My aim with this study has been to examine how the fashion is a leading component in the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.I have studied the role fashion plays in the novel and in which way it can be seen as a way of letting the reader know the important role of fashion in 19tcentury England and the morals of Oscar Wilde.To prove my thesis I have used literature that shows how Oscar Wilde uses influences from his own life in his writing of The Picture of Dorian Gray. I have also used Judith Butler's theory of performativity in analyzing the characters in ordet to display their way of staging themselves and their lifestyles and their dependence of that performativity in their interactions. Even though the theory of performativity often is used to hold the importance of the sexes, I have concluded that it has an important role in the novel when Dorian Gray interacts with the character Sibyl Vane who is an actress. My results have shown that fashion in the novel is often a way of letting the reader know important elements of a character in the way that certain fabrics and items are mentioned when Wilde writes about his characters. I have also found that fashion is an important factor when the characters judge each when they speak about the way they dress.

In this essay, I employ Judith Butlers theories of gender performativity to examine the construction of the monstrosity in Howard Phillips Lovecraft?s two works The Outsider and The Thing on the Doorstep. Focusing on the character?s monstrous attributes, how they are seen by themselves, by others and not least by the reader, I examine how their monstrosity is created and strengthened by dehumanizing processes. I argue that Lovecraft through his narrative technique complicates the relation between monstrosity and humanity in his characters, the result of which is a reader left to determine how monstrous, or human, the creature really is.

This essay examines the visual art of Helena Blomqvist with theory of performativity from Judith Butler among others, with a focus on the potential of visual art to question and dislocate norms. It consists of an analysis of three works of art from three aspects: the work of art, the viewer and the situation, and eventuates in an analysis of how the works relate to representation and norms. The construction of the works is related to Butler's theory of identity construction..

AbstractThis composition is an analysis of the British writer Jeanette Winterson's novel Sexing the Cherry. My interpretation originates from the tradition of feminist literary criticism and my purpose is to read the novel against the queer theorist Judith Butler to reach an understanding of the characters queer selves.Judith Butler's theory of performative gender and her notion of sex as something derived from cultural manifestations might help me to understand the characters in the novel. For they are ambiguous in their gender identity, and the novel in it self is set forth to expand all boundaries.Keyword: Sexing the cherry, Jeanette Winterson, queer, queer-theory, queer writing, JudithButler, feminist theory.SammanfattningDen här uppsatsen är en undersökning av Jeanette Wintersons roman Skapelsens kön. Genom att läsa romanen mot queerteoretikern Judith Butler hoppas jag kunna bilda en förståelse för romankaraktärernas queera identiter. Butlers teori om genus som performativt görande och hennes resonemang kring könet som härlett från kulturella manifestationer kan hjälpa mig med detta.

The aim of this essay is to answer the question of how ? in what ways ? Jeanette Wintersons Written on the Body and Sarah Waters? Tipping the Velvet are queer texts. My method is that of a thematic analysis, focusing on words and phenomenon related to definitions of the multi facetted term ?queer?. The analysis covers themes of lesbian focus, performativity, performance, speech-acts, and heteronormative and queer relationships.

In this essay I analyze Karin Boye?s first novel, Astarte, focusing on her views concerning norms,ideals and female liberation. The novel is written in a tone of irony, allowing for many of thecharacters to be viewed as caricatures. The theories and methods I use are drawn from genderstudies and queer theory. Queer theorist Judith Butler, and the concepts of performativity, interpellation, genealogy and the heterosexual matrix, are of central importance for my analysis.

Den här uppsatsen behandlar hur synen på genus och kön inom arkeologisk tolkning kan vidgas med hjälp av Judith Butlers teorier. Uppsatsen är ett försök att finna vägen till tolkningar som går utanför en normativ syn på kön och sexualitet. Med hjälp av Judith Butler har jag utvärderat tidigare gjorda tolkningar av bronsålderns hällristningar och två danska ekkistegravar (Egtvedsgraven och Skrydstrupsgraven), samt själv sökt finna alternativa tolkningar av dessa..

The purpose of this thesis has been to explore in what ways Franz Kafka?s ?The Metamorphosis? can be read as a story of gender. By bringing together Judith Butler?s theory of materialization and Lennard J. Davis?s crip theory I have spoken of Dismodernity as the domain of abject bodies that have been repudiated by (post)modern societies as untintelligible and dysfunctional.

I have examined the conditions for participation in an opera masquerade. Theoretical support has been found in Michail Bachtin, Richard Schechner and Judith Butler. The main study object has been a masquerade organised by the workers of The Royal Opera of Stockholm in 1925. The masquerade is examined as a social practise with distinct aesthetic framing. The analysis shows that the opera masquerade share some characteristics with the medieval carnival culture as described by Bachtin, but differ in many ways as well.

This essay examine the femme fatal and the head character in the play Lulu Eine Monstretra gödie by Frank Wedekind. I have studied Lulu, who would be classified as a femme fatal, in terms to see what kind of woman?s portrait a femme fatal is. I will show with the theories of Judith Butler, Jacques Lacan and Joan Riviere how the femme fatal can be seen as a construc-tion, a role done by men. As well as a strong self owned woman.

This thesis explores the validity of feminist poststructuralist theory in relation to gender and culture. Within the theoretical frame¬work of Judith Butler, combined with insights from the field of post-colonial theory, different perspectives of the dilemma of universalism are discussed. Primary sources for the study are policy documents from the Swedish government, literary texts and newspaper articles. The results show a number of paradoxes which need to be continually and critically kept unsolved. This does not mean an end to feminist engagement in other contexts than one's own but rather the need for theoretical awareness and self reflection.

Hegel?s master-slave dialectic has often been used as a model or starting point for later theories about emancipation and subversive changes in society. But one often overlooks the fact that the chapter in The Phenomenology of Spirit ends in disaster, as Judith Butler remarks. Instead of realising freedom, the consciousness gets entangled in self debasing activities in its attempts to master the unrelenting principles of the abstract freedom. We get ?the unhappy consciousness?.

The gender theory of Judith Butler is based on both philosophical and psychoanalytic notions of the self. Although greatly inspired by both early and contemporary psychoanalytic thinking, Butler has also questioned some of its core notions such as the meaning of gender complementarity and conceptions of desire. In a dialogue in Studies in Gender and Sexuality she discusses these and other theoretical and ethical issues with the influential psychoanalyst and gender theorist Jessica Benjamin. The exchange is a unique example of an attempt at dialogue and theoretical reflection between a prominent contemporary gender theorist and psychoanalyst. It reveals disagreements and theoretical difficulties I will show to be directly attributable to radical differences between Butler's and Benjamin's conceptions of the self.

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 essay is to do a queer reading of the early Swedish pentecostal movement, with a special focus on the women within the movement. The main empirical material is Gustaf Emil Söderholms Den svenska pingstväckelsens historia part I and II, published 1927 and 1928, in addition to this a selection of articles from the Swedish pentecostal magazine Evangelii Härold has been used. The theoretical framework consists of Judith Butler's concepts of heterosexual matrix and performativity, as well as interpellation, and of Adrienne Rich's concept of a lesbian continuum. The analysis shows that the evangelist role, as well as the charismatic practices of the movement, made it possible for women to take the position as leader and teacher of congregations, and thereby take up a male subject position. The role as evangelist also made possible a life outside of the heterosexual norm, within the lesbian continuum..