Sammanfattning De invandrare som kommit till Sverige under de senaste åren anses av vissa studier, vara mer välutbildade, det vill säga mer grundligt skolade än svenskar. Trots detta har de haft svårigheter att få en fast förankring i det svenska arbetslivet. Dessa invandrare skulle kunna tillföra vårt arbetsliv och vår samhällsekonomi mycket, men det är få arbetsgivare som vill ta tillvara på deras kompetens. Med anledning av ovan har vi i denna uppsats valt att utvärdera EU-projektet ?Tillvaratagande av invandrarnas högskolekompetens? inom Karlshamns kommun. Detta för att ge en fördjupad förståelse för vilka möjligheter och eller hinder välutbildade invandrare möter vid introduktionen till den svenska arbetsmarknaden. Vi har begränsat oss till Karlshamns kommun för att kunna göra en mer ingående relevant studie. Resultatet vi kommit fram till avspeglar en del av Sverige geografiskt, men skulle kunna vara relevant för Sverige som helhet. Vi beskriver även Svenska ESF (Europeiska socialfonden), programmet Växtkraft Mål 3 och dess samverkande råd, eftersom det är hos denna instans man äskar pengar för projekt likt ovan. Inom Växtkraft Mål 3 har vi avgränsat oss att studera insatsområdet integration och mångfald. Projektledarens ansvar och befogenheter beskrivs, eftersom detta skapar förutsättningarna för genomförandet. För att öka vår kunskap inom ämnet har vi valt ut relevant forskningslitteratur och teorier. Med Norbert Elias och John Scotson modell Pars pro toto (delen före helheten) har vi använt denna för att visa på hur beroenderelationer människor eller grupper emellan reproduceras. Vi använder även Charles Tillys teori för att ge en teoretisk återkoppling till våra studier. Vi beskriver exempelvis högskolorna /universitetens problem med att översätta utländska betyg till svensk motsvarighet, så att personer med utländsk bakgrund på ett snabbt och enkelt sätt kan ingå i den svenska administrationen. Metodvalet för studiens genomförande utgörs av den kvalitativa ansatsen. Vi genomförde kvalitativa intervjuer med sex av deltagarna som ingått i projektet. Avsikten var att få en djupare förståelse av deras erfarenheter och upplevelser. Projektdeltagarna anser sig ha blivit systematiskt diskriminerade som en homogen grupp inom samhället och inte som enskilda individer. De har på grund av detta mist sin motivation, självkänsla och framtidstro till att kämpa vidare. Att återskapa självkänslan har varit ett av projektledarens svåraste och mest tidskrävande uppdrag. Detta var initialt inte det primära målet men var tvunget för att driva projektet vidare. Vårt resultat av den empiriska undersökningen i studien är att deltagarna i projektet har haft en besvärlig situation tiden före projektet. Vi beskriver att var och en för sig, fått söka den kunskap vad gäller svenska normer, värderingar och attityder de behövt för att kunna ta sig fram i det svenska samhället. Hjälpen från de instanser och myndigheter de kommit i kontakt med i samhället, har så gott som varit obefintlig. Slutsatsen av utvärderingen är att projektet trots den korta tidsperiod som projektledaren har haft, har lyckats med att bygga upp arbetsmetoder och rutiner samtidigt som hon hjälpt deltagarna med deras problem. Ledaren för projektet har även skapat det som är ett av syftena i projektet, vilket är att deltagarna får tillbaka sin självkänsla och framtidstro. Vi anser att de mål som var utgångspunkt vid starten av projektet har uppnåtts. Det är viktigt att liknande projekt framöver beaktar projektdeltagarnas erfarenheter och upplevelser. Detta för att projekten skall kunna generera än bättre resultat med en mer genomarbetad arbetsprocess.

