Magisteruppsatser / Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria och religion

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Människoriket Tage Lindboms modernitetskritik i efterkrigstidens Sverige
(2025-06-23) Martin, Wettmark; University of Gothenburg/Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria och religion
During the period after the Second World War Sweden underwent a quick transformation due to a strong economic development. Decades-long rule for the Social Democratic Party now led to the creation, in Sweden, of a modern welfare state. This period in Swedish history is often considered to be the time when “the Swedish model” was formed. Tage Lindbom (1909–2001) was a historian and intellectual in the Swedish labor movement. For almost thirty years he was head of the labor unions archive, Arbetarrörelsens arkiv, in Stockholm. In 1951 he published a book called Efter Atlantis, where he raised critical concerns about the socialist ideology and how it could be combined with democracy. This book led to an intense debate within the Social Democratic Party, and Lindbom experienced being semi-ostracized from the labor movement. As a result, he became more marginalized. In 1962, Lindbom published the book Sancho Panzas väderkvarnar, in which he expressed harsh criticism of socialist and liberal policies, from a conservative standpoint. A basic concept of Lindbom’s was Människoriket (Man’s kingdom). He used this concept to describe the secular hubris of the premises underpinning the modern Swedish society he saw taking shape. One of Lindbom’s core beliefs was that the secular Människoriket, meaning the secular society taking form, was a society where people had lost their connection with God and the God-given order and instead proclaimed man as ruler. The same year, 1962, Lindbom secretly joined a Sufi order in Switzerland under the leadership of Frithjof Schoun. Schoun’s esoteric school of thought, philosophia perennis, was an important inspiration for Lindbom’s thinking. From the 1960s onward, Lindbom published several books where he expressed similar conservative criticism of the modern western society that he had published earlier about the Swedish society. Some of these books were translated into foreign languages. Nevertheless, his readership in Sweden was still small. This thesis explores Lindbom`s critic of the Swedish afterwar modernity and focuses on three of its aspects; the idea of material progress, democracy and man in the modern society.
Sköra värden - En analys av utmanande tematik i "Allt går sönder" och dess potential i gymnasieskolans värdegrundsarbete
(2025-06-16) Carrin, Maja; University of Gothenburg/Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria och religion
This paper examines how Chinua Achebe’s novel "Things fall apart" (1958) can serve as a foundation for value-based education in the Swedish upper secondary school. Based on the theoretical frameworks of Rita Felski and Gert Biesta, the study analyses the novel’s themes to explore how literary education can promote democratic engagement and ethical reflection. The analysis is grounded in the policy documents for the upcoming curriculum reform, Gy25, which emphasizes the potential in literature’s ability to develop students’ empathy, critical thinking and independent participation in a democratic society. The study is built on a qualitative close reading of the novel with a thematic focus on challenging and provocative subjects such as views on gender, violence, identity and power structures in cultural encounters. Felski’s concepts of reader engagement and Biesta’s three functions of education are being used to highlight literature’s potential in fostering democratic citizenship. The findings suggest that the challenging themes of the novel can evoke strong reader reactions which could provide a good ground for discussions and independent reflection related to norms and values. The didactic approach of the study proposes a combination of Aidan Chambers’ model for literature discussions and deliberative dialogue with an aim towards a Swedish classroom where student-centered and value-oriented discussions are promoted.
