For centuries, the human body has been used as a mean to project the norms, moral values and aesthetic preferences that exist throughout society. It has been controlled through constrictive fashion, family and social virtues and through how we perceive gender and sexuality. This essay strives to show, not only how the body and the aesthetic values coexist, but also how they work together and influence each other, with the body as the aesthetic medium. To do this, Michel Foucault?s writings of sexuality and his theories on morality and discipline, as well as Judith Butler?s works on normativity and performativity are being used.

The aim of this master thesis is to study the reliefs of a Romanesque tombstone from 1130 AD, with the intention to form a plausible understanding of their meaning. During the course of the investigation, my main focus will be on collecting materials of an iconographical and historiographical nature, as they appear in previous studies. I will also use Performative analysis when examining the tombstone. Consequently this thesis can be seen as a survey of history and place; early Christian iconology as well as the experience of the viewer. As a result, the 900-year-old tombstone will not only be seen as a memorial in this text, but also as a performance of one man?s faith and as representing the core message of the early Christian church.The tombstone is a rarity in Swedish art history and well worth a closer examination.

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this essay is to investigate possible questions generated by theperformance/installation Har hon inget vettigare att göra? Du då. Har du inget annat att hitta på än att ståoch glo på henne? by the artist Elin Wikström. The Constructed Situation invites the spectator to be apart of a continuing process of thought.The subjective feeling makes an important insight to the work through methods of the aestheticsand the Performative., mainly from Margaretha Rossholm Lagerlöf.

This essay concerns dance as an exhibition object by examining the permanent exhibition at The Museum of Dance in Stockholm, Dansmuseet. Due to its dependence on the temporality and movement of the lived body, dance does not easily lend itself to being exhibited in a traditional exhibition display; and since the live dance performance itself is ostensibly absent at the exhibition display, other means of representation must be relied upon in order to evoke the exhibition visitors? experiences of time and movement as well as the feeling of dance. Starting from a phenomenological first-person perspective, as an exhibition visitor, I present three ways in which such experiences may come about. The cross-section of the experience evoked and the means that trigger them are intermedial, spatial, and Performative taking their departure in the visitor?s pre-understanding of dance..

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this essay is to investigate possible questions generated by theperformance/installation Har hon inget vettigare att göra? Du då. Har du inget annat att hitta på än att ståoch glo på henne? by the artist Elin Wikström. The Constructed Situation invites the spectator to be apart of a continuing process of thought.The subjective feeling makes an important insight to the work through methods of the aestheticsand the Performative., mainly from Margaretha Rossholm Lagerlöf.

The aim of this study is to analyse how pornography is used in the American comics X-Men, published by Marvel under the authorship of Chris Claremont.I have applied Butler and MacKinnons theories about pornography as a Performative speech, to this special art form. I have also investigated how censorship has influenced the comics evolution and whether it has affected the way women and sexual and ethnical minorities are represented. To corroborate how these theories apply, I have analysed three main female fig-ures in The X-Men comics - Storm, Phoenix and Shadowcat - and I have tried to identify how they relate to existing stereotypes.The conclusion of this essay is that the women characters in X-Men break the existing stereo-types and create new implications. This reinforces Butler?s theory about the possibility to re-verse hate speech and diminishes MacKinnons perspective of pornography as an imperative..

This essay investigates the results of participation by teenage girls in feminist groups, the so called girl groups. These groups are descendants of the awareness-raising groups of the 1970?s feminist movement. The essay assumes the relevance of theories of heteronormativity and performativity, as well as theories surrounding two different ways to organize girl groups. It is done either through the Pippi-feminism, named after strong independent book character Pippi Longstocking, or through the collective empowerment feminism.

This essay examines how humor is used in the making of stereotypes in the Kronlöf sister?s video SÅ JÄVLA PK! In addition I give my analysis of how power and resistance is shown in the video. Through Michel Foucault?s conception power and resistance together with Judith Butler?s theories about performativity I?d like to show how the characters you can see in the video, in addition to the humor, also put themselves in a public context. I discuss my material in relation to a number of similar and current events that concern sexism and racism in Sweden.

