Masteruppsatser / Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper

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Ungdomsorganisationerna och jämställdhet...erna - en diskursanalys av talet om jämställdhet hos 90 svenska ungdomsorganisationer
(2010-10-29) Kindahl, Sofie; University of Gothenburg/Department of Cultural Sciences; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper
Titel: Ungdomsorganisationerna och jämställdhet…erna - en diskursanalys av talet om jämställdhet hos 90 svenska ungdomsorganisationer Författare: Sofie Kindahl Handledare: Elin Lundsten Examinator: Berit Larsson Typ av arbete: Självständigt arbete för masterexamen i genusvetenskap, 15 hp Tidpunkt: Vårterminen 2010 Syfte och frågeställningar: Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka förståelsen av begreppet jämställdhet inom svenska ungdomsorganisationer, samt vilken förståelse av kön som ligger till grund för det jämställdhetsarbete som bedrivs. Detta undersöks utifrån tre frågeställningar 1) Vilken typ av problem framställs frågan om jämställdhet som? 2) Vilka handlingar (o)möjliggörs genom denna problemformulering? 3)Vilka föreställningar om kön implicerar denna problemformulering? Metod och material: Uppsatsen är en diskursanalys av de fördjupade prövningar som ungdomsorganisationerna vart tredje år skickar in till Ungdomsstyrelsen för att bli fortsatt beviljade statsbidrag och i vilka de bland annat beskriver sitt arbete med jämlikhet och jämställdhet. Materialet har analyserats utifrån Carol Lee Bacchis diskursmetodologi What’s the problem? Huvudresultat: Ungdomsorganisationernas tal om jämställdhet skiljer sig markant åt och förståelsen tycks i viss mån påverkas av deras organiseringsgrund. I materialet har sex huvudsakliga teman framträtt, där man talar om jämställdhet som antingen ett grundtillstånd eller som en fråga om könsfördelning, utrymme, innehåll, ett specifikt kön eller normer och strukturer. Det dominerande talet tycks i stor utsträckning vara präglat av den kvantitativa förståelse som även formulerats i den statliga bidragskontexten.
IMAGE: Om tolkning av dagsaktuella bilder
(2011-09-13) Elchner, Björn; University of Gothenburg/Department of Cultural Sciences; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper
This paper emphasizes that the analyzing and the intepretation of images, involves an holistic view, including intention, content, message, and the influence on the observer. The paper focuses on daily produced images. The starting point of this paper is ´image´ in the concept of ´the written image´. The theory- and method textcritical perspective. used in this paper is close connected to Paul Feyerabends, Against Method, and to Robert Farrells work Feyerabend and Scientific Values. This papers specific ques-tions are, 1) is analyzing and intepretation of images, subjective ?, 2) needs the subjectivity to be handled to limit arbitrariness and distortion ?, 3) is it appropriate to use a filter of awarerness as an aid to handle the subjectivity ? The answear to the three questions, is short and clear: ”Yes”. The competence to analyze, translate and intepret reliable, daily produced images, is named ´image competence´. The sugges-tions on continued studies are, a) update the position of ´Art History´ within the area of pictures and images, b) to develop a usable filter of awarerness as an aid to handle distortion in translating daily produced images, c) to study why some images are additional effective in combination with text.
En riktig professor: Om forskarideal och dess påverkan på några individers relation till forskaryrket
(2012-02-09) Larsson Lundh, Linnea; University of Gothenburg/Department of Cultural Sciences; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper
Although women have had access to colleges and universities in Sweden for quite some time and the share of women at the undergraduate level has been high for many years (40% by the late 1950:s, nowadays women are a majority at that level), still the share of women professors is low. This paper will study some researchers’ view on how a professor should be, and also how they relate themselves to that ideal. The method used is qualitative interviews, which have then been analysed by discourse analysis. The paper also contains a discussion on the history of the universities from the Middle Ages and forward, to show how the impact of that historical legacy affects universities today. Eight respondents were interviewed, four women and four men. They all took a similar view as to how a professor should be, but there were some differences in how they related themselves to that picture. A professor, according to their description, is passionate, all but completely focused on the work, likes the work, works overtime and writes papers that are interesting for other researchers. They also describe the way to tenure as lined with insecure terms of employment and a low salary. At large the men seemed more easily self secure in their belief that they had what it takes to become a professor, while the women at the same time as they were sure they had what it takes, still were aware that it is not self evident that a woman, especially not one who chooses to have children, is seen as a potential professor. The ideal picture of a scientist that the respondents described is also present, but in a different way, in the history of the universities. The universities grew out of the Christian monasteries and stayed a matter of the church for a long time. Around the enlightenment though, it became an organisation for the men of the upper classes. At the universities the “manly” “sense” was cultivated, and made even more evident by its contrast to the “female” “sensibility”. In this way, the universities were adapted to these men’s way of life. It shows even today, partly in the way a scientist is supposed to be able to work passionately for long hours, that is without much responsibility for anything outside the university, and partly because the male body is “natural” within the academy, while the women who wish to gain access to the academia have to exceed their bodies (with the sensibility and inability to sense that is ascribed to it) and prove their right to a place in a way that the men do not.