Litteraturrecensionen som bildningsmedel i en borgerlig kvinnotidskrift
(2025-06-02) Olsson, Agnes; University of Gothenburg/Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria och religion
This essay explores literary criticism as a means of liberal education or cultivation – Bildung; bildning in Swedish – in the bourgeois women's periodical Idun during the second half of the 1940s. During the 1940s, popular education, folkbildning, gained wide ground in Sweden, a project that was largely the men's domain. What this essay explores, female bourgeois Bildung, is considered with this in mind as a counter-voice in the Bildung-aspirations of the 1940s. The essay examines how attempts have been made to achieve female bourgeois Bildung in practice. The material chosen for the study is literary reviews which has to do with the fact that the literary review is considered as a means to achieve Bildung in practice. More precisely, literary reviews written by Eva Wennerström-Hartmann in the bourgeois women's periodical Idun between 1945 and 1949, are being studied. The study tries to answer the question: In what ways do the literary reviews in Idun function as a means of Bildung? In the essay, a close reading of the reviews is done, the reviews are also placed in a context of literary criticism and in a context of history of Bildung. Ellen Key's understanding of Bildung is being used to make visible in what ways the literary reviews function as means of Bildung. The results shows that the literary reviews function as a means of Bildung by engaging with contemporary issues and by showing the reader how she can understand her contemporaries and herself through literature. Additionally, the result shows that the literary reviews function as means of Bildung by preaching morality, cultivate the reader's sense of beauty, and by relating the reviewed book to contemporary literature and to a literary tradition.
The Injustice of Idolatry: A Comparative Study of Augustine’s City of God and Vico’s New Science.
(2025-01-30) Maresca, Massimo; University of Gothenburg/Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria och religion
This study investigates the concept of idolatry in the works of Augustine and Vico, exploring its implications for sociability and morality. By analysing Augustine’s, The City of God and Vico's Universal Right and The New Science, it reveals their respective critiques of idolatry and its influence on their philosophical and theological frameworks. Augustine interprets idolatry as disordered worship rooted in pride and self-love, which corrupts desires and undermines justice. His dualistic perspective emphasizes the mind as the primary means to divine truth, often portraying the body as an obstacle to spiritual fulfilment. In contrast, Vico reinterprets Augustine's critique through a holistic framework that integrates body, mind, and society. He sees idolatry as an early stage of human development, where myths and deities emerge from bodily experiences. Vico's concept of sensus communis highlights how collective rituals and symbolic language shape human understanding, emphasizing the relational and symbolic dimensions of sociability. This study highlights Vico's departure from Augustine’s dualism, presenting a more realistic ethical framework where love of neighbour becomes a relational necessity rather than a step toward divine union. By situating the body as integral to human consciousness and morality, Vico provides a vision of sociability and justice that bridges human experience and divine truth, offering valuable insights for contemporary theology and ethics.
Ögats poetik. Om Gunnar Ekelöfs "sent på jorden" och Erik Lindegrens "mannen utan väg"
(2024-12-17) Johansson-Mars, Robert; University of Gothenburg/Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria och religion
How does a motif gain and produce significance in a work of poetry? This question provides the setting for the following essay, which examines the eye and its surrounding motifs in two Swedish modernist classics: Gunnar Ekelöf's "sent på jorden" (1932) and Erik Lindegren's "mannen utan väg" (1942). Close readings of both works are followed by a comparative analysis, in which the similarities and differences between the works are discussed. The joint basis of Ekelöf's and Lindegren's poetry is the problem of seeing – a problem poeticised through the highly frequent occurrences of phenomena and notions such as eyes, mirrors and blindness. These motifs are fundamental in creating coherence and unity in each of the two poetry collections. While comparisons between them have been drawn before, this essay argues that the centrality of the eye and its surrounding motifs should be considered as possibly their greatest cause of kinship. Yet both works are their own self-enclosed poetic achievements. In "sent på jorden" the eye and its surrounding motifs correspond with the theme of time as well as anguish and death, whereas Lindegren in "mannen utan väg" applies the eyes and the mirrors as epistemological obstacles, using Narcissus as a symbol for mankind. The problem of seeing is depicted by Ekelöf as the problem of the individual, striving for blindness, whereas Lindegren's poems make it a universal matter, seeking to transcend the blindness of seeing. These differences, however, exist within the framework of a shared discourse: the poetics of the eye.
