In this essay I have described Ecocriticism as a theory with several different subfields that are inspired by a cross-disciplinary approach, such as green culture studies, ecofeminism, and postcolonial Ecocriticism. After a short summary of the background of ecocritical studies I analyze the various subfields, take a closer look at their contents and present various examples of ecocritical thinking. A presentation of the commonly used concepts within the discipline and some reflections on these is followed by my final discussion, where I state that even though Ecocriticism is a relatively new theory and the concept doesn?t have a clear definition as yet, it is in my view a useful tool for analysis and can with time make valuable contributions to literary studies, not least by introducing a number of new perspectives..

Since time immemorial, nature has been conceived of as a female entity. This ancient concept is also a recurring element in contemporary Swedish horror fiction. The purpose of this thesis is to compare the feature of nature in the selected works of Anders Fager, Andreas Marklund and Frida Arwen Rosesund and in what ways these respective depictions rely on a tradition where nature is gendered female. The theoretical starting-point for this comparative study is Ecocriticism and its subcategory ecofeminism, which are modes of literary criticism where the role of nature in general, and its female connotations in particular, are appreciated as significant literary features. For executing an analysis that goes beyond what is explicit, the exploration of these three writers? texts also adopts a psychoanalytical perspective.

The purpose of this master thesis is to examine how the relationship between humans and nature is expressed in the imaginative literature. My aim is to identify ideological reproductions in the analyzed works. Therefore I have chosen one work from late 19th century and one from late 20th century. This makes it possible to examine the contextual anchorage of the found ideological expressions. The study?s theoretical framework is primarily based on Ecocriticism, and especially on Greg Garrard?s and Kate Soper?s thoughts.

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.

The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate the possibility to communicate messagesrelated to sustainable development through cultural works. Culture is here synonymous toliterature or, more specifically, the fiction genre. According to ecocritical research, this genrehas the capacity to contribute to a more sustainable development and is therefore interestingto analyse from an environmental point of view.The novel selected for the study is Vips så blev det liv - eller en hyllning till blågrönalgen(2010), written by the Swedish author Bob Hansson. The analysis is mainly focused on howthe book?s climate related messages are formulated and integrated in the story.

In the Swedish author, poet and critic Hanna Nordenhöks (1977-) novels Promenaderna iDalbyhage (2011) and Det vita huset i Simpang (2013) the literary characters are often portrayed asdiffuse shapes with a subtile closeness to other organic bodies, places and times. While the novelsaddress themes such as colonialism and subjects becoming, they also explore the act of narratingthrough letters, journals, photographs and, in particular, fabrication. What emerge are two aesthetic,literary works that, on different levels, trouble our notion of borders between human and more-thanhumanbodies, an issue that?s essential for our understanding of human - environmentalrelationship.The purpose of this thesis is to show how the prose of Nordenhök can be read in the light of theterm porosity, where matter is understood as elastic and open for both creating and de-creatinginteractions. I will argue that the novels contribute to a deepened understanding of the relationshipbetween human subjects and more-than-human matter as elastic, and that they incorporate thisdynamic porosity within the narration itself.

 Denna uppsats ämnar med hjälp av av teorier från ekokritik och posthumanism besvara frågorna hur Mary Shelley i sin roman skildrar relationen mellan natur och människa, samt hur man med utgångspunkt i Frankensteins monster (i uppsatsen refererad till som Skapelsen) kan diskutera begreppet människa. Med ekokritik menas här att studera det mänskliga jämfört med det ickemänskliga samt att också diskutera detta mänskliga, vilket är en av huvudpoängerna inom posthumanism.Den vetenskapssyn och natursyn som var gällande på Mary Shelleys tid var antropocentrisk, en världsåskådning som alltid utgår ifrån människan, och som oftast ger människan högre status än allt annat. I romanen skildras detta genom Kapten Waltons syn på sitt upptäcktsresande, och Victor Frankensteins önskan att besegra döden, eller naturen, genom att skapa en ny varelse, för vilket han får plikta med sitt liv, då han inte klarar det hårda klimatet vid Nordpolen. Det blir alltså naturen som dödar honom. I detta kan ses Mary Shelleys kritik mot ett oansvarigt utforskande av naturen och dess processer.Vid försök att diskutera konceptet människa kan upptäckas att en definition lätt motarbetas genom att inte alla människor passar in på denna definition, och att det också kan finnas andra varelser som helt eller delvis gör det.

Avslutande diskussion Naturen tar stor plats i den tecknade serien om Bamse. Hemmiljön är en idyllisk dal där natur och kultur smälter samman. Det finns klara kopplingar till att denna hemmiljö kan betraktas som pastoral, men det finns även mycket moderna inslag. Det är dock i mötet med den moderna civilisationen som det pastorala blir synligt. Krösus Sork vill ofta använda Bamsedalen till ändamål som motorväg eller att borra efter olja, samtidigt som Bamse och hans vänner vill ha kvar sin dal som den är.