The intention of this essay is to inquire into the (re-)constitution of gendered/sexed identities in a gothicistic discourse. The used material is the work Atlantica, chapter 5, vol. 2, written by the Swedish historian/Medical professor Olof Rudbeck. I have chosen this chapter for its description of mythological characters relationship with the earth, the sun and the moon. A description based on a concept of strength and reproduction as gendered characteristics.

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.

The aim with this essay is to look into what literature has been published in 2006 and 2007 for boys between the ages of twelve and sixteen in order to analyse six of the titles. Our two main questions are as follows:?How is the teenage boy depicted in six of these books? - To what extent is the teenage boy depicted in a gender stereotypical way?.We chose the titles for analysis based on our mapping of the published literature and took into account the authors? gender and age as well as the main themes of the books. As theoretical base for our analysis we used Marias Nikolajeva?s table of gender stereotypes in literature.

The aim of this master?s thesis is to examine the virtual reference service Ask the Library [Bibblan svarar] from a postmodern perspective. Ask the Library is a Swedish online reference service that is run by the country?s public libraries. The postmodern theories of Jean-François Lyotard are used to study how information is managed and transmitted within the service.

The aim of this paper is to find an algorithm to establish and maintain a virtual enclosure around a mobile unit. The area may take any form and should be scalable up to and including national borders. The enclosure is managed on the mobile unit. The target system is Android. Smartphones, tablets and more recently, cameras is examples of mobile units.

The aim of this study is to investigate how the female author, Charlotte Brontë, describes the development of her female protagonist in Jane Eyre and to compare this to how the male author, Fyodor Dostoevsky, describes the development of his male protagonist in Crime and Punishment, inside the patriarchal 19th century.My basic idea is that both characters in these two books have to reach their own unknown to find satisfaction and a new existence, and I want to investigate what the characters have to go through to find that existence. To help me in my exploration of Jane Eyre I make use of Gilbert and Gubars? book The Madwoman in the Attic and in the case of Crime and Punishment, I make use of Pelikan Straus? article ??Why did I say ?Women!??? Raskolnikov Reimagined?. Both authors discuss literature from a gender perspective, but without comparing female and male characters or authors with each other, which I believe is important for a more holistic understanding of gender issue.The conclusion of this essay is that these books are describing the main characters? evolution towards their personal unknown with the same tools, a double self, an important symbol, and in the end a love partner that embodies that unknown.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how the supernatural and the occult are portrayed inpopular culture. To be able to do this, I have chosen to perform a discourse analysis of the twofirst novels in the L. J Smith series The Vampire Diaries. The novels are called TheAwakening and The Struggle.I apply the following questions in my analysis to narrow down the perspective further.?In what situations are supernatural used in the books and what part does it play??How does the supernatural affect the main characters and how is this portrayed in the novel??How is the supernatural portrayed depending on the gender of the character?I will focus mostly on the vampires since they generally are the ones who introduce thesupernatural elements into the story.I am applying gender theory in my discourse analyses of the novels, to hopefully be able togive a wider picture of the supernatural in relation to gender in the novels.I begin with analyzing the main discourses in the story, revolving around the supernatural.Secondly I analyze what impact the supernatural has on the main character.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the levels of social distance used by the librarians and users in the virtual reference interview. With a conversational analysis and applied politeness theory 49 chat transcripts where analysed in order to answer the question of how the interlocutors positioned themselves regarding the social distance between them. By identifying what communicative strategies where used the following results were found. Generally the social distance between librarians and users is low in the Swedish virtual reference interview. Even though both parties used informal and casual language the results indicate that the librarians face wants were valued slightly higher than the users which were illustrated by a some what higher social distance in the stages of the conversations when the librarians face was under most threat.