Hur långt bort når världslitteraturen? En läromedelsanalys om representationen av skönlitterära författare som skrivit på andra språk än svenska inom gymnasiekurserna Svenska 1 och 2
(2024-08-13) Rinkinen, Mona; University of Gothenburg/Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria och religion
The purpose of the study is to contribute knowledge about the representation of fiction authors who have written in languages other than Swedish in educational school books within the Swedish subject. This is done in relation to the school's promotion of cultural diversity, a globalized world and to the Swedish curriculum. The study is a combination of a qualitative and a quantitative analysis that takes its starting point in six educational books for the courses Swedish 1 and 2. The analysis shows that all study materials include a broad representation of authorships from Europe and the USA. The selection of authors from other parts of the world is, however, limited. The mentioned authors are legitimized with a connection to another subject content, to the author as an individual, to the author's impact on the outside world or with regard to the school's curriculum. The authors who are described with positive emotionally-charged words are almost exclusively born in Western Europe or in the United States. The selected authors in several of the teaching books do not contribute to the goal in the Swedish curriculum that is promoting a global context. To achieve this goal in the future, there is room for more research on which fiction authors are mentioned in teaching books in other parts of the world. Such research can contribute with knowledge about how Swedish authors of educational books can broaden the representation of literature.
Reinkarnationism i Nya Testamentet Paramahansa Yogananda tolkar Johannesprologen
(2024-03-27) Jonas, Albihn; University of Gothenburg/Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria och religion
Abstract: In this following thesis I enquire the teaching of reincarnation within the New Testament. More specifically I examine how the author Paramahansa Yogananda’s interprets the teaching of reincarnation and his analysis of the prologue to the Gospel according to John. The idea of reincarnation is not a teaching commonly associated with Christian teachings and it has never been advocated within Christian orthodoxy. However, the idea of reincarnation has recurringly been advocated by Christians. Thus, in this literature study I am analyzing what specific support Yogananda finds in the beginning of the Gospel according to John. This is a text generally considered as one of the most influential texts within the New Testament and can also be seen as a summary of the Gospel according to John. Thereby I argue that this study can provide an overall idea of how the doctrine of reincarnation can be interpreted within the broader context of the New Testament. In this study I have found that Yogananda sees the prologue of John as the Genesis of the New Testament. He considers this text analogue with the Hindu cosmologies. In his view all creation is essentially made of Godsubstance all evolving back to its source. Man made in the image of God with the inherent qualities to be a god is bound by the cosmic ethical law karma, cause and effect. Since the fall of Adam and Eve according to Yogananda man is bound through the law of reincarnation until man meets the prerequisites of salvation, perfection. God has an ongoing plan of salvation to lead His errant children back to liberation, eternal life. Yoganandas interpretation of this God’s plan of salvation means that God incarnates by sending already saved souls to live among man as rightful sons of God. To Yogananda this means that to have achieved perfection these agents of salvation had already gone through many reincarnations. According to Yogananda Jesus of Nazareth was such an incarnation of God.
Klosterlasses syn på reformationen i Sverige En tematisk analys av hans svar på Uppsala möte
(2024-03-11) Lindberg, Jane; University of Gothenburg/Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria och religion
The main purpose of this thesis is to analyze Laurentius Nicolai Norvegus (called Klosterlasse) book “En ny lära som aldrig tidigare hörts i Guds kyrka: Klosterlasses kritiska genomgång av Uppsala möte 1593 och den Augsburgska bekännelsen”. The general question of the study is to understand what consequences the reformation in Sweden drove Klosterlasse to write the book? The method used in this thesis is to do an ecclesiological reading of the Swedish translation of the book and then make a thematic analysis of its contents. The conclusion of this study is 1) Klosterlasse did not think it was too late for a counterreformation. As evidence for this view, he states that some of the people that signed the Confessio Augustana reverted back to the Roman-Catholic Church. 2) He did not see a future for the Evangelical Churches, since his ecclesiological view prevented him from acknowledging that the holy spirit could work outside the Roman-Catholic Church. He also returns on several occasions that the Evangelic Churches continues to sunder into smaller groups, since they were lacking the holy spirit. 3) The last perspective is that Klosterlasse argues that the people of Sweden did not want to leave the Roman-Catholic Church, instead they were deceived by the Swedish authorities.