POSTHUMANISTISKA SUBJEKT I VISUELL KULTUR
(2012-08-29) Sandahl, Ann-Louise; University of Gothenburg/Department of Cultural Sciences; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper
The aim of the thesis is to explore how the human subject is depicted in contemporary posthuman cinema and how these films effect our comprehension of human subjectivity. The object of analysis is James Cameron’s Avatar (2009) and the method of analysis is cybernetic and intermedial. The conclusion is that Avatar is a film that depicts a posthuman network society where existence and subjectivity in a great variety of forms is possible. The film presents posthuman subjects in symbiosis with avatars, terminals, extensions and prothesis. In Avatar the human body is exchangeable or even possible to do without, it is not an absolute condition for human life. The human subject can be transformed into a pattern of information and exist for eternity in information circuits. Another conclusion is that the way the human subject and the body are depicted in Avatar is a reflection of the medial and technological structure in our network society. Posthuman narratives is a way of connecting people’s mental worlds to this structure.
Om den ofeministiska jämställdheten och den ojämställda feminismen: en diskursteoretisk analys av en feminismskritisk jämställdhetsrörelse verksam på nätet
(2013-08-28) Lindeborg, Anna; University of Gothenburg/Department of Cultural Sciences; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper
This essay analyses text written by a gender equality movement critical of feminism. The movement is active on the Internet and through this essay I would like to show the tensions in contemporary political debates on gender equality and feminism. 350 blogposts have been deconstructed through discourse theoretical method. In the analyses I have shown the discursive struggle that is going on within the movement in giving meaning to concepts as knowledge, society, gender, politics, feminism and gender equality. The movement is using the technical potential in blogs and common Internet forums to create a common political we. The movement’s political identity is created in direct opposition to feminism. Knowledge is by the movement understood as neutral, objective truth and society is manifested as consisting of free, rational individuals. Politics is understood through liberal political values. Gender is articulated through a conservative discourse where men and women are biologically different and this has a major influence on their positions in society. Feminism is seen as an ideology that is not grounded in reality, that is evil and create hatred and contempt among both women and men. The gendered power structure is manifested as a feminist imagination and contemporary gender equality politics and mass media is seen as governed by radical feminism. Gender equality is defined as equal worth and equal rights and obligations. Through this essay I show that tensions in political debates, regarding feminism and gender equality, is created through the different political actors different understanding of society, people and politics. These different starting points generate a specific view on what gender equality is and how we should reach gender equality.
