary (n=90), or secondary immunodeficiency disorders due to human immunodeficiency virus infection (n=90), allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation/CAR T cell therapy (n=90), solid organ transplantation (SOT) (n=89), or chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) (n=90). The primary endpoint was seroconversion rate two weeks after the second dose. The secondary endpoints were safety and documented SARS-CoV-2 infection.Findings: Adverse events were generally mild, but one case of fatal suspected unexpected serious adverse reaction occurred. 72.2% of the immunocompromised patients seroconverted compared to 100% of the controls (p=0.004). Lowest seroconversion rates were found in the SOT (43.4%) and CLL (63.3%) patient groups with observed negative impact of treatment with mycophenolate mofetil and ibrutinib, respectively.Interpretation: The results showed that the mRNA BNT162b2 vaccine was safe in immunocompromised patients. Rate of seroconversion was substantially lower than in healthy controls, with a wide range of rates and antibody titres among predefined patient groups and subgroups. This clinical trial highlights the need for additional vaccine doses in certain immunocompromised patient groups to improve immunity.
|
|
| 4. |
- Björk, Anne
(författare)
-
Aspects of Vitamin D : Prevalence of deficiency and impact on musculoskeletal parameters
- 2017
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Vitamin D is central in calcium turnover, and adequate levels are important for skeletal health. It is not clear how large contributions from food and sunlight are in Swedish primary care patients, considering the low radiation of UVB in Sweden and fortification of some foods, and whether differences exist between patients of immigrant and Swedish origin. Increasing incidence of osteoporosis-related fractures is a major global health problem. Genetic variations in metabolising enzymes and in the Vitamin D receptor (VDR) have also been shown to be of importance to the overall effect of vitamin D. Polymorphic variation in the gene CYP2R1 encoding the 25-hydroxylase has previously been reported to correlate with circulating levels of 25(OH)D3. Results of association studies between genetic variants of the VDR and muscle strength, as well as falls have been contradictory.The purposes of this thesis were to examine possible differences in plasma-25(OH)D3 levels and intake of vitamin D between Swedish and immigrant female primary care patients, to estimate what foods contribute the most, and to identify contributors to vitamin D status (Paper I-II). Furthermore, the relationship between polymorphisms in the CYP2R1 gene and levels of 25(OH)D3 as well as other biochemical parameters (parathyroid hormone, calcium, phosphate and fibroblast growth factor 23) of skeletal homeostasis, bone mineral density and incidence of fractures was investigated (Paper III). Also, the association between genetic variations in the gene for the vitamin D receptor and measures of muscle strength, physical performance and falls (Paper IV), was investigated by using data from a Swedish multicenter study of elderly men (MrOS).Most important results: Vitamin D deficiency was common, with significant difference between Swedish born and immigrant patients (Paper I). Food intake of vitamin D is associated with circulating vitamin D, but the factors most strongly affecting vitamin D levels were reported sun holiday and origin (Paper II). CYP2R1 polymorphisms are associated with circulating levels of 25(OH)D3 and bone mineral density (Paper III). VDR genetic variants do not appear to have a direct effect on muscle strength or physical performance and incidence of falls in elderly Swedish men (Paper IV).
|
|
| 5. |
- Cederlöf, Henriette, 1968-
(författare)
-
Alien Places in Late Soviet Science Fiction : The "Unexpected Encounters" of Arkady and Boris Strugatsky as Novels and Films
- 2014
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation deals with how science fiction reflects the shift in cultural paradigms that occurred in the Soviet Union between the 1960s and the 1970s. Interest was displaced from the rational to the irrational, from a scientific-technologically oriented optimism about the future to art, religion, philosophy and metaphysics. Concomitant with this shift in interests was a shift from the future to an elsewhere or, reformulated in exclusively spatial terms, from utopia to heterotopia.The dissertation consists of an analysis of three novels by the Strugatsky brothers (Arkady, 1925-1991 and Boris 1933-2012): Inspector Glebsky’s Puzzle (Otel’ U pogibšego al’pinista, 1970), The Kid (Malyš, 1971) and Roadside Picnic (Piknik na obočine, 1972) and two films Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel (Hukkunud alpinisti hotell/ Otel’ U pogibšego al’pinista, Kromanov, 1979) and Stalker (Tarkovsky, 1980). The three novels, allegedly treatments of the theme of contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence, were intended to be published in one volume with the title Unexpected Encounters. The films are based on two of the novels.In the novels an earlier Marxist utopia has given way to a considerably more ambiguous heterotopia, largely envisioned as versions of the West. An indication of how the authors here seem to look back towards history rather than forward towards the future is to be found in the persistent strain of literary Gothic that runs through the novels. This particular trait resurfaces in the films as well. The films reflect how tendencies only discernable in the novels have developed throughout the decade, such as the budding Soviet consumer culture and the religious sensibilities of the artistic community.