Jan Myrdal has often been considered a controversial author. During the sixties he was mostly regarded as a political figure, much appreciated by those who shared his political views and even more abhorred by those who did not. On the international scene his Report from a Chinese Village (1963) is perhaps the best known of his books, having inspired, for example, the sociologically orientated studies of the American author, Studs Terkel. In his abundant and multifacetted œuvre Myrdal has been working in most of the established genres, and also developed new ones. In my work on Myrdal’s texts I have, for a number of reasons, focused on his Childhood books (1982 - 1989). They represent an important part and, in some ways, the very kernel of his work. They deal with a child, growing up in a very special environment - his parents are internationally orientated radical politicians and, both are Nobel prize winners - developing his mind mostly in opposition to that environment. The story of that child, written by a son of famous parents and himself internationally well-known - a number of his books are translated into several foreign languages, - is in itself an interesting subject for a study. From the critical point of view its concentrated attention on the child and the child’s viewpoint, involving an interesting narratological pattern, invites a close reading in the spirit of the French critic, Gérard Genette, and his follower, Michael Riffaterre. Methodically and theoretically the study of autobiographical writing constitutes a complex task. With regard to generic definitions, the critic will find Childhood an interesting intermediate case between autobiography and autobiographical novel. Regarded historically, Myrdal's Childhood books are part of the great tradition from S:t Augustine and Rousseau and more especially of the rebellious, “réfractaire“ branch formed by Stendhal, Vallès and Strindberg. In the context of autobiographical writings, considered as a genre, Myrdal's books were written at a time when new subgenres were being formed by sociological and psychological case stories and also by a media interest in people - famous and unknown alike - speaking freely an openly about their lives and personal problems on the radio, in magazines and in TV-shows. Myrdal's’ readers certainly had their expectations formed by these variations of autobiographical writing. For these variations I have chosen a term proposeded by Pillippe Lejeune: “littérature personnelle“. In my “Introduction“ after a brief survey of generic theory put forward by Johnny Kondrup och Eva Hættner Aurelius, I discuss my reasons for turning to the French critic, Pillippe Lejeune, as a seminal force among generic theorists. His emphasis on generic distinctions, not as a norm of classification but as a reader’s tool towards his generic understanding of the text, has been adopted as a guiding principle. Particular attention is given to Lejeune’s discussion of the autobiographical pact: through the name identity between author and protagonist the former signs a kind of contract obligating himself to tell the truth, or perhaps his truth about the life and the experiences being related. This pact, be it implicit or explicit, appeared to be of great importance to Myrdal's’ readers, delimitating their horizon of expectations as well as their understanding of the text and, in particular, their evaluation of the text. A survey of the actual stage in generic history during which the Childhood books were published, follows, special regard beeing paid to those new kinds of “littérature personnelle“ which have been conditioned by developements in the mass media. In this context, different readers’ expectations in relation to various kinds of auto-biographical writings will be discussed. Lastly we arrive at the extensive collection of reviews which forms the basis of my next chapter, “The Reception“. Myrdal's Childhood provoked an intense debate. The book was first brought to public notice by the author in person, who read it on Swedish Radio, and many people reacted against what they regarded as an evil and false description of the famous parents. A large number of reviews followed, the study of which is an important part of my work. Here the marriage of genre theory and reception theory, proclaimed in Le pacte autobiographique by Pilippe Lejeune, comes into its own. His conception of genre viewed as a reader’s tool - “understanding is genrebound“ - informs my understanding of the reviewers’ different readings and evaluations. The reception of Myrdal’s Childhood books raises the following questions: With what kind of previous understanding, with what kind and degree of consciousness of genre (genremedvetande) and with what horizons of expectations did the readers meet those books? What kinds of readings were put in motion by the different generic expectations? How was the reader’s evaluation influenced by those presuppositions? Those reviewers who read Childhood as an autobiography or memoir emphasized the author’s duty to tell the truth about his childhood, including an appreciative attitude towards his parents. As that attitude was highly critical, these reviewers evaluated the book according to their generic expectations: this could not possibly be the truth about those famous and generally esteemed persons, and so the description was an outrageous lie. On the other hand, those who chose to read the book as a novel, as a story of a neglected and unhappy child, found it a true and deeply moving tale. So the reception of the Childhood books took on in a way the character of a trial, the readers taking the parts of prosecutors, witnesses and judges: had the author, or had he not, exercised fairness and justice to his famous parents in his description of his childhood? Several reviewers, who found it both possible and rewarding to read the Childhood books simultanously as autobiography and as autobiographical novels, could find numerous qualities in the books. They found the story a true picture of a very special child in very special surroundings, but also found a universality that made them identifiy themselves with the child (and also, in a few cases) with the parents. The evaluations of the reviewers changed in an interesting way with respect to the later books in the series. Many reviewers of the first book, Childhood, appreciated its finer qualities, but in many cases critics took a dismissive attitude.The second book, Another World, was highly estimated, however. The reviewers now tended to read the book less as a biography of the famous parents and more as a story of the child, told by the child itself. They were increasingly able to regard it as a hybrid between autobio-graphy and fiction, and, accordingly, could accept the personal descriptions of the parents as the experiences and the subjective truth of the child. Most reviewers of the third book, Getting on Thirteen, applied this model of reading. Correspondingly, the evaluations were changed; with very few exceptions the books were highly regarded by later reviewers. A new and more variated generic consciousness was fundamental to their evaluation. And so much for the reception. In my own readings I have asked the corresponding questions: What possibilities are offered to the critic by the different generic expectations, and by the different models of previous understanding and evaluation? What happens when the reader regards the much-debated works as free artefacts, as parts of the authors complete œuvre, as parts of a tradition, as descriptions of an existing and referential reality, or as authorial expressions in the making of his own consciousness, his personality, his ego? These are the questions that prevade my reading of the Childhood books. I have chosen to consider Myrdals’ books mainly as artefacts belonging to the autobiographical tradition, having their existence on the border between autobiography and novel. The chapter “The process of Growth“ aims at a description of Myrdals early and various declarations of his writing intentions, even these forming part of his autobiographical writing: this is his view of himself as an author, the author also of the Childhood books. Myrdal considers his authorial intentions a question of loyalties: whom will his writing