FÖRVIRRING, FÖRRUTTNELSE ELLER FÖRNYELSE? - En etnologisk studie av kropp, normalitet och berättande i gestaltningar av klimakteriet
(2013-10-08) Backström, Ida; University of Gothenburg/Department of Cultural Sciences; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper
Menopause is a complex, paradoxical totality and every menopausal experience is different from the other. This essay aims to capture some of the experiences surrounding it. The main questions is what it is that the women of the study share about menopause, and how they talk about it. The material consists of interviews with eight women from the ages 51 to 81, all of whom are either in menopause or have come out of it, and narratives collected partly on my own website ”Övergången” (”Transition”) and on the Internet via blogs and a discussion board on menopause. Using Goffmans theories on interaction and roles and theories about gender and age as a social construction I discovered that it is ambiguous messages that are thrown at the middle aged woman in menopause. Menopause is not always a welcome part of the role as a woman. The menopause is also associated with aging and a woman is expected to experience menopause during a certain age and period in the life schedule, often the middle age. In some situations the menopause is a given part of the role while in others it is deliberately left out. Two keywords that all women relate to, one way or another, is normality and standards. One important aspect of menopause is also that it is not easily controlled in all situations; hot flashes and mood changes can hit whenever and no positive thinking in the world controls it. Many women deals with the symptoms by using hormonal treatment, often adding estrogen which is the hormone that is reduced in the body during menopause. Estrogen treatment is associated with increased risk of cancer in the uterus and breasts and some women think that nature should take its course without adding of hormones, while other women recommend it. The body is often perceived as a complicated machinery that can be repaired if broken down. The dialogue of menopause is often fragmentary, kind of like the menopause itself. Using Labovs six elements of a complete narrative I was able to discover that the narratives shows the narrators ideas of menopause in contrast to the commonly known images of it. The old, sweaty woman is a stereotype that most women seem to relate their experiences to. It is also noticable that the informants sometimes lack experience of talking about menopause, which can be seen in the occasional absence of resultation in relation to the complicated action in the narratives. Sometimes, a sort of broken narrative occured, especially in one of the interviews, where the informant was uncomfortable telling me about her bodily experiences in menopause. The conversation of menopause is accepted in some situations and less accepted in others. To deal with it, it is not unusal to talk about it in a humorous way or by talking about other womens experiences. This essay is a contribution to the dialogue of menopause, hoping to show that the term ”normal” is closing and makes people feel different rather than included, and also display the menopause as the fragment, complex totality that it is with all its ups and downs, symptoms and treatments.
Berättelser från en vandringsled - Om upplevelser av kulturarvet Camino Français
(2014-06-16) Hjelt, Pernilla; University of Gothenburg/Department of Cultural Sciences; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper
In my master thesis Stories from a Walking Trail, about the Experiences of the Cultural Heritage Camino Français I describe and analyze oral and written stories about the pilgrimage along Camino Français. I ask what can be revealed in these stories and in what way the pilgrim hikers relate to the time before, during and after their journey. I discuss what function these stories can be said to have in individual and collective identity and cultural heritage processes. One theoretic perspective that I use is about the function of narratives and stories in peoples reconstructions of memories and forming of identities. I have also chosen phenomenological perspectives in which body, situation and environment, consciousness and absence will be important components. A third theoretic perspective focuses on the meeting between cultural heritage, memory and identity. The written stories that I analyse in this thesis are self-biographical travel books, which have either been published as paper books or as Bloggs on the Internet while the oral stories are interviews and observation material that I have conducted. The stories reveal how a dialogue between becoming hikers and stories about the pilgrimage along Camino Français gives the becoming hikers the ability to assimilate a cultural identity and a time space environment so that they, according to their preconditions, can prepare themselves for a personal walking experience. The hikers relation to time on the path are linked to how the body impacts on the meeting between their intentions to do a pilgrimage and the situations and environments that is the walking. Meaningful situations are revealed through descriptions of the hikers meetings with the paths different environments and time changes when the hikers identify themselves with the trails contemporary and historical sites. A social world is also revealed through the storytellers descriptions of what collectively can be said to be pilgrim-cultural narratives which gives the hikers a framework to relate to on the trail. The hikers can be said to share a collective memory, as they share the experience of walking on Camino Français, which do not mean that they bring the same experiences back home. The stories of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela can be seen as an immaterial cultural heritage that passes on a cultural hiker identity. The criticism on society comes to life in the hiker identity and simultaneously this is a part of modernity. The stories can be said to give people an opportunity to choose their identity, but the choice can at the same time be seen as an illusion while other forces than the individual often determine which stories gets to be available for people to identify them self with. Several aspects of the aim that The European Institute of Cultural Routs emphasizes can be seen in the stories while other aspects, like those who speaks of a greater understanding of European history, like the Muslim parts of history, only can be seen peripherally. The stories reveal that the walk along Camino Françis both can be a part of modernity identity norms and a life changing experience in peoples lives.