The aim of this study is to investigate the needs and wishes of 10-13- year old children, so called tweens, when it comes to their local library. What kind of library do the children want? How does the mission and different functions for the children's library of today correspond to the needs of the children? Children of this certain age have been interviewed in focus groups where they have had freedom to ?create? their own library and discuss what they consider important in a library. Skot- Hansen, Rasmussen & Jochumsen's model (2011) with four important spaces for a library - Performative space, learning space, inspiration space and meeting space has been part of analyzing the result. These four different areas for the library have been divided into threefunctions: a place for being, a place for learning and a place for creating.The result of the thesis shows, among others, that even though many of the aims of the libraries and the results of research correspond to the ideas and needs of the children, one of the most important functions for the children is the library as a place to relax, a quiet room, where they can dive into their books and other media, which has not been discussed in the research I have taken part of.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine how Ranma ½, one of the most popular Japanese Manga series, reflects the gender system in society. We have chosen to make use of two different gender theorists to determine if Ranma ½ follows the gender norms of society or not. The theoretical framework is based primarily on Yvonne Hirdman's theory of the two basic principles: the principle of dichotomy and the principle of hierarchy. Judith Butler's theory of Performative gender is used as a complement.

In the following essay I have read the drama Natten är dagens mor (The Night is the Day's Mother) by Lars Norén. My main focus has been on the older brother Georg. By using post structuralist gender theories I have sought answers to the following two questions: How is Georg's masculinity constructed and maintained, when seen from a gender perspective? What power structures arise between Georg's and the other men's masculinities? In my analysis I have approached Georg via three perspectives. First, I have by the help of Judith Butler's theory concerning gender Performative actions tried to define the men's gender codes.

Through a critical discourse analysis this study explores the gender norms that students on Kvinnofolkh?gskolan produce, reproduce and experience. Kvinnofolkh?gskolan is built on the understanding that the world discriminates against women politically, culturally, economically and socially, and thus intends to give women, non-binaries and trans people an education with a feminist alignment. Despite studies being made on gender segregated schools as identity forming, I argue that there is a lack of studies that show how gender discourse and theory is produced in contexts where men are excluded.

Building on the concept of constructive iconoclasm as a creational force of iconicity, this thesis examines how the contemporary iconoclastic discourse is related to artistic process. Studies have shown that the Performative act of destroying art that is an historical phenomenon is highly present within the contemporary art discourse today. Due to the many dimensions of contemporary art, the ways in which iconoclastic deeds appear may differ from the historical narrative. While iconoclasm and iconicity are being reciprocal processes that can only exist in relation to each other and their context, there are signs that the destructive act itself is being recontextualized by contemporary artists. Guided by the framework of Norman Fairclough?s critical discourse analysis, the thesis examines the processes of conceptual and constructive art destruction by analyzing the discourses of two case studies situated in the contemporary art market.

AbstractThis thesis discusses and analyses a 19th century female author's vanishing from history. The study investigates social relationships as figured and described in the epistolary form, based on letters between the author herself and different members of her family. It also tries to identify the author's position and situation in her time and society according to important themes and motifs in her novels. The main purpose is not to reconstruct history, but rather to show the many complex histories that can also be described, apart from the simplified and generalized one. The aim of this study is to, from a post-structuralist perspective, analyze the position of author Marianne Lundegård-Hagberg, and her role as a Performative, discursive person that history forgot..

A qualitative interview study how the normative gender images affects on women, their roles and positions in a drug abuse. The purpose of this study aims to shed a light at the consequences that the normative gender scenario inflicts on women with drug abuse and how these prejudices affects these women. Based on interviews with four different women who all lived with a drug abuse we have problematized how the gender system and the normative gender images affected them. We have used gender perspectives and social constructivism theories while analyzing the empirical basis. More specifically we use the theories of Butler about how gender constructs through Performative actions and Hirdmans theories of the gender system.