serve? He has made a deliberate choice of loyalties; they remain not with the educated, well-manœvered people, but with the poor and oppressed, who show resistance towards those in power. This resistance often takes forms which are vulgar in a Bachtinean sense. This vulgarity assumes a programmatic value: the author chooses his tradition from popular tales of rich and poor, which often contain vulgar resistance to and rebellion against all kinds of oppression. For such resistance he has found a word: he regards himself a “réfractaire“, a resister and a rebel, in the tradition of the French Enlightenment authors and their heirs, e.g. Strindberg and Jules Vallès. The task and the resonsibility this “réfractaire“ tradition entails, are the foundation of Myrdals’ view of himself as an author, one of his many descriptions of his self, the explanation of which, he finds in those experiences from his childhood contained in the Childhood books. Myrdal has been working on autobiographical material in various guises. In “Littérature personnelle before Childhood“ a short account is given of Myrdal’s use of “I“ for different purposes. In public performances, not unlike those of the parents so profoundly despised by the son, appears an “I“. That “I“ is used by the author as an example in a political analysis. Another “I“ comes forward in the deep and earnest self-examination in the author’s earlier autobiographical works, e.g.Rescontra and Confessions of a Disloyal European. Still more important: is the fact that from the novels of his early youth, Myrdal has been working continually on his childhood impressions. There is a permanent discussion between critics of autobiography about the relation between the autobiographer and his memories; are they truly remembered and truthfully rendered, and can anybody remember the exact truth? To this discussion Myrdal’s texts offer an interesting contribution: they enable the reader to study the same episode in different contexts and under varying lightning conditions; and there are also memory changes under the impression of later experiences, the author becoming more and more critical towards his parents and his environment. His criticism is directed towards both the personal behaviour of the parents and the radical modern vision of society they represent. His rebellious, “réfraktaire“, criticism defies the parents personally both in their educating rôle in the spirit of the new modernism, and their parttaking in the mecanisms of oppression inherent in radical politics. In my next section, “The tradition“ the classical autobiographical tradition is considered, with particular regard to its description of the child, an aspect which is far from obvious among previous early autobiography. My guide is Albert Wifstrand, representative of early critical interest in autobiographical childhood descriptions. In his study “The view of the Child“, he has stated the necessary conditions for such a description: an interest in the child for its own sake, and a regard for its singularity. He finds two tendensies in later, Romantic, childhood descriptions, which run counter to those of classical Antiquity, namely the conception of the child as both good and happy at the same time. Of these ascribed qualities the former is found to be the more enduring, while modern texts tend to emphasize the deep unhappiness of the still innocent child. Building on Wifstrand’s view of the child, and still more on Hættner Aurelius’ stressing on the trial as an essential pattern in autobiographical writing, I offer a brief discussion of some classical episodes in S:t Augustine and Rousseau. While S:t Augustine, in the retrospective trial of the child, tends to pronounce the accused child quite as guilty as its adult judges, Rousseau averts the accusations from the child towards the adult accusers and judges, who are to bear the real guilt: through an erraneous, perhaps even malvolent education, they have destroyed the originally good child and made it at the same time unhappy and less good. In the child such education, and especially the unjust judgments of adult people, awake a justified opposition and a deeply-rooted resistance to any kind of oppression. Taking Rousseau as a turning-point in the history of the trial theme, I give attention to three classics in the autobiographical tradition, to whom the term “réfractaire“ may reasonably be applied, i.e. Stendhal, Vallès och Strindberg. Their impressions of childhod are examined, as were those of Rousseau, from three points of view: social environment, family pattern, and above all, the trial theme. The similarities found between these writers as a group, and between that group and Myrdal, are my reason for positing the “réfractaire“ tradition to which Myrdal adheres. They originate in the different writers’ sense of childhood’s deep injustices, not least in those trials where the innocent child is found guilty. A humiliation of this nature tends, in the eyes of the adult narrator, to take on a pattern-making rôle. Just as the child reacted against the injustice of childhood, these writers have, in their adult lives, reacted against every form of oppression - religious, political, or otherwise. The adult “réfractaire“ was formed by his childhood experiences. In the chapter “The Œuvre“ I have chosen to regard Myrdal’s texts mainly as artefacts belonging to the “réfractaire“ autobiographical tradition, my aim being to reflect on the pattern of the text while making use of different kinds of generic understanding. The reader, on encountering any kind of autobiographical writing, tends to connect it with the actual situation it describes. The reader will therefore always ask himself - and the author - which kind of truth the author is telling. Is he telling his own internal truth about his own feelings - a truth which no one can deny him - or is he telling the truth about facts possible to control from other sources? Thus the reader will always compare the text with the referential reality it presupposes. The referential truth behind the autobiographical story, and the author’s as well as the protagonist’s relation to phenomena typical of his time, are discussed in the sub-chapters “Attitude to psychology and psychoanalysis“ and “The ’réfractaire’ and radicalism“. In accordance with the earlier “réfractaires“, Myrdal takes a very conscious attitude towards his own text. More often than most authors, he has stated his (sometimes contradictory) intentions in an ongoing and highly articulate discussion with his readers, implied readers as well as critics. These declarations of intent are discussed under the heading “The autobiographical project“. The main thing, however, is the text considered as such, and read both as as fiction and autobiography. A review of certain motivic and thematic points - corresponding to that previously applied to Stendhal, Vallès, and Strindberg - is put forward in the sub-chapters “The social continuity“, “The picture of family“, and “The child on trial - the trial of the child“. While taking some account of the referential reality behind the text, I am primarily concerned to investigate how these themes takie on the character of a truth deeply embedded in the textual pattern. “Fictional truth“, according to Riffaterre, is the internal truth to be found in the grammar of fictionality. Lastly,under the heading “The growth of the Ego out of dreams and fantasies“, the numerous dream and fantasy sequences are examined. In these, the growing Ego is formed, as well as consciously forming itself, in opposition against the environment, not least by dint of reading habits and dream-worlds. While taking on an increasingly “réfractaire“ character, the Ego at first finds its dreamworld terrifying. Subsequently, it learns how to master its fantasies and to use them not only as a refuge from an odious reality, but also with a view - at least on the plane of thought - to oppose and take vengeance of its opponents. In the third stage, the world of dreams and fantasies forms the framework of an increasingly intellectual treatment of material furnished by reading and thinking. Eventually, this process of growth is sufficiently advanced for the protagonist to bid farwell, albeit not without pain, to the world of dreams and fantasies.

