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- Mattisson, Jane, 1953-
(author)
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Knowledge and survival in the novels of Thomas Hardy
- 2000
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)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.
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12. |
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Kärleken begär att detta tal skall fram - Jalal ud-din Rumis liv, lära och lyrik
- 2008
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Editorial collection (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Kärleken begär att detta tal skall fram är en antologi med texter om den persiske 1200-tals mystikern och poeten Jalal ud-din Rumi. Bidragen är skrivna av Sveriges främsta kännare av persisk litteratur och muslimsk mystik. I anslutning till texterna finns ett urval av Rumis dikter i svensk översättning av Eric Hermelin, Eric von Post, Gunnar Ekelöf, Bo Utas, Ashk Dahlén och Simon Sorgenfrei.
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17. |
- Nilsson, Magnus
(author)
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Mångtydigheternas klarhet. Om ironier hos Torgny Lindgren från Skolbagateller till Hummelhonung
- 2004
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis addresses the work of the Swedish author, Torgny Lindgren (born 1938). Its main focus lies on the all-pervading irony in his work. The use of irony is seen as a unifying trait in Lindgren’s authorship. The development of more complex ironies during the years of his authorship is seen as an effect of his authorship’s thematic development, moving from political satire to existential, ethical and religious matters. The first chapter provides a short presentation of Lindgren’s life and work, and is followed by an extensive theoretical section that is concerned with the interpretation of irony. The interpretational model that is argued for in the thesis states that instances of irony are not apprehended as irony until they are interpreted as such. However, it is also argued that an author is able to trigger this type of interpretation by employing certain textual and contextual stimuli that are socially and culturally determined, thereby signalling that an interpretation of irony is to be inferred. The next five chapters consist of close analyses of the novels that Lindgren published between 1972 and 1995. Here it is shown how Lindgren moves from a pessimistic view of life in his early novels, via a trust in the mercy of God, to a mystical view of God; God as the unification of incompatibilities. It is also shown that, from his public breakthrough in 1982 and on, Lindgren delves deeply into religious questions and the irony of human existence. From this point onwards, Lindgren’s typical “poetics of ambiguity” (such that it is labelled in the thesis) becomes a predominant factor in his work. The most salient feature of this poetics is how Lindgren constantly exploits a movement between opposed positions. He does this in order to show that the answer one can obtain with respect to Life’s existential questions can only be formulated as some unspeakable thirdness that comes forth only in a dialectic play between extremes. It is also pointed out in the thesis that the predominant metafictional themes in Lindgren’s work have an existential significance. In addition to the analysis of how Lindgren employs many different kinds of ironies in order to express his view of the world, his novels are also compared with the thoughts of several significant European philosophers, including Böhme, Spinoza, Schlegel, Kierkegaard and Schopenhauer. It is shown, however, that the thoughts of these thinkers are not completely accepted by Lindgren since it is concluded in the final chapter that Lindgren is engaged in a constant critical discussion of the thoughts of these (and other) thinkers in order to express an ironic view of the world; a world where everything is all things, everywhere, at the same time.
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19. |
- Kvärndrup, Sigurd
(author)
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Den östnordiske ballade - oral teori og tekstanalyse. : Studier i Danmarks gamle Folkeviser
- 2006
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Disputatsen introducerer den internationale balladeforskning siden 1900, idet balladen beskrives som en internationalt udbredt kunstform med mange ganrer. Den indförer en skelnen mellem to af disse, östnordiske viser og vestnordiske kvad; sidstnävnte har et forläg i historiske begivenheder, myter eller litteräre fortällinger, mens viser generelt er fiktion med skabelonagtige handlinger. Begge genrer er opbygget i dramatiske scener, ofte med ganske originale replikker, introduceret af en skenbart objektiv fortäller og krydret med et folkeligt, lyrisk billedsprog, tildels i skikkelse af formler. Hver af disputatsens fire dele afrundes med en längere tekstanalyse. Fjerde del diskuterer visens typiske ästetik, og det vises at en feminin billedverden har haft stor indflydelse på visernes introduktionsfelter; i centralfelterne kan handlingen ofte slå om fra realis til irrealis, den bliver panisk og overskridende, mens finalfeltet söger at opnå forlig og kontraktindstiftelse, eller forlis og tragedie.
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