| 1. |
- Hallberg, Anna Victoria, 1973-
(författare)
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Novel writing and moral philosophy as aspects of a single struggle : Iris Murdoch's hybrid novels
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This investigation pursues a thesis, namely that moral philosopher and novelist Iris Murdoch was a writer of hybrid novels. Murdoch’s novels are hybrid constructions where she tries to make reflections on moral intuitions discernible and experienced within the novels’ own “system”. The “philosophical novel” states ideas from an external point of view and uses art for illustration. A governing idea for this thesis is that Murdoch’s literature makes ideas visible. In order to suggest, argue for, and develop such line of reasoning, the investigation is structured in the following way: The first section presents the premises, the aim of the study, and which material and research questions that will guide us. We meet Murdoch’s novels, ideas, and philosophic accent in four “encounters”. It is suggested that we could look at Murdoch’s novels from a double viewpoint that combines two levels: aesthetic appreciation and reflection. Chapter one seeks to discuss Murdoch’s interpretation of and debt to Plato. In particular, Plato’s Cave metaphor is seen as a clue to Murdoch’s view of moral life as a pilgrimage from appearance to reality. It is argued that Murdoch’s broad approach to moral philosophy can be perceived in the hybrid novel form. Chapter two outlines the research and comments on Murdoch as a philosophical novelist. This chapter presents the main disputes within the Murdoch-field and explores its background. The controversy is described with the intention to find a new position that focuses less on the influence of philosophical discourse on the novelistic practise and more on Murdoch’s use of the two levels of aesthetic experience and ideas on the nature of vision in moral life. In the third and fourth chapters the novels Under the Net (1954) and The Sea, The Sea (1978) are investigated. Motif, epiphany, plot, non-speech, and other functional devices that are meaningful for the detection and “confirmation” of the hybrid novel are given attention. Issues of how the protagonists of both novels progress from “fallible” to “seeing”, is put in direct relation to Murdoch’s idea of how the moral pilgrim moves from “appearance” to “reality”. A look at compositional structures that signal the literary norm and how the texts prepare the reader to experience the pattern of “from fallible to seeing” leads to the conclusion that the hybrid novel exhibits a range of qualities that stir moral intuitions. These intuitions are what moral philosophy should be all about, from Murdoch’s viewpoint. As help to reach these conclusions, ideas from both Wittgenstein and exponents of his philosophy are used. The final chapter is also the epilogue: it deals with concluding reflections on what has been argued as well as potential new areas to investigate.
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| 2. |
- Thörn, Andreas K.G. 1978-
(författare)
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En framgångsrik främling : Filadelfiaförsamlingen i Stockholm - självbild i historieskrivning och verksamhet 1910-1980
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of the thesis is to examine how a group’s self-image is created, sustained and if necessary changed during the revolutionary 20th century. The study takes its point of eparture in the idea that a self-image is essential for an organisation’s cohesion and collective identity. The study object is the Pentecostal Philadelphia church in, Sweden, established in 1910. In concrete terms, the thesis examines the self-image of the church as it is expressed in its narratives and activities from 1910 to 1980. The lf-image is analysed with the aid of the concepts ‘boundaries’ and ‘symbols’ and in relation to social and organisational change processes. In the main the empirical material onsists of official documents such as jubilee publications, annual reports and the weekly newspaper Evangelii Härold.The main contribution of the thesis is an analysis of the church’s historical narrative. In this narrative the overall theme appears to be the small and faithful group that due to God’s influence and despite opposition became a major nd significant church -- a success story. The theme also remains the same when the circumstances change. Narrative theory emphasises that the narrative has to be changeable order to be serviceable. However, my study shows that the narration, at least at the level highlighted in the thesis, is inert. The self-image seems to be difficult to change but is not necessarily static. The narrative is shown to include strategies for dealing with internal change processes and changes in society.