|
|
| 6. |
- Lane, Tora, 1976-
(författare)
-
Rendering the Sublime : A Reading of Marina Tsvetaeva's Fairy-Tale Poem The Swain
- 2009
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The present study is a reading of the folkloric fairy-tale poem The Swain (Mólodets) (1924) by the Russian Modernist poet Marina Tsvetaeva (1892-1941).The poem represents a high point in Tsvetaeva’s experiments with Russian folk art, and it is thoroughly folkloric in its theme, forms of writing and poetic language. At the same time, the poem can be linked to the attraction to folk art as a locus of the Sublime in literary tradition, which originates in German Romanticism, and finds its echoes in Russian Modernism. This study seeks to show that Tsvetaeva’s exploration of folk art in the poem was inspired by a quandary linked to the Sublime; namely the paradoxical question how to present in art what is too great to be represented.The poem is read as an image and an illustration of the poet’s understanding of the means of presenting the unrepresentable. Tsvetaeva renders the tale as an uncanny story about a horrifying elemental force. She seeks to avoid representation by bringing out the story in a poetic performance, which has the character of a lyrical drama, where the voices of the characters speak and sing in a direct manner. Within the canvas of the folkloric performance, the poet explores poetic language to render the Sublime. She experiments with secondary meanings in order to bring out a language, which at the same time is “secret” and “literal”, and where the element can be made present in its sublimity.
|
|
| 7. |
- Löflund, Emma-Lina, 1988-
(författare)
-
The Burning Word : History and Myth in Maximilian Voloshin's Neopalimaia Kupina
- 2021
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The book Neopalimaia Kupina: stikhi o voine i revoliutsii (The Burning Bush: Poems about War and Revolution) by Maximilian Voloshin (1877–1932) depicts the revolutionary period in Russia. This dissertation analyzes the work’s composition, showing how it was shaped and reshaped in response to the dramatic events of the first two and a half decades of the twentieth century, and how it remains open and mirrors the ongoing development of history. The revolutionary events are presented against the background of earlier turning points in Russia’s past. In addition to documenting contemporary events in poetry, Voloshin, who was closely affiliated with the Russian Symbolists and had a profound interest in anthroposophy and occultism, expressed a belief in theurgic art that could initiate a national revival. The analysis demonstrates that the poems in Neopalimaia Kupina are interconnected through a conglomeration of myths centering on transformation through death and resurrection. The poems also evoke a sense of recurrence connecting different layers of Russian history. By depicting episodes from a mythical as well as a historical perspective, the poems reflect correspondences which can be elucidated through Boris Uspensky’s semiotic model of a dual perception of time (linear and cyclical) as well as Zara Mints’ concept of neomythological texts. The analysis also considers performativity as a tool for life-creation in Voloshin’s work and connects it to his exploration of apotropaic genres: magic spells, incantations, prayers, and anthroposophical mantras. Against the backdrop of the Bolshevik takeover and the remolding of Russian society which was marked by war, terror and famine, these poems express a disbelief in the Communist utopia of the early Soviet period.