ChatGPT som ”teolog” En undersökning i teologisk representation hos AI-boten ChatGPT-3.5
(2024-02-20) Svensson, Emil; University of Gothenburg/Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria och religion
The aim of this study is to evaluate theological representation by the AI-chatbot, ChatGPT-3.5. The investigation highlights the representation of four Christian theological traditions: Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Lutheranism and Calvinism. The evaluated theological fields are: Theology of Atonement, Theology of the Eucharist, Justification and Sanctification, Biblical view and Images in worship. The theoretical framework for the evaluation is four Catechisms: Katolska kyrkans lilla katekes (Catholicism), The Confession of Dositheus (Eastern Orthodoxy), Luthers lilla katekes (Lutheranism), The Heidelberg Catechism (Calvinism). The analysis demonstrates a Protestant bias in ChatGPT. This bias is rather Calvinistic than Lutheran. Eastern Orthodoxy is generally underrepresented in the answers from ChatGPT. Since ChatGPT-3.5 is trained on a very large number of internet-based texts it´s probable that this Protestant bias mirrors a general Protestant bias in the overall theological data available through the internet. The study also shows that traditions are generally better represented in theological questions that have been central to them. That makes the otherwise underrepresented Eastern Orthodoxy well represented in the matter of images in worship.
Vårt större fädernesland – Paneuropa i Tidevarvet och svensk debatt 1924–1936
(2024-02-14) Engström, Emma; University of Gothenburg/Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria och religion
This is a reception study on how the idea of Paneuropa, as launched by the austrian count Richard Nikolaus Coudenhove-Kalergi in 1923, was received by the political weekly magazine Tidevarvet, a product of – and an opinion forming organ for – the social liberal wing of the Swedish suffrage- and peace movements. The main purpose is to examine to what extent there was an existent Europeanism in the public debate in Sweden during the interwar period, and how that discourse was constructed through the conceptual pairings disruption/unity and parts/whole. The study is conducted mainly through discourse analysis, combined with partly new research into sources such as the parliament, the newspapers and civil society to try to initiate a mapping over the wider reception of the Paneuropa project in a Swedish context. The study finds that the subject of Paneuropa is present throughout the almost entire period of the publication, namely 1924–1936, and that the question of a federal Europe is closely connected to the pacifist attitude of the editorial staff in general and writer/editor Elin Wägner in particular. The study shows that the concept of Paneuropa is presented in three thematically different phases: the future – connected to a sense of idealism, the now – connected to a sense of political change, and the past – connected to a sense of disbelief and disappointment. Furthermore, the analysis conveys that Tidevarvet perceives Paneuropa as one of the most promising unifying movements of its time, due to its perceived ability to achieve peace in Europe, and when signs of the opposite appear, there is a decrease in interest towards the concept. The study concludes that there was a period of Europeanism in parts of the Swedish public from the mid-1920s and throughout the mid-1930s, and that Tidevarvet was one of the most prolific opinionators.
Together, Apart Community and Connection in an Online Sangha
(2024-01-30) Olsson, Edward; University of Gothenburg/Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria och religion
This thesis investigates how the online, global Zen Buddhist community, Treeleaf Zendo, facilitates its meditation sessions, social events and forum, and how the members of the community experience this communication. Through examining the different digital media used in the community, the nature of the interconnection has been studied. The methods of netnography, participant observation and semi-structured interviews, and theoretical and analytical frameworks from medium theory and thematic analysis have been used in the process. The result of the study is that while the members of Treeleaf Zendo experience a sense of community, they do it in diverse ways and use different parts of the community’s resources. Members of the community that tend to be more withdrawn use mainly recorded videos and the written forum, while members that are more outgoing tend to participate more in live broadcasted events. Through the study, the usefulness of Meyrowitz’s theoretical concepts of medium-as-language and medium-as-environment in studying online interaction has been ascertained.