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| 3. |
- Edholm, Roger, 1984-
(författare)
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The written and the unwritten world of Philip Roth : fiction, nonfiction, and borderline aesthetics in the Roth books
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis examines five books by the American author Philip Roth commonly referred to as the “Roth Books,” which are The Facts: A Novelist’s Autobiography(1988), Deception (1990), Patrimony: A True Story (1991), Operation Shylock: A Confession (1993), and The Plot Against America (2004). These books, held together by the author’s proper name, are often viewed as texts that conflate fiction and nonfiction or demonstrate the “fictionality” of all factual narrative accounts in compliance with well-known postmodernist and poststructuralist theories. Contrary to this view, I argue that a valid understanding of the Roth Books demands that we acknowledge that these works represent a series of quite different ways for the author to transform his own life into written form, a creative act which is manifested in both fictional and nonfictional writing. In the attempt to argue this view, I turn to a field of study where the question about criteria for distinguishing fictional from nonfictional narrative literature has occupied a prominent place: narrative theory. However, my theoretical and methodological point of departure does not align itself with the “standard” paradigm in narrative theory with its origin in classical, structuralist narratology. Rather, the thesis promotes a pragmatic and rhetorical perspective which is argued to better account for how we read and make sense of different narrative texts. In opposition to standard narrative theory, where all narratives are considered to adhere to the same model of communication, I argue in favour of a view where narrative fiction and narrative nonfiction are conceived as distinct communicative practices. I open the thesis by showing that Roth’s books contribute to the discussion on how to distinguish fictional from nonfictional narrative texts (Chapter 1). I then continue by approaching the distinction between fiction and nonfiction in general theoretical terms (Chapter 2). And in what follows (Chapters 3-5), I present a reading where the Roth Books are juxtaposed against each other. This reading demonstrates how these texts, although in some sense related, because of their divergent qualities and differing intentions still communicate differently with their readers, inviting a readerly attention that is dissimilar from one work to the other.
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| 4. |
- Hallberg, Anna Victoria
(författare)
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Moral Philosophy and Novel Writing as Aspects of a Single Struggle : Iris Murdoch’s Hybrid Novels
- 2011
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This investigation pursues a thesis, namely that moral philosopher and novelist Iris Murdoch was a writer of hybrid novels. Murdoch’s novels are hybrid constructions where she tries to make reflections on moral intuitions discernible and experienced within the novels’ own “system”. The “philosophical novel” states ideas from an external point of view and uses art for illustration. A governing idea for this thesis is that Murdoch’s literature makes ideas visible. In order to suggest, argue for, and develop such line of reasoning, the investigation is structured in the following way: The first section presents the premises, the aim of the study, and which material and research questions that will guide us. We meet Murdoch’s novels, ideas, and philosophic accent in four “encounters”. It is suggested that we could look at Murdoch’s novels from a double viewpoint that combines two levels: aesthetic appreciation and reflection.Chapter one seeks to discuss Murdoch’s interpretation of and debt to Plato. In particular, Plato’s Cave metaphor is seen as a clue to Murdoch’s view of moral life as a pilgrimage from appearance to reality. It is argued that Murdoch’s broad approach to moral philosophy can be perceived in the hybrid novel form.Chapter two outlines the research and comments on Murdoch as a philosophical novelist. This chapter presents the main disputes within the Murdoch-field and explores its background. The controversy is described with the intention to find a new position that focuses less on the influence of philosophical discourse on the novelistic practise and more on Murdoch’s use of the two levels of aesthetic experience and ideas on the nature of vision in moral life.In the third and fourth chapters the novels Under the Net (1954) and The Sea, The Sea (1978) are investigated. Motif, epiphany, plot, non-speech, and other functional devices that are meaningful for the detection and “confirmation” of the hybrid novel are given attention. Issues of how the protagonists of both novels progress from “fallible” to “seeing”, is put in direct relation to Murdoch’s idea of how the moral pilgrim moves from “appearance” to “reality”. A look at compositional structures that signal the literary norm and how the texts prepare the reader to experience the pattern of “from fallible to seeing” leads to the conclusion that the hybrid novel exhibits a range of qualities that stir moral intuitions. These intuitions are what moral philosophy should be all about, from Murdoch’s viewpoint. As help to reach these conclusions, ideas from both Wittgenstein and exponents of his philosophy are used.The final chapter is also the epilogue: it deals with concluding reflections on what has been argued as well as potential new areas to investigate.