V.I.N.T.A.G.E. - Om kläder, kvinnor och kulturarv
(2014-06-18) Liimatainen, Merja; University of Gothenburg/Department of Cultural Sciences; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper
Summary This master thesis in ethnology examines the practices around the phenomena of vintage and second-hand clothing in the early twenty-first century. The resurgence of vintage and retro confirms a craze for the style periods of the past and are linked to a more widespread interest in yesterday's fashion and objects. Television and other media outlets showcasing vintage display that it is something that interests many in society today. More vintage dealers are pushing to change the outlook and perspective on an old, worn in object or piece of clothing. The idea is that this object or piece of clothing holds the magic of the past and therefore becomes valuable or sought after. This thesis is about how different vintage dealers describe and define clothing in a way that creates an aura of style and beauty. They come from a perspective of gender and cultural heritage to bring these second hand pieces to life again. The starting point for this thesis is understanding the relationship between the material and the consumer. With analytical tools from Bruno Latour actor network theory, I work to identify the elements of vintage fashion and why it becomes meaningful to certain individuals. Focusing on how social aspects intertwine with the material, I examine how second hand clothing can be understood as cultural heritage and how it’s perceived in this context. This thesis aim to broaden the readers’ perspectives of how vintage clothing becomes relevant in today's society. Through ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with seven women aged 23-33 years, the women tell about their approach, ideas and values that are ascribed to the past and the material. All interviewees are residents of the Gothenburg area and have not experienced first hand, the times when these garments and objects were originally produced. Today, vintage is a big part of their lives and style. Five out of seven work with vintage on a daily basis. They explain how the past can be useful in the present through creativity, ideas and fantasies. When comparing the analysis of medial representations, the reader understands how my interviewee's work both with and against different agendas, inscriptions behind vintage fashion. My interviewees show how they create and re-create stories of the past so that they become relevant today. Through the use of vintage and second-hand, individuals can link themselves with stories of their relatives and other men and women in history. Clothing from the past can be understood as a part of their cultural heritage and can establish meetings between generations. When focusing on the individual and their connections with the past and material, the reader understands how creativity, performance and individual conceptions are important factors in linking the past with today.
Spår av jämställdhet
(2014-09-11) Nurbo, Agnes; University of Gothenburg/Department of Cultural Sciences; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper
Målet för svensk jämställdhetspolitik är att män och kvinnor ska ha samma makt att forma samhället och sina egna liv. För att kunna arbeta mot jämställdhetsmålet krävs organisering; att individer sluter sig samman för att gemensamt uppnå ett resultat. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka berättelser om hur och varför olika organisationer arbetar praktiskt med jämställdhet. Centrala frågeställningar för undersökningen är hur organisationer konstruerar jämställdhet respektive hur jämställdhet konstruerar organisationer. Metoderna jag använder mig av är reflexiva intervjuer och handlingsnät. Den senare fokuserar på att fånga in och förstå organisationers processer snarare än deras resultat. I analysen utgår jag från Karl Weicks och Barbara Czarniawskas teorier om organisering. Resultatet visar på att organisationer tar till sig idén om jämställdhet på olika sätt, men att det grundläggande motivet till att arbeta med jämställdhet är att det är en mänsklig rättighet, tillika att det genererar kvalitet till organisationerna. Jämställdhet fungerar på så vis både som mål och medel. Resultatet visar också att organisationer hanterar frågan om jämställdhet olika beroende på om det rör extern eller intern verksamhet. Beroende på om jämställdhet betraktas ur ett kvantitativt eller ett kvalitativt perspektiv kan arbetet uppfattas som antingen enkelt eller komplicerat. Analysen vittnar även om att praktiskt jämställdhetsarbete kan fungera både systembevarande och systemförändrande, det vill säga att rationella och impulsiva idéer kan stimulera varandra i utvecklingen mot ökad jämställdhet.
I tider när det inte är strider
(2014-09-11) Risberg, Johanna; University of Gothenburg/Department of Cultural Sciences; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper
This master's thesis analyses the concept of equality between men and women in parts of Region Västra Götaland's area of operation. With critical policy analysis I analyse how the problem of inequality is represented in the European charter for equality of women and men in local life (CEMR) and the Region Västra Götaland's plan of action for the charter. Through interviews with people responsible for gender equality in different areas I analyse, with discourse theory, the ways in which the concept of gender equality is articulated in different areas of Region Västra Götaland, and what kind of politics these articulations enables. In the analysis I show that a discursive struggle of how equality is to be defined can better be understood as a discursive negotiation. Equality between men and women is understood in several ways at the same time, as antidiscrimination and basic human rights, as balance between the sexes, and as an approach critical of norms and stereotypes. Within these negotiations certain understandings of gender are made possible or impossible. Men and women are seen as equals, at the same time as women are seen as a separate category that can offer specific experience and characteristics. Specific characteristics that are necessary to seize in the striving towards maximum social and economic growth.
