Gothenburg Studies in Literature, History of Ideas and Religion

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://gupea-staging.ub.gu.se/handle/2077/70889

Editor: Olle Widhe, Johan Kärnfelt
ISSN 2004-3112
This series is a continuation of the previous series Gothenburg Studies in the History of Science and Ideas

Published by the Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion of the University of Gothenburg

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Now showing 1 - 4 of 4

Beastly Lessons: Natural Utopias in Seventeenth-Century England
(Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2022-04-06) Kottum, Sandra Iren
The present study investigates the motif of virtuous animal instructors in three selected English texts from the second half of the seventeenth century: James Howell’s The Parly of Beasts (1660), Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World (1666), and Thomas Tryon’s The Way to Health (1683). These authors proposed solutions to the challenges facing early modern England, most notably the Civil War, the emerging empirical science, and the incipient colonization of the Americas. By contrast to those con-temporary thinkers who sought to reestablish lost dominion over the natural world, Howell, Cavendish and Tryon located their blueprints for human betterment in the animal kingdom. They thereby revived theriophily, the ancient notion that animals are superior to humans by virtue of their natural-ness. In this study I examine how in the selected works this idea takes on a distinct, context-specific form. I introduce the genre category natural utopia to capture the authors’ fusion of natural ideals with the utopian impulse that pervaded late seventeenth-century England. Through close readings that counter presentist interprettations, I examine the animals in the texts in light of the era’s shift from an emblematic to an empiricist perspective on nature, highlighting four themes: animal exemplarity, politics, malleability, and animal language. Throughout, I show how Howell’s, Cavendish’s and Tryon’s animal characters introduce a metaperspective on the human/animal relationship, denouncing both general anthropocentric claims to human preeminence, as well as local cultural developments in their era. The selected texts, I argue, depart from established genres of beast literature like fables and bestiaries, and also from speculative literature from the same era. Ultimately, my study shows how these works, while varying greatly with respect to form, content and the authors’ political orientations, are united in a green, countercultural protest against the early modern period’s increasing objectification and destruction of the natural world. My study foregrounds aspects of the texts that have hitherto received little scholarly attention and thereby deepens our understanding of animals in the selected texts, as well as in the seventeenth century’s intellectual landscape.
Den sinnliga uppmärksamheten: Materiellt ekokritiska läsningar av svensk prosa i antropocen
(Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2023-05) Lindbo, Johanna
The present study investigates literary representations of relationships between the human and the more-than-human in Swedish prose written during the second half of the twentieth century. In this compilation thesis works by various authors are explored through six articles and chapters, and a summary article serves as an extended introduction to the study’s background and result, as well as a theoretical and methodological discussion. Three of the authors occur more frequently within the different contributions; Stig Dagerman (1923–1954)), Birgitta Trotzig (1929–2011) and Mare Kandre (1962–2005). They were all active as writers during a time in geological history where the Anthropocene is understood to accelerate and thus provide a chronograph for my selection of primary material. Human understanding of the relationship between humans, the earth and the more-than-human were, and still are, affected by climate change, which also leave traces in cultural and aesthetic forms of expressions. The main aim is to study literature as a source of knowledge and portrayer of the more-than-human, and to investigate what consequences such a reading generates for the notions of subjecthood, becoming, and agency. The study shows how literature can perceive and illustrate the world in ways that challenge an anthropocentric perspective, and how literature can be understood as carrier of more-than-human narratives. The theoretical framework consists of combined fields and concepts within posthumanism, new materialism, indigenous knowledge, and material ecocriticism. The main theoretical approach, material ecocriticism, is an eclectic and curious field that combines studies of literature with concepts from biology, philosophy, and geology. By directing my attention to the more-than-human, I conduct a reading practice inspired by Robin Wall Kimmerer’s and Daniel R. Wildcat’s notion of attentiveness, which I combine with metaphor analysis. The most important recurring concepts in the thesis are agency, intra-action, storied matter, becoming and porosity, which all contribute to the readings by illuminate different approaches to more-than-human and matter as creative. This creativity is traceable in the metamorphic relationship between the human and the organic as well as non-organic surroundings when studied through a material ecocritical perspective. Keywords: agency, air, Andrzej Tichý, becoming, being of the world, Birgitta Trotzig, colonialism, indigenous knowledge, intra-action, landscape, Mare Kandre, matter, material ecocriticism, metaphor, more-than-human, new materialism, plants, porosity, sand, Sara Stridsberg, sensuous attention, Stig Dagerman, stone, storied matter, water
