| 1. |
|
|
| 2. |
- Sylén-Lagerholm, Annika
(författare)
-
Pearl and Contemplative Writing
- 2005
-
Bok (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation places Pearl in the context of works by the English fourteenth-century contemplative writers (‘mystics’), as well as of patristic and other theological treatises, focusing on the theme of comprehending and speaking about a transcendent divine dimension. The purpose is to show that Pearl and the works of Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, Walter Hilton, Richard Rolle and the author of The Cloud of Unknowing share a concern with attempting to express the inexpressible. In that attempt, concepts and ideas handed down by influential thinkers such as Dionysius the Areopagite, or Pseudo-Dionysius, turn out to be vital. Chapter one deals with underlying generic and narrative distinctions between Pearl and the texts of the contemplative writers. Medieval concepts of literature, as well as contemporary aspects of narratology, are discussed in order to identify principal dissimilarities with regard to narrative form and purpose. Chapter two presents Pearl in the context of the affective strain in fourteenth-century English contemplative and devotional writing. In the contemplative texts as well as in Pearl, the Passion is portrayed as the foundation for the spiritual life and as an essential principle of transformation. Chapter three closely examines the Dreamer, the narrator and protagonist of Pearl, at the beginning of the narrative up to his meeting with the Pearl-Maiden in Paradyse. Chapter three also considers the role and authority of the Marian Pearl-Maiden as a guide to the Dreamer and as an intermediary between the human and divine, i.e. between the Dreamer and God. The last two chapters discuss the concept of hierarchy and the idea of a transcendent but also an immanent God, as described by Pseudo-Dionysius and the English contemplative writers, in order to shed light on the Dreamer's (mis)conception of the divine and on his inner transformation.
|
|
| 3. |
- Sylén-Lagerholm, Annika
(författare)
-
Pearl and Contemplative Writing
- 2003
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation places Pearl in the context of works by the English fourteenth-century contemplative writers (‘mystics’), as well as of patristic and other theological treatises, focusing on the theme of comprehending and speaking about a transcendent divine dimension. The purpose is to show that Pearl and the works of Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, Walter Hilton, Richard Rolle and the author of The Cloud of Unknowing share a concern with attempting to express the inexpressible. In that attempt, concepts and ideas handed down by influential thinkers such as Dionysius the Areopagite, or Pseudo-Dionysius, turn out to be vital. Chapter one deals with underlying generic and narrative distinctions between Pearl and the texts of the contemplative writers. Medieval concepts of literature, as well as contemporary aspects of narratology, are discussed in order to identify principal dissimilarities with regard to narrative form and purpose. Chapter two presents Pearl in the context of the affective strain in fourteenth-century English contemplative and devotional writing. In the contemplative texts as well as in Pearl, the Passion is portrayed as the foundation for the spiritual life and as an essential principle of transformation. Chapter three closely examines the Dreamer, the narrator and protagonist of Pearl, at the beginning of the narrative up to his meeting with the Pearl-Maiden in Paradyse. Chapter three also considers the role and authority of the Marian Pearl-Maiden as a guide to the Dreamer and as an intermediary between the human and divine, i.e. between the Dreamer and God. The last two chapters discuss the concept of hierarchy and the idea of a transcendent but also an immanent God, as described by Pseudo-Dionysius and the English contemplative writers, in order to shed light on the Dreamer's (mis)conception of the divine and on his inner transformation.
|
|
| 4. |
|
|
| 5. |
- Mattisson, Jane
(författare)
-
Knowledge and Survival in the Novels of Thomas Hardy
- 2000
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Abstract This thesis identifies two different kinds of knowledge in Thomas Hardy's novels: the everyday, passed on from generation to generation, which is non-academic and closely bound to the local environment and its traditions; and the specialised, recorded in the printed word, which is the product of formal education and independent of the local community and its traditions. These two kinds of epistemological competence determine one's ability to adapt and survive in a changing society. It is argued that everyday knowledge does not promote analytical thinking and the ability to predict; specialised knowledge, on the other hand, is closely related to scientific analytical thinking and is thus more in tune with the scientific world view which developed in the second half of the nineteenth century. The two forms of knowledge are discussed in relation to three groups of characters: the rustics, the lower/middle class and the upper-middle/upper class. Selected concepts taken from the work of Pierre Bourdieu have been used to identify the source, nature and scope of the various characters' knowledge within the three groups. With the aid of Basil Bernstein's concepts of the ‘restricted' and ‘elaborated' codes, dialogues are seen to constitute a useful indication of the type of knowledge which an individual character possesses. Throughout the study reference is made to historical factors, local as well as national, in the belief that what the reader brings to the text constitutes a third, and vital, form of knowledge. While today's reader has the benefit of hindsight, s/he lacks intimate knowledge of nineteenth-century social/working conditions. All fourteen published novels have been analysed to show that, while Hardy's sympathies lay with the rustics, he was keenly aware that the lower/middle class had the greatest potential for survival in the transformation from an agrarian to an industrial society. It is the purpose of this study to demonstrate that historical research and sociological/sociolinguistic theory provide valuable insights into Hardy's prose by illuminating salient features of his texts and in outlining a pattern of thought in his writing. The introduction presents the assumptions on which the study is based and defines the tools which have been used. Chapter One discusses national developments in education, concentrating on those which are most pertinent to Hardy's novels. The chapter which follows looks at educational developments in Dorset and concludes with a review of Hardy's own education. Chapter Three considers Hardy's early novels, from Desperate Remedies to A Laodicean. The latter represents a turning-point in Hardy's literary career, as it is the first work in which he openly focuses on the juxtaposition of the traditional and the modern. Chapter Four discusses Hardy's later novels, from Two on a Tower to Jude the Obscure. The later novels are more obviously concerned with science and its significance for future developments. The study closes with a short summary and some suggestions for future research.