Öppenhet och rymd i det tidiga 2000-talets villaarkitektur
(2014-11-25) Brevinge, Åsa; University of Gothenburg/Department of Cultural Sciences; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper
The aim of this Master´s thesis in Art History and Visual Studies is to examine the existence and the expressions of openness and interior space in the contemporary Swedish architecture of singlefamily houses. Research has focused on open-plan housing with open connections between kitchen and living areas, large windows, walls of glass, high ceiling heights and entresol or loft levels, using two case studies and analyses of seven reference objects. Interpretation is based on phenomenological theoretical perspectives. Houses that are more or less transparent permit views from both the inside and the outside. A discussion of this potential dilemma is supported by sociological perspectives on identity, life-style, self-presentation, privacy and publicity.
Does he look like a bitch? a.k.a. She's got the look a.k.a. Get the picture? a.k.a. Back to the suture Identification and interpretation in Kill Bill
(2015-06-09) Ricksand, Martin; University of Gothenburg/Department of Cultural Sciences; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper
In my essay I examine how the identificatory process of a spectator watching a cult film is altered when the film in question has a female protagonist and a high level of self-reflexivity (and other typically post-modern traits, such as pastiche and referentiality). I compare and combine different theoreticians who analyze these phenomena in order to see how the convergence of the elements create new, unforeseen effects that so far have not been explained. Identification and self-reflexivity have been studied seperately, but I show that when combined, they sometimes produce new effects, and even though the result does not always differ fundamentally from when one watches a 'traditional' film, the process through which this result is attained is sometimes altered.
The Poor Talent, the Unusually Knowing Housewife and the New You
(2015-09-08) Andersson, Tina; University of Gothenburg/Department of Cultural Sciences; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper
The starting point of this thesis is the working class’ fight for knowledge, education and bildning during the 20th century in Sweden. With the general question “who has the right to knowledge?” I go over text- and image material from the two time periods 1930-1949 and 1960-1979 and I also work with material from 2015. All material researched deal with the question of who should partake in education and knowledge production and for what purpose and I search for understandings of gender and class visible in the argumentation for the working class’ right to education. The choice to make a historical study is part of my intention to elaborate with the concept of time. I argue that the discursive constructions of gendered and classed subjectivities that take shape in the material cannot be separated from what I call temporal fantasies; that is, cultural ideas about past, present and future. I find that such fantasies are crucial in the formation of the important citizen: a core figure in the idea about who should gain knowledge and why. I also aim at using the different time periods to illustrate discursive similarities – this in order to problematize the modern story about a linear, development-based time line that assumes historical shifts, generation differences and progress. I draw from the conviction that we need to seek new ways of dealing with time and history, since I believe this to go hand in hand with how we understand matters such as gender- and class based power orders.
Making feminist arguments against borders and regulated migration
(2015-09-09) Helander, Disa; University of Gothenburg/Department of Cultural Sciences; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper
This thesis is about theoretical critiques and practical resistance to regulated migration specifically and borders more generally. My aim is to explore how we can make strong arguments and strategies against borders and regulated migration and, more specifically, to answer this by exploring what feminist theory can contribute to the theorising and critique of borders and regulated migration. I do so by discussing five different types of arguments against regulated migration: (1) arguments by Giorgio Agamben, (2) arguments focusing on citizenship, (3) arguments focusing on labour and capital, represented by Nicholas De Genova, (4) arguments from the perspective of indigenous peoples and that focus on the racialising aspect of borders, represented by Harsha Walia, and (5) arguments that focus on how borders produce many kinds of subjects, represented by Bridget Anderson. I analyse these five approaches by reading each of them through the practical situation of onthe- ground-struggles against regulated migration and through various feminist interventions. I conclude that strong arguments against borders/regulated migration conceive these as practices that produce subjects, imaginaries, and social and political relations. Good arguments also recognise how borders and regulated migration are entangled with numerous power structures such as class, race, gender, sexuality, nation and ability, and refrain from making arguments that would secure the freedom of movement or the freedom to stay for some people at the expense of others. Good strategies must also – despite a principled rejection of the right of the state to control migration – allow for some interaction with the state in order to secure the immediate needs of unauthorised migrants.