This Master thesis discusses the development of a virtual human soft tissue object for use in exercise applications of various medical procedures.The soft tissue object to be developed shall look like, feel like and behave as living human tissue. It shall give the user a realistic feeling of weight, softness and roughness, and shall behave in a correct way for exercise purposes. The soft tissue model is to be used in a three dimensional stereo graphic environment with haptic feedback. A prototype for practicing the procedure of inserting a catheter is built. The prototype is used to evaluate the potential of the virtual environment for medical exercise applications, and to assess the realism and usability of the soft tissue object.

The aim with this essay is to look into what literature has been published in 2006 and 2007 for boys between the ages of twelve and sixteen in order to analyse six of the titles. Our two main questions are as follows:?How is the teenage boy depicted in six of these books? - To what extent is the teenage boy depicted in a gender stereotypical way?.We chose the titles for analysis based on our mapping of the published literature and took into account the authors? gender and age as well as the main themes of the books. As theoretical base for our analysis we used Marias Nikolajeva?s table of gender stereotypes in literature.

In this day and age we carry out our purchases through different channels. We can shop our clothes and computers in a store or online. Nowadays we can even purchase our groceries through the Internet. The biggest retailer chains within groceries in Sweden have established virtual stores online and are distributing the goods in cities throughout the country. This thesis is dedicated to investigating crucial success factors when going about selling groceries online.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att göra en undersökning om vilka faktorer som påverkar användares närvarokänsla första gången de använder sig av en inneslutande virtuell miljö. De inneslutande VR tekniker vi har valt att fokusera på är Computer Automatic Virtual Environment (Cave) och Head Mounted Display (HMD).Forskaren Carrie Heeter beskriver tre typer av närvaro och forskarna Wallace Sadowski och Kay Stanney räknar upp faktorer som de påstår påverkar användarens närvarokänsla.Vår frågeställning är vilka likheter eller skillnader det finns mellan våra testpersoners svar och Sadowski och Stanneys faktorer. Vi intervjuade och genomförde ett test med tre testpersoner i en Computer Automatic Virtual Environment baserat på två program. Vi valde även att intervjua två experter om vilka faktorer de ansåg påverkade deras närvarokänsla första gången de använde sig av en HMD.Första programmet som testpersonerna fick pröva på var Cuevadefuego som bestod av tredimensionella bilder till skillnad från det andra programmet, Crayoland, som bestod av tvådimensionella bilder. Intervjufrågorna till testpersonerna och experterna baserades på frågor som handlade om experternas och testpersonernas reaktioner och intryck relaterat till deras närvarokänsla och vad de trodde det var som påverkade deras närvarokänsla.Resultatet av intervjuerna och testet är att det finns likheter mellan de faktorer som testpersonerna anser påverkar deras närvarokänsla och med Sadowski och Stanneys faktorer men inga direkta skillnader..

This study examines the love and desire between Angela von Pahlen and Stanny Landborg in Agnes von Krusenstjerna?s Fröknarna von Pahlen series. I have studied the characters in Krusenstjerna?s texts using Judith Butler?s theory of the heterosexual matrix. My main focus has been the desire in Fröknarna von Pahlen.

The aim of this study has been to investigate how the death of a close relative is described in pictures and texts through the eyes of a child character in three picture books. The analysis has also considered how the child character copes with the tragedy and how he or she finds support in the grief process. The books analysed here are Resan till Ugri-La-Brek (1987), Farväl, Rune (1986), and Jättebra Olga! (2010). Since these are works of fiction, this study does not assume that they are an accurate reflection of reality, but the way the child characters act and cope with their grief has been compared with the findings of empirical research on how children react in real situations.The material has been examined by means of a qualitative literary analysis comparing the books according to the research questions. The study finds that the child characters receive evasive explanations from people around them concerning what death means, for instance that the person is sleeping.

The aim of this paper is to find an algorithm to establish and maintain a virtual enclosure around a mobile unit. The area may take any form and should be scalable up to and including national borders. The enclosure is managed on the mobile unit. The target system is Android. Smartphones, tablets and more recently, cameras is examples of mobile units. A modern mobile unit is part of a computer network.