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| 5. |
- Landmark, Dan, 1961-
(författare)
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"Vi, civilisationens ljusbärare" : orientalistiska mönster i det sena 1800-talets svenska litteratur och kultur
- 2003
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis deals with Orientalism as it occurs in the period in Swedish literary and cultural history commonly known as “nittitalet” (the nineties), roughly the last decade of the 19th century. The study explores how the interest for the so-called Orient is manifested in works of fiction and poetry as well as in works of non-fiction genres. It also seeks to relate textual features of separate works to general tendencies in European and Swedish culture at the time. A crucial part of the analysis is devoted to the early works of Verner von Heidenstam. Authors concerned are also Oscar Levertin, Sophie Elkan and Selma Lagerlöf, all belonging to the generation commonly known as “nittitalisterna” – the writers of the nineties. Furthermore, the thesis analyzes travel books of two different kinds, written by Christian pilgrims A. Nordlander, Nils Beskow and P.P. Waldenström, and by journalist and newspaper correspondent Alexis Kuylenstjerna respectively. The phenomenon of Orientalism contains problems on several levels. Most fundamentally, it is imbued by complex questions of representation. More pragmatically, it is obvious that individual authors make use of Orientalist traditions in various ways and for different purposes. While it is obvious that Swedish writers of the time adopt Orientalist conventions concerning styles and rhetorical tropes as well as ideological patterns, there is also a recurrent national theme in their work. A common feature is namely a critique of colonialism and an explicit dissociation from what one conceives of as European cynicism and overbearing manners. As a consequence, this study argues, there is an ambiguous attitude towards the all-European Orientalist tradition in which one is writing.
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| 6. |
- van Ooijen, Erik, 1980-
(författare)
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The mold of writing : style and structure in Strindberg's chamber plays
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis examines the five plays published by August Strindberg under the label of Chamber Plays: Stormy Weather, The Burned Lot, The Ghost Sonata, The Pelican (all 1907), and The Black Glove (1909). It takes its point of departure in a particular aspect of Strindberg’s way of writing as he actually describes it himself: during the act of deliberate composing, a productive fever tends to emerge bringing an element of chance to the work. The thesis defines the effect produced by this “fever” as the tension generated between, on the one hand, structure or form, and, on the other hand, style or writing. These concepts are associated with a tradition, primarily in French literary theory, which pays attention to what is described as a friction between the general linguistic aspect of literature (genres, recurring and recognizable patterns) and the individual aspect (the peculiar and idiosyncratic style of an author embodied in his material habitus). Thus the ambiguity found in the thesis’ title: the “mold” alludes partly to the stereotypes or matrices of language, partly to the “fungi” that, according to Strindberg, could be considered an adequate image for writing; the poetic work, says Strindberg, grows like mold from the author’s brain. Theoretical questions, primarily of a formal and interpretational nature, are continuously discussed since one of the main points is that the Strindbergian way of writing restricts what kind of interpretation may be given his works. The eventual contrast between form and interpretation is, furthermore, related to a general theme developed throughout the Chamber Plays concerning the meaning of life. It is stressed that the five plays show distinct formal and thematic differences; thus, a separate chapter is dedicated to each of them. The chapter on Stormy Weather examines the structural use of focus and the hierarchy of character-functions related to the centering on a protagonist. The Burned Lot is discussed from the concept of a ruin to describe how a multitude of conflicting forms come together to produce a fragmentary result. The Ghost Sonata is described in terms of simulation: while Strindberg alludes to certain dramatic patterns, he also distorts them whereby new effects are created. The chapter on The Pelican explores the temporal flow of the play and how it relates to writing. The thesis ends with a discussion of The Black Glove and its relation to the preceding Chamber Plays and also to the Strindbergian oeuvre. The concept of weed is used to distinguish a recurring element in Strindberg’s work as well as in his worldview. Throughout the thesis, the discussion is consistently related to previous studies and commentaries on the plays.