“. . .it is impossible to strip the human element out from even our most abstract theorizing.”—William James (450) As Nicholas Negroponte, the founding director of M.I.T.’s Media Lab, sees it, information technology’s great contribution to education will be in multimedia. Multimedia assisted pedagogy will, according to Negroponte, bring sound and images into the classroom; it will allow for independent learning and, ultimately, it will bridge the gap, imposed by the traditional academic disciplines, between “technology and the humanities, science and art, between right brain and left” (81). Many of us teaching in the humanities might wonder about the role of written language in Negroponte’s vision and rightfully so. Neither he nor Bill Gates (or, for that matter, the popular press) are overly concerned with the fate of writing and the problems of teaching written texts. However, since the late eighties a great many academics have been teaching successfully with important text-based writing technologies, technologies that have dramatically effected, far more than multimedia CD-ROMs ever will, the web of human relationships that engage in them: reshaping the nature of the classroom, the role of the instructor and the activities of the students. In this essay I will introduce those technologies, discuss the pedagogical debates surrounding them and finally argue for a critical approach to their implementation. As you will hopefully agree, the lessons from nearly ten years of computer-assisted pedagogy are dangerous to ignore — particularly for those of us concerned with the ‘humanism’ of the humanities.

As Nicholas Negroponte, the founding director of M.I.T.'s Media Lab, sees it, information technology's great contribution to education will be in multimedia. Multimedia assisted pedagogy will, according to Negroponte, bring sound and images into the classroom; it will allow for independent learning and, ultimately, it will bridge the gap imposed by the traditional academic disciplines between "technology and the humanities, science and art, between right brain and left" (81). Many of us teaching in the humanities might wonder about the role of written language in Negroponte's vision and rightfully so. Neither he nor Bill Gates (or, for that matter, the popular press) are overly concerned with the fate of writing and the problems of teaching written texts. However, since the late eighties a great many academics have been successfully working with text-based writing technologies in their language, literature and writing classes, technologies that have -- far more than multimedia CD-ROMs ever will -- dramati cally reshaped the nature of the classroom, the role of the instructor and the activities of students. In this essay I introduce those technologies, discuss the pedagogical debates surrounding them and finally argue for a critical approach to their implementation. As you will hopefully agree, the lessons from nearly ten years of computer-assisted pedagogy are dangerous to ignore, particularly for those of us concerned with the 'humanism' of the textual humanities.