|
|
| 6. |
-
Literary history : towards a global perspective Vol. 1 Notions of literature across times and cultures
- 2006
-
Samlingsverk (redaktörskap) (refereegranskat)abstract
- Literary History: Towards a Global Perspective is a research project funded by the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet). Initiated in 1996 and launched in 1999, it aims at finding suitable methods and approaches for studying and analysing literature globally, emphasizing the comparative and intercultural aspect.Even though we nowadays have fast and easy access to any kind of information on literature and literary history, we encounter, more than ever, the difficulty of finding a credible overall perspective on world literary history. Until today, literary cultures and traditions have usually been studied separately, each field using its own principles and methods. Even the conceptual basis itself varies from section to section and the genre concepts employed are not mutually compatible. As a consequence, it is very difficult, if not impossible, for the interested layperson as well as for the professional student, to gain a clear and fair perspective both on the literary traditions of other peoples and on one's own traditions.The project can be considered as a contribution to gradually removing this problem and helping to gain a better understanding of literature and literary history by means of a concerted empirical research and deeper conceptual reflection. The contributions to the four volumes are written in English by specialists from a large number of disciplines, primarily from the fields of comparative literature, Oriental studies and African studies in Sweden. All of the literary texts discussed in the articles are in the original language.Each one of the four volumes is devoted to a special research topic.
|
|
| 7. |
-
Rome and the guidebook tradition : from the Middle Ages to the 20th century
- 2019
-
Samlingsverk (redaktörskap) (refereegranskat)abstract
- Almost everyone has used a guidebook, when travelling or in the armchair at home. But how and when was the guidebook born? In this book, seven scholars from various disciplines argue that the guidebook emerged in Rome in the late Middle Ages, to form a surprisingly consistent model for guidebooks up to our time. The descriptions of must-see monuments, recommended routes, practical information and value-laden instructions have guided travellers to Rome through more than 1000 years.
|
|
| 8. |
|
|
| 9. |
- Hållén, Nicklas, 1983-
(författare)
-
"Can't seem to live without it somehow" : An interview with Eddy Harris
- 2014
-
Ingår i: Studies in Travel Writing. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1364-5145 .- 1755-7550. ; 18:3, s. 279-294
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In his books about Paris and Harlem and his travelogues about journeys in Africa and the American South, African-American author Eddy L. Harris explores what it means to be Black in the present moment in history. In this interview, he talks to Nicklas Hållén about his need to travel, the craft of travel writing and his plans for a movie project about a journey down the Mississippi River. The conversation revolves particularly around his travelogue Native Stranger: A Blackamerican's Journey into the Heart of Africa (1992) and the way in which identity conditions (and does not condition) travel and travel writing, and the functions that travel writing may have for the author as well as reader. The interview was conducted in the summer of 2013 at a café in the village of Pranzac in the Charente department of France, where Harris currently lives and works.
|
|
| 10. |
- Hållen, Nicklas, 1983-
(författare)
-
Travelling objects : modernity and materiality in British Colonial travel literature about Africa
- 2011
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study examines the functions of objects in a selection of British colonial travel accounts about Africa. The works discussed were published between 1863 and 1908 and include travelogues by John Hanning Speke, Verney Lovett Cameron, Henry Morton Stanley, Mary Henrietta Kingsley, Ewart Scott Grogan, Mary Hall and Constance Larymore. The author argues that objects are deeply involved in the construction of pre-modern and modern spheres that the travelling subject moves between. The objects in the travel accounts are studied in relation to a contextual background of Victorian commodity and object culture, epitomised by the 1851 Great Exhibition and the birth of the modern anthropological museum. The four analysis chapters investigate the roles of objects in ethnographical and geographical writing, in ideological discussions about the transformative powers of colonial trade, and in narratives about the arrival of the book in the colonial periphery. As the analysis shows, however, objects tend not to behave as they are expected to do. Instead of marking temporal differences, descriptions of objects are typically unstable and riddled with contradictions and foreground the ambivalence that characterises colonial literature.
|
|