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| 7. |
- Andersson, Greger, 1958-
(författare)
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The book and its narratives : a critical examination of some synchronic studies of the book of Judges
- 2001
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- During recent decades, there has been a trend among biblical scholars towards applying methods borrowed from literary studies to the familiar texts of the Old and New Testaments. A major reason for this reorientation is the search for a meaningful and interpretable text; hence, it can be seen as a protest against the historical-critical school and its ambition to reconstruct an authentic text by means of a diachronic analysis. Synchronic scholars argue for a new understanding of the biblical text, claiming that the object of interpretation is the text in its present form, regarded as a literary production. Consequently, they can study texts that are commonly considered to be patchworks or conglomerations as meaningful literary works regardless of their pre-history or authorship. In this thesis I do not focus on studies that concern individual narratives or poems but on those that apply a synchronic approach to large units of texts such as books or collections of books. My example is the book of Judges, and the fundamental issue is whether the synchronists’ description of its structure and of the relationship between the individual narratives and the larger text is sustainable. Through analyses of the book’s introduction and the stories about Ehud, Deborah, Jephthah and Samson, I argue that the scholars under consideration are often compelled to form interpretations that are in conflict with a “natural” or “intuitive” reading. I hence claim that they are not reading these stories in accordance with the conventions that are generally applied to narratives. The arguments in which they refer to implicit devices, allusions and the structure of the larger text are assessed as unconvincing.I argue that that these scholars make two common theoretical mistakes. Firstly, they do not consider the specific restrictions that apply to “the literary point of view”. Secondly, they disregard the fact that narratives are autonomous and hence resistant to reworking. If several independent narratives are put together, they are not thereby transformed into a larger single narrative even though they may contain common patterns and motifs. Hence, the individual story represents the primary level of meaning and discrete elements are understood as motifs within aliterary construction. The stories of the book of Judges are therefore texts within a text. This explains why the book lacks a coherent ideology or morality. The tensions and ambiguities in the book cannot be resolved by classifying it as a literary production and studying it synchronically: on the contrary, doing this confirms and explains the difficulties in the book – that is, the inconsistent character of both the book and its narratives and the bizarre events that are recounted therein – and its polyphonic character.
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| 8. |
- Andersson, Pär-Yngve, 1954-
(författare)
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Överskridandets strategier : lyrisk romankonst och dess uttryck hos Rosendahl, Trotzig och Lillpers
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this thesis I describe and analyse the concept of ”lyrical novel” in relation to concrete textual examples. Referring to Waismann’s open texture (porösität) and Wittgensteins ”family resemblance” I study texts that resemble each other although their lyrical features may not be identical. The language itself attracts attention in these novels. They often involve static descriptions, structural patterns of meaningful contrasts and symmetries, visionary or epiphanic moments. A conventional plot is often fragmented or attenuated. I argue that a reader of a lyrical novel imagines a lyrical language game, thereby focusing details and nuances in the prose text that might otherwise be neglected. After a short survey of the Romantic roots of the lyrical novel, I give various examples of novels from the period 1850-1950. The purpose is to give a broad description of lyrical techniques. The last three chapters consist of more detailed analyses of some Swedish novels from the latter part of the 20th century. In Sven Rosendahl’s Gud Fader och tattaren the narrative progression of the story is broken in lyrical passages of great strength. Some of them can be regarded as epiphanic moments. Birgitta Trotzig is in Dykungens dotter trying to loose the ties of sequential time, giving an all-embracing view of the characters’ circumstances. A hopeful identification with the suffering of Christ is at the centre of this modernist novel, where borders between inner and outer worlds at times seem to be of less importance. The plots in Birgitta Lillpers’ three novels Blomvattnarna, Iris, Isis och skräddaren and Medan de ännu hade hästar are attenuated. There are allegorical veins, but events are seldom of dramatic intensity. The language is full of feeling, and a reader becomes aware of a kind of ”lyrical lingering”, when the author affords each passage a value of its own.