|
|
| 8. |
- Eriksson, Lars Douglas, 1940-
(författare)
-
Kris, alienation och autenticitet i Lev Sestovs filosofi
- 2017
-
Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this study of Lev Shestov, the biographical method is used to explain his philosophy. The grave crisis or nervous breakdown Shestov went through caused a total transformation of his - convictions and values. It was probably this drama that led to his repudiation of the common life and traditional philosophy with its emphasis on reason, knowledge, and ethics in favour of an extreme individualism and religious transcendence.The aim of the dissertation is to examine, amongst the great number of philosophers and writers Shestov analysed, mainly those in his view “marginal thinkers”, who were of the greatest interest to him – Fyodor Dostoevsky, Lev Tolstoy, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Luther, and Søren Kierkegaard. On the basis of this analysis the character of Shestov’s philosophy is defined.According to Shestov, like his own crisis, the crises that these thinkers experienced occasioned a total transformation of their convictions and values. Šestov does not let his life find complete expression in his philosophy. Instead he projects his crisis into the five thinkers’ crises and philosophy.To characterize the previous and new modes of thinking, the concepts of alienation (degeneration, degradation, depravity) and authenticity (deliverance from alienation) are used. Shestov’s judgment of the consistency of the five thinkers’ new attitudes is presented, i.e. deliverance from the common life with its emphasis on rational eternal truths and moralism. Authentic life is in Shestov’s opinion the from the individual’s everyday life concealed experience of despair in extreme situations. This constitutes a grave crisis that leads to the repudiation of all hitherto held convictions and cherished hopes.The contrast between the Russian philosopher’s personal, (after his crisis) mainly tranquil, harmonious life and his philosophy is glaring.Analyzing the five thinkers, Shestov finds that they did not persevere with their new convictions, instead they complied with the by everybody accepted and everywhere valid truths. Shestov’s “theoretical”, uncompromising and consistent stance on one side and the lack of these characteristics with the aforementioned thinkers on the other side, to a great extent places Shestov in another category than these.In Shestov’s view freedom is in the region of tragedy, which nobody enters on his own will and in the incomprehensible trust in a capricious, “inhuman” God. According to Shestov, only the philosopher, who derives his thinking from a situation, where he experiences extreme despair and hopelessness, can claim to be a true philosopher.
|
|
| 9. |
- Finnveden, Göran, et al.
(författare)
-
Policy Instruments towards a sustainable waste management
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Solid waste management: Policy and planning for a sustainable society. - : Apple Academic Press. - 9781771883740 - 9780429091650 ; , s. 185-246, s. 185-246
-
Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
|
|
| 10. |
- Humbert, Marion, et al.
(författare)
-
Functional SARS-CoV-2 cross-reactive CD4+ T cells established in early childhood decline with age
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : National Academy of Sciences. - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 120:12
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Pre-existing SARS-CoV-2-reactive T cells have been identified in SARS-CoV-2-unexposed individuals, potentially modulating COVID-19 and vaccination outcomes. Here, we provide evidence that functional cross-reactive memory CD4+ T cell immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is established in early childhood, mirroring early seroconversion with seasonal human coronavirus OC43. Humoral and cellular immune responses against OC43 and SARS-CoV-2 were assessed in SARS-CoV-2-unexposed children (paired samples at age two and six) and adults (age 26 to 83). Pre-existing SARS-CoV-2-reactive CD4+ T cell responses targeting spike, nucleocapsid, and membrane were closely linked to the frequency of OC43-specific memory CD4+ T cells in childhood. The functional quality of the cross-reactive memory CD4+ T cell responses targeting SARS-CoV-2 spike, but not nucleocapsid, paralleled OC43-specific T cell responses. OC43-specific antibodies were prevalent already at age two. However, they did not increase further with age, contrasting with the antibody magnitudes against HKU1 (β-coronavirus), 229E and NL63 (α-coronaviruses), rhinovirus, Epstein–Barr virus (EBV), and influenza virus, which increased after age two. The quality of the memory CD4+ T cell responses peaked at age six and subsequently declined with age, with diminished expression of interferon (IFN)-γ, interleukin (IL)-2, tumor necrosis factor (TNF), and CD38 in late adulthood. Age-dependent qualitative differences in the pre-existing SARS-CoV-2-reactive T cell responses may reflect the ability of the host to control coronavirus infections and respond to vaccination. Copyright © 2023 the Author(s).
|
|