Whatever happens, I will never sell the mountains - A reparative analysis of the temporal, political, emotional and intellectual aspects of crafting
(2015-09-09) Isberg, Linnea; University of Gothenburg/Department of Cultural Sciences; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper
The aim of this thesis is to investigate time and the values connected to different uses of time. What use is legitimate, and what is seen as a waste of time? I will argue that a general notion of time as ‘bad’ or ‘useless’ will place objects, subjects and practices in the marginal, but also establish what should be seen as important or not, which makes us value things into good and bad, effective and ineffective, worthwhile and useless. In order to discuss these issues I will use crafting and different approaches to the practice of crafting, such as temporal, emotional, political and intellectual, and economical. Drawing on theorists such as Jack/Judith Halberstam, Elizabeth Freeman, and Sara Ahmed I will investigate how time is connected to different values and norms that decide what is possible to do, when and how. By interviewing elderly women who in one way or another (some as a leisure-time activity, and others as a professional artistic practice) deal with textile and the practice of crafting, I analyse this in four different themes: ‘Bodily Practices & Tacit Knowledge’ where I am discussing how the body is emotionally and temporally involved in the crafting practice, but also how this practice can be read through the understanding of ‘tacit knowledge’ as an intellectual knowledge, which is a way to challenge the dichotomy between body and mind. Theme two is called ‘Textile in Action’ and focuses on the textile material, its agency and effects, and in the third theme ‘Time/Memory/History’ I examine how old textile artifacts serve as a link to the past that challenges chronologic structures and notions of time.!I argue that these artifact do not only make you remember thing, but can also bring you back in time and space. In the last theme called ‘Crafting Conversations’ I argue that crafting and writing can be read as two ways of practicing a female writing. Drawing from the theory of écriture féminine I will show how the crafting practice can be used, and seen as a resistance towards an economy of efficiency.
Exotic Dance and Other Stories of Transformations– An Ethnographic Study in Swedish Strip Clubs
(2015-09-09) Pedri, Sara; University of Gothenburg/Department of Cultural Sciences; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper
The main question of this thesis is how in the social world of stripping the dominant order of symbolic values is renegotiated and exotic dancers undertake processes of transformation. The aim of the study is to look deeper inside those changes, and show how they are contextual to the reality in which they take place. The research has been conducted through participant observations and interviews with ten strippers in two strip clubs of a Swedish city from November 2014 to May 2015. Dancers subjectivize themselves through a personal redefinition of dominant narratives. How do they relate to the public display of female erotica and what consequences do they face for breaking the accepted standards of respectability? Their projection of femininity is one based in the embodied imaginary of an ‘exaggerated’ working class femininity, and this sheds light on the performative nature of gender, and how it is marked by class. Furthermore, narratives about nakedness are also renegotiated: in performance the stripped body is naturalized and re-sexualized. Finally, strippers personally redefine bodily intimacy and accessibility. The transformative potential of striptease is put into practice in the lived experiences of strippers, and, at the same time, it remains a ‘potential’ because it does not manage to reach beyond the segregated, ‘abnormal’ space of the club, into the performers’ and audience’s wider social worlds. I suggest that a feminist alliance between sex workers and sex workers’ theorists is needed in order to overcome the stigma that surrounds striptease and to eventually liberate its subversive potential.