This was a presentation of a student-peer mentoring system for the training of incoming Humanities student in basic computer skills. The system is based upon a mentoring course and then a set of scheduled mentoring sessions. Presenation topics covered: 1. the departmental function of the course 2. the execution of the course 3. student perspectives on the course and on the student mentors

This presentation was intended as a basic introduction to the simple, pedagogical applications for: 1. the reading & writing of hypertext (WWW & HTML) 2. the use of synchronous & asynchronous conferencing technologies (IRC & E-Mail) 3. English language drill software Topics included: different methodologies, the kinds and amount of preperation involved for the teacher and students, the dangers of over-use and misuse, and finally the potential benefits for both student and teacher. The target audience was teachers at gymnasium level.

The Discourse of Oratory: The New Rhetoric and Romantic Writing is a study of the cultural anxieties about the power of public speaking that pervaded the mid eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries. Its argument is that those anxieties formed a discursive center for two of the most important forces in the history of British letters and literary studies -- Romanticism and the New Rhetoric -- and that those forces engaged it primarily through a shared concern with the rise of religious evangelism.

A presentation of a multimedia CD-ROM in the works that would replace the old-fashioned, printed introduction to poetry text-book. The aim of the presentation was to generate feedback from English teachers with CAI experience while the product was at an early stage of development.

In The Rhetoric of Reason James Crosswrite argues that, rhetorically conceived, all written argumentation is built upon a "communicative process" (51), a series of speech acts between a claimant and a critical interlocutor (81). It is generated in a combination of tolerant, exploratory dialog and a performance of both non-violent conflict and non-violent conflict resolution. As Crosswhite sees it, therefore, the notions of invention as the discovery of knowledge and the discovery of claims and reasons are fundamentally intertwined. Moreover, he maintains, the social function of invention and argumentative development-- the creation of shared knowledge and the potential for resolved conflict-- stands as one of the important and still undervalued elements of the writing process. Thus he concludes that we must focus our composition pedagogy, far more than we have done before, on the discursive relationship between claimant and interlocutor. This theoretical principle might not seem a radical one, especially to those who teach with electronic conferencing. However, the rhetorical importance that Crosswhite lends to the role of interlocutor ought to -- once taken seriously -- make the cultural relationship between claimant and interlocutor and the integration of discursive 'conflict' into the writing process far more fully conceived pedagogically by the CA instructor than these things usually are. Most electronic conferencing is shaped by an institutionally determined rather than pedagogically selected range of students, and, because they are not rooted in any clear methodology, most conference transcripts end up having only a vague relationship to student drafts. In our presentation, we will discuss how we have tried to create a virtual space that would correct both of these problems. It is a distance learning environment specifically designed to confront students with different ideologies, through direct dialog and debate with their peers in different nations, as well as designed to provide a methodology that would help these students take their explorations and confrontations into their formal arguments. We have called this space Cultural Contact and over the last two years it has served as a month long distance education site for quite distinct courses in quite distant locations: Ohio, Sweden and, during this Spring, South Korea. Through this site, using both the World Wide Web and electronic mail, students are assigned readings intended to highlight cultural differences in political ideology, cultural assumptions and argumentative stylistics. They then choose to join a virtual discussion group on a particular issue of debate, and finally-- by working in small project groups-- they are expected to discover from discussion transcripts the issues, claims, counterclaims, reasons, counter-reasons and calls for justification that make up the beginnings of a cross-culturally informed argumentative essay. We do not ask that the students come to agree on a single argument -- to renounce their differences -- but rather to agree on a common set argumentative loci, a shared outline of where their reasonable differences lie. In our presentation we intend to relate the development of our distance education methodologies, the practical problems of linking together different courses on different schedules with different institutionally imposed goals as well as the challenges of managing student debate and project work from very distant locations and different time zones. Ultimately we hope to present a theoretically informed examination of our experience trying to close the distances between discussion and argument, claimant and interlocutor, culture and culture.