Den artificiella intelligensens begynnelse i skolväsendet – ChatGPT och validitetsproblemet med summativ skrivbedömning i gymnasieskolan
(2023-12-13) Nyqvist, David; University of Gothenburg/Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria och religion
The present essay examines the apparent problem in the validity of writing assessment in the Swedish upper secondary school. The problem lies in the introduction of ChatGPT, which the students can use to write abstract texts of high quality. The main analyzing tool to examine this problem is Bachman’s (2005) assessment use argument (AUA). The empirical material comes from seven interviews of secondary school teachers in Swedish. The result is comprised by the answers from the interviews applied to the assessment use argument. The results suggests that there are two main ways of solving the validity problems in the assessment argument. The first way is that teachers can control the assessment situations. This is done by having the students write in a locked writing program, and only having them write in the classroom. This ensures that the teachers know that ChatGPT was not used to write the texts. The second way is that teachers can change the writing construct that they wish to grade. The teachers mean that in the future this is a likely consequence of the introduction of ChatGPT. The assessment would then shift focus from the product, the text, to the students writing process. These results are then discussed, and two conclusions are formed to help develop a solution to the validity problem in writing assessment presented by ChatGPT. These conclusions are as follows: - The teachers can use a secure writing program to solve the validity problem. - The teachers can also change the writing construct and the target domain to solve the validity problem, however that would require more information on how to do that, as well as changes in the policy document of the subject of Swedish.
Kritiska ord- en interventionsstudie i kritiskt textarbete med grammatik som resurs
(2023-09-27) Dillner, Hedvig; University of Gothenburg/Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria och religion
Flera forskare diskuterar risken med att skolans kunskapsuppdrag kan överskugga skolans demokratiuppdrag. Gymnasieskolan, enligt Lgy11, ska utveckla elevers kritiska förhållningssätt. Elever ska kunna granska och ta ställning till information som de möter i samhället. Inom kursen Svenska 1 i gymnasieskolan kopplas detta ”kritiska” till text. Att lära elever granska en texts grammatik kan vara ett alternativ för svensklärare att kombinera skolans demokrati- och kunskapsuppdrag. Denna studie är därför en undervisningsintervention i kritiskt textarbete med grammatik som resurs inom Svenska 1 i gymnasieskolan. Syftet med studien var att identifiera eventuella skillnader mellan elevers granskningar av en utvald text före och efter interventionen. Studien undersökte också eventuella lärdomar elever tar med sig under och efter interventionen samt relaterade undervisningsinterventionen till skolans demokrati- och kunskapsuppdrag enligt Lgy11. Undervisningen utgick ifrån Janks critical literacy samt Hallidays systemisk-funktionella grammatik som teori. Lektionerna bestod av genomgångar, diskussioner och övningar. Inkluderande och exkluderande pronomen, aktiv/passiv röst, modalitet, kohesion och konnektiver var de grammatiska resurserna som undervisningen bestod av och som kopplades till granskning av olika autentiska texter. Analysmaterialet som samlades in var elevernas för- och eftertest av den utvalda texten, elevers arbetsdokument under interventionen och elevintervjuer efter interventionen. Metoderna var både kvantitativa och kvalitativa. Skillnader som identifierades i granskningarna av den utvalda texten var att många elever efter interventionen uppmärksammade grammatiska termer och/eller ordval i texten samt att flera elever även reflekterade över vad dessa termer/ordval gjorde med just den texten. En del (kritiska) ord, som påverkade eleverna på olika vis, identifierades endast i eftertestet efter undervisningen. Eleverna tog med sig flera lärdomar och undervisningen kan relateras till skolans dubbla uppdrag. Även med en begränsad intervention syns alltså tydliga skillnader i elevers granskningar. Sammanfattningsvis behövs mer forskning inom kritiskt textarbete med grammatik som resurs för att stärka både demokrati och kunskap i det svenska samhället.