Ge mig ett wham! Sujetten som reproduktionsformel och ceremoniell förvaltare av auran i det minimalistiska filmnarrativet “All is Lost”
(2015-09-22) Stomberg, Fredrik; University of Gothenburg/Department of Cultural Sciences; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper
In this essay, I have studied the narrative structure of the minimalistic adventure film All is Lost. The aim of this study has been to show a reproductive discrepancy between the narrative structure and the narrative substance on the basis of the filmic context and how this discrepancy affects the auratic nature of the filmic narrative within a postclassical context. This discrepancy has emanated from a narrative scheme called the whammo chart which through its reproductive tendencies towards the minimalistic narrative have revealed an anomaly between the narrative structure and the narrative context. David Bordwells view of the terms fabula and syuzhet has therefore acted like a tool to dissect the narrative in order to expose and to contextualize the narrative structure and anomaly that occurs in All is Lost. The whammo chart normally appears within the context of high-concept films in the soul purpose to generate kinetic effects which tends to subordinate the characters in order to substantiate the spectacle. When the whammo chart is being used within a minimalistic narrative, such as All is Lost, the scheme tends to aim its reproductive tendencies towards the central protagonist instead of the external environment. In this process the auratic nature within the narrative changes from generating a ceremonial meaning to instead generate an aura around the filmstar who portrays the protagonist. Instead of generating kinetic effects that incapsulates the quiescent audience the whammo chart analyses the protagonist by using the conventions that the high concept-film corresponds to. In order to contextualize my analysis, I have used Walter Benjamin's theory Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction in correlation with The Storyteller which explains the theory of the decline of the art in storytelling and its transformation against the backdrop of a mercantile impact. To further expand Benjamins thoughts and to be able to transfer them into a modern kontext I have bridged Benjamins theories with Justin Wyatts theory of high concept to substantialize the reproductive nature that occurs within the narrative structure of All is Lost.
Sátántangó och Passion: varaktighet i realistisk och allegorisk gestaltning
(2015-09-22) Sjöberg, Oskar; University of Gothenburg/Department of Cultural Sciences; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper
This essay proposes and examines a coalition between the Deleuzian notion of time-images and two different cinematographic traits: realism and symbolic or allegoric content. The material in question are the films by directors Béla Tarr and György Fehér, whose cinematic qualities are compared to those of Miklós Jancsó and Andrei Tarkovsky. Whilst Tarr and Fehér combine the realistically mundane with a construction of time, Jancsó and Tarkovsky dwelve in allegoric and symbolic imagery which tends a similar construction. The difference is contained within the depiction of realism or allegorism in relation to the duration imbedded in the film.
“I feel more like a superhero” - A Narrative Analysis of Victimization and Agency in Relation to Experiences of Sexual Assaults
(2015-10-01) Stjernholm, Frida; University of Gothenburg/Department of Cultural Sciences; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper
Rape is in many contexts considered being the worst thing that can ever happen to a person and is supposed to result in a life-long trauma. But there is a gap between those who are constructing this discourse and the ones that are being victimized. In this thesis I have interviewed four women who have experienced sexual assaults. We have had conversations about how they negotiate this victimization. For all of the women the assaults lie several years back in time. For my analysis, I have used narrative theory and method in relation to the concepts of victimization, agency and identity. By using this framework I have analysed the storytelling of the informants’ experiences in the specific interview situation. The narratives show that several years after the assaults the informants do not consider the assaults being the worst thing that have happened to them. They have all developed different strategies in order to disidentify with this victimization. The informants request an understanding of the victim concept that gives an opportunity to be considered both active and passive at the same time. This understanding can be enabled by the concept of agency. One way of making resistance to the contemporary discourse and to challenge the victimization of people who have experienced sexual assaults can be to reclaim the socio-structural understanding of being a victim.
ATT MÅLA TILL VARJE PRIS - Annemirl Bauers konstnärskap i 1980-talets DDR
(2015-11-12) Svedbäck, Kerstin; University of Gothenburg/Department of Cultural Sciences; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper
This thesis explores the life and work of a female artist in the GDR in the 1980s. Annemirl Bauer was born 1939 and got her Art education in the GDR. The special circumstances for artists in the socialist republic are described in order to show Bauer´s conditions. A firm believer in the socialist system of the socialistic republic, she was anxious to participate, she did so by written protests sent to the board of the VBK, the professional association for artists. That rendered her harassment from the Ministry of State Security, which severely restrained her in her artistry. My study shows how Bauer´s political and feminist statements were a crucial element in her paintings and drawings. Bauer was made aware of the mechanisms of a gender hierarchy from Western Europe. She is parodying the psychoanalytic theory of penis envy. She uses ancient myths like other contemporary GDR artists did but not in order to hide her criticism against society. Using a semiotic method, I analyse three of her pictures more thoroughly, both visual and verbal elements titles and texts in them as well, I partly reveal hidden messages. The causes of her marginalisation is explored: Being a woman, being a dissident. Bauer died in 1989 a few months before the Wall came down. In Germany after 1990, there are a limited number of publications about Annemirl Bauer. Little has been written about Art in the GDR in the English-speaking world and almost nothing in Sweden.

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