Sammanfattning En fältstudie genomförd av samma författare som till denna studie, med syfte att kartlägga de olika politiska partierna som representeras i Karlskrona kommuns kommunfullmäktige var början till denna uppsats. Det var i den det uppmärksammades att Centerkvinnorna har en hög mötesfrekvens och inte samma fallande medlemsutveckling som Centerpartiet. De flesta är medvetna om att det politiska engagemanget bland samhällsmedborgarna minskar. Vi fick en känsla av detta inte stämde med Centerkvinnorna och blev därför intresserade av vad det var som fick dem engagerade. Syftet med studien är att utifrån ett kunskapssociologiskt perspektiv öka förståelsen för hur vardagsverkligheten konstrueras, hur den påverkar handlandet och skapar mening för fem Centerkvinnor. Studien har utförts med en kvalitativ ansats och grunden till uppsatsen bygger på en gruppintervju med fem Centerkvinnor. Protokoll förda de senaste tre åren har granskats och visar hur intervjupersonernas avdelning på ett rutinmässigt sätt utför sina återkommande aktiviteter från år till år. För att få en ökad förståelse för hur de fem intervjupersonernas vardagsverklighet konstrueras, påverkar deras handlande och skapar en mening för dem har Berger och Luckmanns kunskapssociologiska teori använts i uppsatsen. Centerpartiets ideologi, ekohumanism, står för grunderna i Centerkvinnornas program och spelar en avgörande roll i deras vardagsverklighet. Detta påverkar deras handlingar så till vida att de arbetar för sin hembygds behov och vilket även skapar mening för dem. De olika delarna i uppsatsen sammanförs i analysen med resultatet av protokollgranskningen och gruppintervjun och vi förstår hur dessa fem kvinnors liv genomsyras av centerpolitiken, men de reflekterar inte över det själva eftersom det är naturligt i deras vardagsverklighet. I slutdiskussionen diskuteras samhällsansvaret som dessa fem kvinnor tar genom sitt medlemskap i Centerkvinnorna. De olika nivåerna mellan den objektiva synen på mänskligheten och individers subjektiva tankar och känslor diskuteras också. Vi argumenterar även under denna rubrik för valet av titeln till uppsatsen, vilket är ett citat från en av våra intervjupersoner. ”Inte bara en vanlig syförening” kan tolkas som att Centerkvinnorna är en syförening med utökat innehåll. Intervjupersonen menar med dessa ord exakt tvärt om och det är även vår konklusion av uppsatsen.

The aim of this study is to compare Tok Pisin with English and, in doing so, try to determine whether it is a developing language, moving forwards in its own right, or whether it is a language in the process of disappearing. This possibility was discussed in 1985 by Don Laycock in the article "The Future of Tok Pisin", where he predicts that the language will decline in popularity and use and that "... in perhaps 50 years time, Tok Pisin will most likely be being studied by scholars among a small community of old men."

The aim of this paper is twofold. First it contains a description how Heart of Darkness can be used in the definition and discussion of the terms imperialism and civilization. Second it describes a pattern of analysis based on the novella that is particularly relevant for postcolonial studies. Thus the novella, together with a selection of source material, serves both to give the historical and factual background necessary for the study of New Literatures in English and to provide the students with an analytical model that may be applied to other books in their reading list.

Lecturing on his novel The Plains at La Trobe University Gerald Murnane argued that the book “was the story of a man who tried to see properly.” In the introductory paragraph we are told that the first-person narrator is looking for “anything in the landscape that seemed to hint at some elaborate meaning behind appearance.” This search for “the furthest of all landscapes” is a recurrent theme in Murnane’s writing. My paper will discuss the characteristics and the function of his idiosyncratic geographies in such contexts. As he writes in Velvet Waters his mysterious hidden vistas of loneliness and otherworldliness belong to a world in which “there will never be any such thing as time. There is only place.” These two novels like Inland and Landscape With Landscape take us on cerebral journeys across maps and strange territories of continually changing perspectives. It will be argued that the settings referred to as Paraguay, Hungary, America or Australia, ‘the plains’ or ‘the inland’ are to be understood as mental precincts, as states of mind.

This critical collection, edited by Karin Hansson, contains papers given at an international conference organized by the Department of Humanities of the University of Karlskrona/Ronneby, Sweden in September 1997. To academic teachers and students with an interest in colonial of postcolonial studies, Joseph Conrad’s writing is central, historically, generically, and symbolically. The studies show how his oeuvre constitutes a common frame of reference internationally and how it relates in various ways to a number of writers, from his contemporaries to those of today. Illustrating the scope and variety of today’s criticism, the contributions deal with works from different phases of Conrad’s writing career, including his shorter fiction and novels as well as non-fiction.

The Australian writer David malouf deserves more critical attention, especially in Europe, than is generally recognized. This first full-length critical study has been undertaken in the conviction that a serious assessment of his oeuvre is due. Its purpose is to investigate and illuminate the continuity and unity of Malouf´s fiction and poetry by focusing on aspects of identity in his writing. All his published works testify to his attempt to define and preserve individual identity "at the edge of darkness" through interrelations, language, imagination and art in a wrold of disintegrating humanist values.

