The purpose of this thesis is to examine the religious testimony in the following works of the Swedish poet Majken Johansson (1930-1993): Liksom överlämnad (1965), Omtal (1969) and Från Magdala. Fragment ur en självbiografi (1972). A part of the purpose is also to investigate how Johansson phrases this testimony using a contemporary aesthetics. The thesis also studies how her works were received by the contemporary critics. The result shows that they tended to deprecate Johansson?s religiosity but were generally appreciative when it came to her poems.

Based on the assumption that the work of contemporary Swedish poet Helena Eriksson, in various ways elaborates the inseparable relation between body and language, this study aims to investigate how this view of language comes to expression in her poetry. Stepping from a theoretical background of feminist perspectives on the body, as well as recent theories on poetic materiality, the analysis points out how the concepts of aesthetic and/or linguistic materiality, social and technological materiality, and what can be described as the ethical dimension of materiality, all as termed by Jesper Olsson and Fredrik Hertzberg, take on feminist implications in Eriksson?s poetry. Through the theory of feminist anthropologist Vicki Kirby and her account of Derrida?s general view of writing, the study makes use of a deconstructive approach to the later work of Eriksson.

This thesis revolves around an obvious fact: printed (or otherwise two- or three-dimensional) poetry is always and inevitably visual. By analysing a representative selection of poems, including conspicuously experimental and image-like poems as well as examples of more conventional poetry, the thesis points out that visual iconicity is an equally inevitable consequence of the visuality of printed poetry. The analysis applies terminology relating to iconicity and intermediality (presented by Lars Elleström, whose theoretical basis is the semiotics of Charles Sanders Peirce) to the selected poems, while avoiding making too specific interpretations, in order to maintain a discussion of the ever-present phenomenon of visual iconicity as such, and not just the individual examples.Rather than introducing visual iconicity specifically to confirm more or less specific interpretations of poetic texts, this method of approaching poems as two-dimensional works of art is what this paper mainly aims to propose, as a productive starting point for literary analyses in general; as is concluded in the theoretical framework by Elleström, the actual modal and iconic properties of printed poetry contradict mutually exclusive dichotomies such as verbal/visual and text/image. While indirectly visually iconic poems tend to have a wider range of possible interpretations at the outset, the existence of iconic potential, however, does not depend on any specific interpretation..

This essay takes its start in the problematic situation concerning source material in the study of the Norse religion before the Christianization of Scandinavia. There is a lack of written sources from the time when the religion was still practiced. There are plenty of archeological sources economic situation than their religious beliefs. The Icelandic stories written in the 13th and 14th centuries give us a broad pictureof the Norse mythology, but the writers were Christians which makes their reliability questionable.The focus of this essay is therefore on two texts written during the time when the Norse religion was still in practice. The first source is the travel notes written in 922 by the Muslim scholar Ahmad ibn Fadlan who met a group of the Rus? people.

The aim of this study is to describe how nature is portrayed in swedish poet and critic Aase Berg?s two earliest poetry collections, Hos rådjur (1997) and Mörk materia (1999), and how it relates to notions of humanity, culture and civilisation. The concept of ?nature? is problematized in a short survey of how it has been used by and critizised in ecocritical literary theory, which is used as the main theoretical framework for this survey, with an emphasis on selected theoretical concepts by Donna Haraway. As a methodological starting point, ?nature? is tentatively defined as ?that which does not let itself be subsumed under the human, culture or civilisation?, and this definition is contrasted with how the concepts are handled in the texts.The investigation shows that the relationship of nature to the human is a fundamental theme that provides a structure for both poetry collections.

Like several of her female peers, Marie Under (1883 - 1980) has been denied the international acclaim she deserves. The earliest text on Marie Under in swedish told of her greatness, but in classical fallic maner reduced her poetic production by marking it with pathological symtoms. Though latter texts by author Enel Melberg have put a feminist perspective on Unders work, the theoretical complexity of her poetic images and language, and its polemic relation to contemporary literary currents, has yet to be recognised. This study will seek to portrait Marie Under and her poetry in this new light.The study moves from an installation of Marie Under in the modern discourse she so far has been estranged from, to an analysis of her earlier works (in the 1910?s and 1920?s).

At the centre of this study lies the question if normative gender thinking affects the way poetry gets reviewed and how the reviews are written, this in relation to both the gender of the reviewer and the poet. The study crosses three academic fields; gender studies, poetry and journalism, and is based on the cultural studies theory of media affecting and even creating the world around it.The study is based on two types of analysis. One quantitative analysis based on the thematic criticism theory about detail studies that shows bigger patterns, this analysis focuses on how the poet and his/hers work are being treated in the reviews in areas such as how much space they´re given in the newspapers, how they are named by the reviewer and the tendency to quote the reviewed work.  And one qualitative analysis based on the new criticism method of close reading, that focuses on the reviewers way of writing and how that may be connected with theories of gender differences, this both connected to the gender of the reviewers and the poets.The material chosen for this study are all the reviews that were published in the same newspapers and that reviewed two specific poetry works by two specific poets chosen with great sensibility to age and career so that their difference in gender would be the most significant difference between them. The works were chosen based on year of publishing, they were supposed to be published as newly as possible and as close to each other in time as possible.