Visions Beyond Empire: British Federalism and Post-Imperial United Kingdom, 1884-1945
(Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2024-04-08) Norrby, Jens
This study seeks to trace federalists’ continuous effort to envision and plan for the end of the empire from 1884 to 1945. While British federalism changed a lot during this period, there was a constant concern with the post-imperial world order and this thesis studies the federalist texts based on the context of the contemporary reckoning with the shifts to the UK’s geopolitical standing. Seen in this way, the British federalists were not only important in developing political theory, but also one of the earliest and most serious examples of attempting to pre-empt and influence the dissolution of the British Empire. In order to do the tradition of British federalism justice, this thesis studies the central federalist organisations—Imperial Federation League (1884–1893), The Round Table (1909–today) & Federal Union (1939–today)—as well as the activity and careers of their members. Some of the key figures are Lord Lothian, Lionel Curtis, Leo Amery, W. T. Stead, F. A. Hayek, Harold Laski, William Beveridge, Barbara Wootton, and Lord Rosebery. As such, the thesis applies a close con¬textual reading of the federalist texts as a framework for understanding contemporary geopolitics, entwined with British public life, rather than as a series of isolated constitutional schemes. I will argue that one can find an early British example of a discourse on post-imperial global order within the British federalist tradition. The federalists developed a number of narratives as to how and why the British Empire should end, principally informed by their relationship to history and the emplotment into which they inscribed themselves. This thesis surveys a transition from preservationist narratives—whose main aim was to preserve British cultural influence—to utilisationist narratives—aspiring to utilise British imperial institutions and the UK’s global standing in order to further the progress towards a global union. This text demonstrates how this aspect of federalist thinking is relevant to its contemporary political discourse, and how the fundamental elements of this transition were already in place following the First World War. It reframes the tradition of British federalism, not only as an important hub for the development of ‘the federalist idea’, but as a way of thinking about and discussing the post-imperial world order.
Making Waves: Podcasting Among Feminist Latter-Day Saints
(Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2025-06-03) Torgrimsson, Kristel
Publicly criticizing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints carries significant risks, prompting feminist members to turn to the internet as a crucial platform for expression. Following the excommunications of the 1990s, blogging emerged as a medium that enabled regrouping and growth. Today, podcasting has taken center stage as a preferred platform for new actors within this movement. This dissertation explores what podcasting affords Feminist Latter-day Saints through a qualitative case study of three podcasts: The Faithful Feminists, At Last She Said It, and Year of Polygamy. Drawing on the concept of “technological affordance” as the interplay between the medium’s performativity and its attributed discourses, the study develops a bipartite analytical model. This model comprises two frameworks: “performed media” which examines podcasting through the communicational and technological topologies of parasocial relationships, liveness, and seriality, and “discursive framing” which considers how media technologies are constructed and validated through discourse. The findings reveal that podcasting enables Feminist Latter-day Saints to 1. Foster what they perceive as caring and advocative communities, where hosts build intimate, friendly relationships with listeners as an alternative to what they construct as the Church institution’s bureaucratic care; 2. Create a setting of spontaneity and informality, allowing for the revaluation and reframing of the Church’s communicative patterns; 3. Navigate the tensions between feminism and faith by providing a dynamic temporality that facilitates the recovery of women’s voices and ongoing faith development, while also introducing a hurried pace that limits reflection and expansion; 4. Evolve personal faith journeys, sometimes through continuous conversion and other times through processes of departure. These findings demonstrate how podcasting enables Feminist Latter-day Saints to foster community, reframe institutional narratives, navigate the complexities of faith and feminism, and construct their personal faith. They contribute to (a) a deeper understanding of contemporary Latter-day Saint Feminism, (b) a critical and nuanced perspective on women’s agency in digital media, and (c) advancing conversations on methodological and theoretical approaches to religious podcasts.

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