The New Zealand writer Janet Frame has become known to the reading public mainly through her autobiographical trilogy comprising "To the Is-land", "An Angel at My Table", and "The Envoy from Mirror City". To a large extent critical attention has been autobiographically oriented, or otherwise focusing each of her eleven novels separately. This study concentrates on the theme of adaptation and evolution in her entire oeuvre. Applying a more interdisciplinary and scientific approach than is usually practised in leterary criticism, it considers Frame´s anti-Darwinian stance as "a Challenge to determinsim" calling material progress and adaptability into question. Novels like "Intensive Care", "Scented Gardens for the Blind", and "The Carpathians" are prophetic in picturing a cataclysmic end to human culture and civilization, it is true, but they also celebrate the power of imagination, memory and creativity. frame foresees not only horror and loneliness "at the edge of the alphabet" but also the possibility of a restoration of humanity and language after an era of unconditional adaptation.

Hjalmar Söderbergs romaner presenterar en hel del olika kvinnobilder. Det handlar om dom svaga typiserade och schablonmässiga från romanerna: Ellen, en förtyckt arbetarflicka, Dagmar som på något sätt försöker bevara husfriden till allt pris, Harriet Skotte en kvinna för kärlekens och tidens ideal. Det handlar även om de nya starka kvinnobilderna från perioden kring sekelskiftet: Märta som representant för den borgarkvinna medveten om sin tids moral, den okända kvinnan som skildras med en inre styrka som gör att hon håller emot den orättvisa könsrelationerna och samtidigt älskar sin man för kärlekens skull, inte lojaliteten, vi har Helga Gregorius som tar sitt äktenskap i egna händer och försöker styra sin framtid, och slutligen den starkaste kvinnobilden av dem alla, Lydia. Lydia, en kvinnobild som tävlar på samma villkor som männen, som är i makt över sin egen sexualitet och samtidigt lever ett liv som sedan länge innan hade varit vigt åt männen. Detta är vad uppsatsen försöker presentera, en ny syn på Hjalmar Söderbergs romankonst och hans kvinnobilder. Hur nära den verkliga samtiden låg Söderbergs beskriving av kvinnorna? Det är en central fråga för uppsatsen. Söderberg var medveten om sin samtid, ytterst medveten.

The core of this essay is the book "The God of Small Things" written by the Indian novelist Arundhati Roy. The strong power of both caste systems or traditional principles and politics is the starting-point of this essay. For this reason, as the center of this tale is a Hindu family of high caste, and consequently very traditional, the identity of the women in the book are of great interest. The women in "The God of Small Things" are very fascinating not only for the reason that they are strongly influenced by their life stories, but even more for the influence their actions and identities have on their children. Of course, none of them can be judged for the shape of their identity, as they all are a merger of culture, religion and politics. More exactly, the divided identities of these women are discussed in relation to firstly their Hindu identity acquired by their society and traditions, and secondly their colonial/post-colonial identity nearly imposed upon them by the colonial forces. In this essay I discuss and analyse three generations of women, a total of four characters. In addition, two other characters are used in order to illustrate the differences that women from the colonizing country (Great Britain) hold in contrast to women from the colonized country (India).

Hedersmord är ett fenomen som fått mycket utrymme i media. Massmedia belyser betydelsen av kulturen i förhållande till mäns makt och relaterar detta till hedersmord. Media har stor inverkan på våra uppfattningar och därför är intresset att se vilka uppfattningar och kunskaper samt hur man vet det man vet, innehar informant gruppen, bestånde av fem kvinnor och fem män. Syftet med denna studie är alltså att beskriva fem kvinnors och fem mäns uppfattningar kring hedersmord. Metoden är kvalitativ med en fenomenografisk ansats. Undersökningen omfattade intervjuer med fem kvinnor och fem män. Informanterna har valt ut genom ett strategiskt urval och individuella informations intervjuer genomfördes. Patriarkat och genusteori samt kulturteori presenteras i bakgrunden, då det är dessa perspektiv som oftast omnämns i media. Förhållningssättet i denna undersökning har varit av abduktiv karaktär, då teoretiska perspektiv presenteras i bakgrunden, vilka sedan relateras till den kvalitativa analysen, men de teoretiska perspektiven är inte utgångspunkten i datainsamlingen. Resultatet, som redovisas i kategorier, visade att den bild informanterna skapat sig av hedersmord, är främst genom massmedia. Informanterna kopplade hedersmord till kultur och religion. Men även kopplingar till bland annat kvinnosyn, grupptryck samt heder och skam gjordes. Informanterna uttryckte att kulturen och religionen styr mycket i människornas liv, så som olika handlingar och beteende. Människo- och kvinnosynen kan också vara faktorer som ligger bakom orsakerna till hedersmord. Var man kommer från, vilken uppfostran man fått och vilken människosyn föräldrarna och omgivningen förmedlat påverkar handlingar så som hedersmord. Kunskapen och fakta om hedersmord har informanterna fått främst genom massmedia, men även genom muntliga berättelser.