’Fader vår’ och ’Vår fader’ En komparativ analys av Herrens bön i svenska översättningar
(2023-08-31) Karinsdotter Yngvesson, Vilhelm; University of Gothenburg/Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria och religion
The Lord’s prayer (Mt. 9b–13) may be one of the most cited paragraphs of the New Testament, appearing as a common prayer since the earliest Christians. In this thesis I firstly analyse the prayer in the Greek text with its grammatical difficulties, and secondly focus on the prayer translated in two Swedish Bible translations (1917 års kyrkobibel and Bibel 2000) which is the main topic of this study. I analyse how the Bible translations, including their liturgical counterparts, address the Greek text by examining their translation principles as well as the theological undertones of the translation. By means of textual criticism I try to answer for what the original Greek text looked like and by means of grammatical criticism I study the meaning of said text. The analysis of the translation is a product-oriented descriptive translation study on micro level, where the translations are compared and evaluated through translation theories such as formal and functional equivalence, as well as semantics. The results points towards that the translations have different approaches to the original text and translation tradition, which is shown for example through their translation of the Greek hapax legomenon ἐπιούσιος. The result also shows that while the theological undertones in the translations are mostly similar to each other, there’s an essential difference between translating the Greek word πειρασμός as ‘temptation’ or ‘trial’.
Two Extreme Positions – A Gender Studies Approach to Homosexuality in Islam
(2023-08-15) Ramos Vicario, Alberto; University of Gothenburg/Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria och religion
In this thesis I compare two anti-gay fatwas by the Muslim scholar Muhammad Saalih al-Munajjid with the book Homosexuality in Islam by Scott Siraj al-Haqq Kugle, who is a professor at Emory University. The aim is to analyze how al-Munajjid and Kugle use the story of Lot in order to unpack and present two divergent readings of homosexuality. This thesis offers a comparative analysis between these two extreme positions, through a gender analysis perspective. It considers the Muslim communities as largely patriarchal societies which extol hegemonic masculinity (Connell, 1987). The results showcase that considerable groups of heteronormative Muslims are more concerned with maintaining a status quo which favours their privileged and dominant position in society, even through murderous means, rather than attempting to truly decipher what the sacred scriptures meant in their whole given context. Furthermore, they often do not even listen nor acknowledge perspectives other than their own. This is oppressive for both women and gender nonconforming men (homosexuals) leading to the latter being forced to abandon the Muslim heartlands to avoid punishment and persecution.
Konfirmationens innebörd i ljuset av kyrkligheter inom Svenska kyrkan - Diakonistyrelsens konfirmationsutredning 1950–1954
(2023-07-04) Karlsson, Camilla; University of Gothenburg/Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria och religion
In 1950, the Church of Sweden National Board for Parish’ was commissioned by the Church of Sweden's Bishops' Synod to carry out an inquiry of the meaning of confirmation within the Church of Sweden. This took place at a time when major societal changes had taken place and were still ongoing in Sweden. The Church of Sweden was undergoing major changes internally as well and the time of State Church monopoly was long over and different groups emerged with varying views on what the task and essence of the church should be, so-called ecclesiastical traditions. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine how the Church of Sweden, through dialogue between Church representatives at national and local level, influenced and coordinated the issue of confirmation education in the middle of the 20th century. Is it possible to establish whether there are indications of influence from different ecclesiastical traditions on the National Board for Parish’ confirmation inquiry? The study's collection method mainly consists of archive studies and that I related the archive findings to previous research. The analysis method has been hermeneutic and based on the need to contextualize the empirical material. The greatest influence on the inquiry's results can be attributed to the Folk Church theological line even though other church parties have been able to contribute to details.
Äktenskap och synen på äktenskap: En jämförelse mellan shiitisk teologi och svenskt lagrättssystem.
