This is a study of the novel Mes mauvaises pensées (2005) by the French writer Nina Bouraoui. I use an intertextual comparative method, where I read the novel against three intertexts: Marie Cardinal Les mots pour le dire (1975), the David Lynch movie Mulholland Drive (2001) and novels and photographies by Hervé Guibert. Main focus is on the relation between body and language. Using the psychoanalytic theories by Julia Kristeva I examine the melancholy of the narrator in Mes mauvaises pensées. The melancholic subject mourns a Thing which is the unrepresentable archaic mother.

This paper aims to examine the heteronormativity that is present in John Galsworthy?s The Forsyte Saga. This is achieved by performing a queer reading of the text with the help of Swedish Queer theorists Fanny Ambjörnsson and Tiina Rosenberg. I study the norm and how it is enforced by law, society and family. To get a complete image of the heteronormativity I also need to analyze the gender presented in the saga.

The following inquiry begins with one simple question: who is the margin? In other words, what is the referent of the term margin? Is it possible for language to capture connotations of an intended and supposed reality beyond its own limits? My supposition is that margin is a valuable concept to critical studies of the hegemonic order and dominant culture in various contexts. It is therefore necessary to expose the term itself to a critical analysis by attempting to trace its position in different discourses. The intention is to illustrate that the term margin is not merely an abstraction, confined within the framework of intricate theoretical rhetoric.In a deconstructive analysis of Gender Trouble by Judith Butler and Can the Subaltern Speak? by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, based on the work of Jacques Derrida, I study the significance of the term margin and explore how the use or non-use of concrete examples affects the reception of both the term margin and ultimately the text as a whole.The study of these two texts reveals that some of the very same critique raised by Butler and Spivak is itself applicable to the authors? own theory production.

SAMMANDRAGI denna teoretiska uppsats jämförs och problematiseras filosofen Hannah Arendts (1906-1975)begrepp handling och filosofen Judith Butlers (1956-) begrepp performativitet. Genom dettaså jämförs även deras respektive användning av begreppet politik. Syftet med uppsatsen är attproblematisera användningen av dessa begrepp samt att jämföra dem med varandra ochargumentera för de likheter som finns. Ytterligare ett syfte är att argumentera för HannahArendts viktiga bidrag till samtida genusvetenskaplig forskning. !Först redogör jag för Hannah Arendts och Judith Butlers användning av begreppen var försig för att sedan göra jag en jämförande begreppsanalys där jag jämför likheterna mellan derasanvändning av begreppen.Mina slutsatser är att det finns ett flertal likheter mellan Arendt och Butlers teorier kringpolitik och villkoren för det mänskliga.

AbstractThis paper is an analysis of Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando. My rendering of the novel is inspired by queer-theory and in particular the theories of Judith Butler. In my interpretation I have put my focus mainly on androgyny and transvestite disguise. The purpose of my analysis is to create an understanding of the theme of androgyny in Orlando and see how it relates to the writer's feminist approach. I?ve also used concepts like transvestite disguise and cross-dressing to interpret the main character, Orlando's constant changes of clothes, between female and male clothing.

After recognizing a lack of children?s voices in the debate about the children?s book Kivi och monsterhund and the gender-neutral pronoun hen that occurred in the beginning of the year of 2012, I decided to interview pre-school children about the same book. My purpose with the study was, using semi-structured group interviews, to examine how 6-year olds talked about the main character Kivi. With the help of Judith Butler?s theory of performativity, I have studied how the children constructed Kivi?s gender in their speech.

This paper aims to investigate the terms and conditions of a lesbian gaze and a lesbian spectatorship from a feminist and queer theoretical point of view. The empirical material consists of three paintings by the American artist Romaine Brooks (1874-1970).  Brooks was based in Paris in the early 20th century where she was surrounded by a group of intellectual and usually cross-dressing lesbians. The women within this context are the ones depicted in Brooks? paintings and this makes her one of the first artists in modernity to openly portray lesbian and cross-dressing women.

In this essay, I make a queer feminist analysis of four novels written by the Swedish author Sigge Stark. The novels are: Uggleboet, Manhatareklubben, Cirkus Demonio och Baskerflickan. Using Judith Butler's theories I examine the relations between sex/gender and sexuality in the four books and show how the construction of gender is performed and the heterosexual normativity is jeopardized. I also examine whether, and if so how, Sigge Stark uses the romantic and the gothic genres to include transcending gender identities and sexualities in her work. The essay also includes a contextualisation of her prerequisities as an author and the necessity in performing a critical analysis of mass produced romantic literature..

This essay examines Finnish artist Iiu Susiraja?s self-portraits in relation to Western traditions and tropes of the genre from the 20th century until today. I use an iconological/iconographic model to describe and to further interpret the images. The purpose is to find out which norms and conventions, within the art sphere and society as a whole, that Susiraja?s images reproduce or revolt against.

I uppsatsen analyseras de två karaktärerna Harry Haller och Hermine, från Hermann Hesses Der Steppenwolf, med hjälp av Judith Butlers queerteori. Karaktärernas förhållande till varandra, köns- och genusroller samt heteronormativiteten undersöks och sätts i samband med bokens maskerad- och teatermotiv. Förutom att maskerad- och teatermotivet undersöks i relation till karaktärerna, analyseras det också i sig självt med utgångspunkt i Judith Butlers teorier om det konstruerade könet och dragshowens subversiva funktion..

This essay is investigating heterosexuality in Gun-Britt Sundströms Maken. With help from the queer theories of formost Judith Butler, but also to some extent the ideas of Michel Foucault, I have tried to answer the question of which norms are becoming clear and which are being broken in the novel. I have also looked at a few of Gayle Rubin?s opposites in her sexual value hierarchy. Some of the norms that are brought to light in the essay revolves around faithfulness, lust towards the ?right? person and for the ?right? reasons.

The purpose of this study is to examine the popular cultural form of television within the field of gender studies. The study focuses on the representation of masculinities in the American television series The O.C. This is done by using textual analysis to gain information from the first and the second season of The O.C. The theoretical framework used is based on Judith Butler and R.W. Connell.

The overall aim of this thesis is to examine the production and repetitiveness of gender patterns with focus on girls in the swedish tween magazine Kamratposten. This is of importance due to the non existing research on Kamratposten concerning this specific topic. The aim is also to evoke a broader discussion about the relationsship between gender representation and pedagody. The theoretical framework is based on three concepts, namly Yvonne Hirdman?s gender contract, Judith Butler?s performativity and the idea of heteronormativity.

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..

Sarah Kane?s first play Blasted (1995) has often been read in a normative and biographical way by critics, authors and previous researchers. This essay makes a supplementary close reading of Blasted from gender and genealogical perspectives and utilizes theoretical works by Judith Butler, Luce Irigaray and Michel Foucault. My study makes clear that the characters different positions in language and talk create and maintain a power imbalance between them. Efforts to change and develop one?s individual position in language and talk are being made throughout the play since it is the only way to bring about a change in the social power structure.