This is a project about learning from an experience, about trying to have fun and not getting overwhelmed and draining your work. The thing that wraps this whole experience together is the making of a book. The purpose of making the book has been to bring two interests together, illustration and graphic design.The content of the book for this graduation project is written by Fredrik Mårtensson. His poetry tells about the unnatural state of the modern society. I have interpreted the poetry in six abstract illustrations that I made digitally, with the intent to maintain the feeling of something organic.The process of making this book is a lot about learning what it actually takes to finish it, about trying to tell something and a lot about experience practical work..

A church in rural Vester Egede from the earliest Christian period in Denmark e.g. the early 1100, a baptismal font is found showing a woman breastfeeding two animals. She is said to be a typical early roman Luxuria, in mild appearance. However, what makes her unique is that she appears standing on the top of her head, her womb serving as font. The main question is how come that a baptismal font like this is to be found in a church, leading to the sub question, if this font really has a Christian origin or could it be rooted in Norse, pre-Christian tradition, alternatively is the font an expression of a syncretism between the two colliding cultures.

The aim of this study is to describe how nature is portrayed in swedish poet and critic Aase Berg?s two earliest poetry collections, Hos rådjur (1997) and Mörk materia (1999), and how it relates to notions of humanity, culture and civilisation. The concept of ?nature? is problematized in a short survey of how it has been used by and critizised in ecocritical literary theory, which is used as the main theoretical framework for this survey, with an emphasis on selected theoretical concepts by Donna Haraway. As a methodological starting point, ?nature? is tentatively defined as ?that which does not let itself be subsumed under the human, culture or civilisation?, and this definition is contrasted with how the concepts are handled in the texts.The investigation shows that the relationship of nature to the human is a fundamental theme that provides a structure for both poetry collections.

By conducting a text analysis this study analyzes possible similarities in the portrayal of story characters between historical Norse myths and contemporary film productions. The chosen historical texts are two stories from Norse mythology which render a myth about Thor and a giant named Hrunge as well as the myth Trymskvädet. The selected movies are two of the comic company Marvel?s productions about super heroes ? Thor and The Avengers. Different categories that this study compares are how the characters are defined by their possessions or artefacts, the actions and the choices which the characters make, and also how their relations, roles and origins are being portrayed.

AbstractThe aim of this essay is to understand the view of man as a creature in the Norse culture by studying rituals and ritual actions in conjunction with homicide. The material on which the study is based is called the Icelandic sagas, which are important source of information to the Norse culture. To achieve the purpose, I used a qualitative content analysis and qualitative narrative analysis along with ritual theories based on Roy A Rappaport among others. The questions are for instance:- What ritual actions occur in connection with the homicide, according to the Icelandic sagas? - What are the differences in how individuals are treated in passages where the ritual actions in relation to homicide and homicide cases investigated and why?The results show four different types of ritual acts in relation to homicide.

The paper directs to introduce the turkish literary tradition to an fairly unknown european audience, as well as to present a turkish poet called Orhan Veli. Since there is hardly any literature written within this subject in either swedish or english I have come to the conclusion that the europeans have not yet been subjected to a discussion of this nature. For this reason my main task has been to gather and compose all that has already been written within this matter. I have chosen not to dig deep into such an unexploared subject, but rather offer different types of entries with which further research can be pursued and built upon.The early literature in Turkey consisted mostly of imitations of the well established arabic- and persian traditions. Because of that the turkisk modernism came, in comparison to the rest of Europe, relatively late.

AbstractThe aim of this essay is to understand the view of man as a creature in the Norse culture by studying rituals and ritual actions in conjunction with homicide. The material on which the study is based is called the Icelandic sagas, which are important source of information to the Norse culture. To achieve the purpose, I used a qualitative content analysis and qualitative narrative analysis along with ritual theories based on Roy A Rappaport among others. The questions are for instance:- What ritual actions occur in connection with the homicide, according to the Icelandic sagas? - What are the differences in how individuals are treated in passages where the ritual actions in relation to homicide and homicide cases investigated and why?The results show four different types of ritual acts in relation to homicide.

By examine cremated remains from graves dated to late Iron Age I wanted to find out what sorts of animals were placed in the graves. But also to see if the animal sacrifices had any connection to the Old Norse religion. The osteological material that were analysed were from both cremated humans and animals and had been dated to Viking Age. The material is from burial ground 59 at Laxare, Boge parish on Gotland. In addition to the human remains, the material contains bones from horse, cattle, sheep/goat, pig, dog, cat, bear, birds and fish.