(2023-06-28) Jaber, Ali; University of Gothenburg/Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria och religion
Naturalistisk paganism: En netnografisk studie av naturalistiskt pagana individers erfarenheter och förhållningssätt till religiös praktik
(2023-06-28) Lindstedt, Carolina; University of Gothenburg/Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria och religion
Abstract: Based on a netnographic study, focusing on the Reddit group SASSWitches, the experiences and approaches of naturalistic pagans towards religious practice are examined. Data collected from 100 discussion threads is analysed from a perspective of lived religion, emphasizing the categories of spiritual dimensions, embodiment, emotions, and materiality. Lori Beaman's concept ”reclaiming enchantment”, which a) rejects the myth of disenchantment and b) argues for an expanded definition of the concept of enchantment, is utilized in the study to demonstrate how the participants’ negotiation between the categories of ”religion” and ”science” challenges socially constructed boundaries between them. The study argues that the participants grounding in a naturalistic concept of religion should be viewed in light of their feelings of reverence and wonder towards nature and science. The individuals’ locating of spiritual dimensions, such as imagination, in evolutionarily developed dispositions of the human brain is seen as a movement towards normalizing ”religion” within a ”non-religious” or ”secular” context. At the same time, individuals discipline this inherent disposition by cultivating an ability to navigate between a critical stance towards the world and a state that embraces and embodies imagination and creativity. The study argues that the use of mythological discourse and religious objects and concepts by naturalistic pagans should be seen as an attempt to redefine these, similar to previous new religious movements throughout history.
Video eller våld? Teknik och innehåll i 80-talets videovåldsdebatt.
(2023-06-28) Ek, Mathias; University of Gothenburg/Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria och religion
Abstract: In the early 1980s video violence sparked controversy and set a clear example of how new media technology can cause debate in both the public and the political realm. In disagreement on how the technology related to the content it made available, video was depicted as both threat and possibility, raising questions about the medium’s role in society. While previous studies about the Swedish video violence debate has examined the phenomena as a social construct this thesis aims to understand why similar questions often seem to arise with the reception of new media technology by placing the debate in a historical context. Theoretically this thesis acknowledges the absence of institutions, laws and regulations as a contributing cause to the disputes historically recurring with the reception of new technology. Furthermore, it holds the political regulation and administration of a medium as an important component for understanding the medium’s cultural significance. The ambition is to apply this theoretical framework by analyzing two official reports of the Swedish government on the subject, focusing on disagreements and personal expectations. Concluding that there’s often a thin line between the perception of the technology and the content it communicates.
FÄRG ÄR ANDE BILD ÄR VÄSEN: Josef Albers färglära analyserad genom Hans Beltings antropologiska bildteori.
(2023-06-28) Östberg, Stina; University of Gothenburg/Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria och religion
The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate Josef Albers’ practically oriented color theory. The survey is done through a framework of Hans Belting’s anthropological theory of images. Apart from text analysis, the dissertation uses a method involving practically oriented color exercises. What the dissertation discusses is how image and ethics can be understood within Albers’ color practice. In addition, the dissertation explores how Albers’ Interaction of Color can be understood as a tool to articulate experiences beyond the physical visible world. The dissertation articulates the viewpoint that by letting Albers’ methodology of color and Belting’s anthropological theory of images interact, both appear with increased clarity. A result of the investigation is a series of conclusions: 1, ‘image’ within Albers’ color practice can be understood as essence that emerges in a synchronous process of perception and fabrication, with the actual ability of making the invisible visible. 2, the dissertation suggests that how Albers interweaves aesthetics and ethics, can be put in connection to his catholic background, and to his background at the Bauhaus school. Furthermore, formation of perception and of morals can be seen as the main purpose of Albers’ color practice. 3, concerning how Albers’ methodology of color can be understood as a tool to describe experiences beyond the physical visible word, the dissertation points back to practice: Albers’ methodology of color, set into practice– possesses an ability to reveal the invisible.

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