Skrifterna från Hoppet. C.H. Braads ostindiska resa 1748–49

Abstract

This thesis deals with the writings of Christopher Hinric Braad (1728–81), employee of the Swedish East India Company, and more specifical¬ly with the manuscripts from his first journey, from Gothenburg to Canton, in the years 1748–1749. Despite their great historical and philological value, witnessed by many authors, none of these texts has been the subject of an edition, nor of any exhaustive research. The thesis establishes a chronology between the documents, and their genetic relationships are also analysed. Three of the manuscripts are chosen as the target for a graphonomic analysis of problematic issues in the writing system: the autographic travel book and journal (Uppsala University Library X389 and X390) and the non-autographic copy of the former (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Braad). Parts of these documents have been transcribed and have been included in the thesis. In order to deal with the issues in the material, the graphonomic theory is broadened with perspectives borrowed from semiotics. The graphonomic analysis manages to resolve a few issues as to the graphematic status of some of the graph-types, but furthermore it shows the importance of distinguishing between the verbal and the merely visual phenomena in the writing system. Some of the graph-types prove to be significant in a non-verbal way, although their status on the verbal level is only allographic.