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| 9. |
- Göransson, Ulrika, 1966-
(författare)
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Romankonst och berättarteori : en kritisk diskussion med utgångspunkt i Göran Tunströms författarskap
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis challenges the notion that the novel should be considered as a kind of narrative in the narratological sense of the word. It argues that it is by no means self-evident to define the novel as a narrative if one by narrative means someone telling someone else that something happened. Rather it suggests that reading a novel as information about something (an event or chain of events), that is, as if someone were stating something, will inevitably raise questions about for example relevance. The reader may for instance ask: What is the very subject of the told and what purpose do all those presented details serve? There are lots of informative language-games, yet the reader must have difficulties in seeing how all this stuff would comply with any of them. The study suggests that in order to be able to incorporate the novel into a general theory of narrative, narratology (structuralist as well as poststructuralist) has been compelled to overlook the inconsistencies generated by the idea that the novel is an imitation of a natural narrative genre, or put it in another way, to overlook the novel’s specific literary properties. The thesis argues that rather than being subsumed within a general theory, works of narrative fiction (novels and short stories) should be considered as aesthetic objects. It describes narrative fiction as an aesthetic composition built out of patterns referred to by the term “motifs”, borrowed from the Russian formalists. Motifs may be constructed of narrative structures; yet, in the novel considered as a whole, as a work, such structures may very well go together with other equally important ones to build up an all-embracing aesthetic arrangement not identical with a narrative pattern. Turning to the novels of Göran Tunström the study aims at illustrating some of the peculiarities that may arise as a result of equating narrative fiction with natural narrative or everyday storytelling. It discusses the notion of the fictive narrator and questions the assumption, based on logical and epistemological arguments, that literary narratives have to be told by a fictive agent, i.e. a narrator. It suggests that if we think of narrative fiction as an aesthetic composition, not taken as equivalent to a narrative composition, there is no need for a narrator because the presented semantic content is not understood as a narrative in the narratological sense. Furthermore, the idea that novels should be read as information about something will lead to the assumption that non-narrative elements such as descriptions and elements of essay should be considered as subordinate to narrative structures. Discussing Tunström’s use of literary descriptions the thesis illustrates that the idea advocated by narratological theory that narrative structures should be considered more important than or superior to non-narrative ones simply cannot be sustained. Tunström’s intention as artist is not to present an action but an aesthetic vision. And to that purpose he uses all kinds of structures, images in the form of picture or ekphrasis, lyrical parts, elements of essay, and, of course, also narrative.
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| 10. |
- Willén, Marcus, 1972-
(författare)
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Konsten att upphöja det ringa : om Torgny Lindgrens litterära metod
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis examines how Torgny Lindgren carries out in literary praxis a particular vision of what serious art should be. This praxis is referred to as his "literary method". The study focuses on ten of his short stories, nine from the collection Merabs skönhet (1983, "Merab's Beauty") and one from I Brokiga Blads vatten (1999, "In Brokiga Blad's Water"). The reason for the choice is that these stories together could be interpreted as a programmatic presentation of the method; accordingly the stories are informed by a meta-aesthetical perspective. The vision is that serious art must suggest how people can find a spiritual dimension in their life in the flesh. In Lindgren's method this will make the miracle of Incarnation the all-pervading underlying image which displays a constant tension between the lowly carnal and the sublime spiritual aspects of human life. The method pictures this tension by a constant use of the rhetorical trope of catachresis, the compound of two incompatible images which normally produces a comical and sometimes absurd effect. But the method also suggests the possibility of reconciliation between the contrasts by elevating the lowly and insignificant up to the dimension of the spiritual. The means of achieving this are the representations of human life by way of the Word and Art, two recurring themes of the texts studied. The examination of Lindgren's method is achieved mainly by concrete text analyses. Each story is studied with regard to how the catachrestic mode realizes the given themes and the concluding message by way of surprising perspectives, by play with double meanings of words and through grotesque motifs, but also by linguistic means like the colouring of the discourse by dialectical forms and biblical quotations. Although constantly making use of humorous effects the method does not result in comical literature. The serious message seems to be that an existence without a relation to the spiritual dimension is empty and that the sense of a meaningful life is given by a particular attitude to it that could be described as "piety".
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