ABSTRACT. Cecilia Lindhé. "Worlds in Collision: A Study of Kerstin Ekman's Novel Gör mig levande igen." Kerstin Ekman’s novel Gör mig levande igen (1996) [Make me Alive Again] is a rewriting and continuation of Eyvind Johnson’s Krilon-trilogy (1941-43). This essay addresses the different challenges which Ekman’s novel makes to Johnson’s trilogy. It is argued that these challenges do not simply take the shape of a confrontation of the male perceiving subject, but appear also as a questioning of literary traditions in the wider sense. Through these challenges Gör mig levande igen manages not only to give a voice to women but also transgresses conventional female representation. Exploring the novel’s intertextual relationship with the traditions, conventions, and genres that constitute it, Gör mig levande igen is revealed to be a contradictory novel working within the system it attempts to destabilise. This essay shows how the novel re-evaluates the distinctions and boundaries that mark the idea of a hegemonic subject and a literary canon by undermining boundaries that run between worlds of different ontological status. These worlds, that consist of reality/myth, fact/fiction, and original/imitation are set in motion and collide, opening up a structure that strives toward closure. By highlighting these collisions together with the oscillation between epistemological and ontological dominants, between literary modernist techniques and postmodernist devices, it is possible to see how Gör mig levande igen works to open up a closed structure thus making room for women’s perspectives.

Akademisk historia är en empirisk vetenskap i åtminstone den meningen att historiska utsagor, utsagor om det förflutna, är erfarenhetsbaserade. Utsagornas hållbarhet prövas mot det historiska källmaterialet och mot förnuft och logik. Prövningen sker inom forskarkollektivet och förutsätter kommunikation. Kommunicerbarhet är därför som jag ser det, liksom det för all vetenskap gällande kravet på ny kunskap, ett historievetenskapligt minimikrav och ett kategoriskt etiskt imperativ. Historia är en humanistisk vetenskap i betydelsen en vetenskap som handlar om människan i hennes sociala relationer i det förflutna. I övrigt är det historievetenskapliga forskningsområdet i dag gränslöst. En traditionell, länge i statsidealismen teoretiskt förankrad fokusering på politikhistoria, det politiska livets centrala gestalter och händelser, har övergivits. Det finns med den angivna begränsningen inte längre några förbjudna landskap på det förflutnas territorium. Vad som är bra och dålig historia bestäms utom av minimikraven av en uppsättning relevans- kriterier. Vetenskaplig relevans handlar om att sätta in ett problem i ett problemsammanhang. Relevansen är kumulativ, när problemet relateras till tidigare forskning, och teoretisk, när kopplingen är till samhälls- och/eller historieteori. Med existentiell relevans avses att historikern placerar människan och det mänskliga livets problematiker i centrum för sitt studium. Kravet på kumulativ relevans är inomvetenskapligt och okontroversiellt, teorirelevans har sedan en tid också kunnat påyrkas med inomvetenskapliga, i första hand förklaringsteo- retiska argument. Synpunkten att historia har eller måste bedrivas så att den får existentiell relevans har vanligen upplevts som utomvetenskaplig och på den grunden ibland som suspekt. Jag föreställer mig att det numera är en allmän insikt i vetenskapsvärlden att stipulativa inslag och ren metafysik, t. ex metodregler och antaganden om människans, samhällets och de sociala relationernas natur, och därtill en rad andra värderingsmässiga inslag, är ofrånkomliga när vi bygger vetenskap. Frågan om kravet på existentiell relevans förutsätter en omprövning av den vetenskapliga historiografins minimikrav tycks mig för den skull överspelad. Den alternativa frågan, om forskning som inte sätter människans existens i centrum är förenlig med minimifordringarna, skulle för ett fullständigare svar tarva en mera genom- lysande undersökning av det existentiella relevanskriteriet än som har kunnat företes här. När jag ovan har använt beteckningen 'nyhistorism', i en något annan betydelse än Floto (a.a. 267), för ny-nyhumanismen har det skett i övertygelsen att det i existentialismen, liksom för den delen i historiematerialismen, genljuder av den klassiska historismens föreställning att historien lever i mitt liv och alla människors liv och i alla relationer mellan människor, och att historien därför alltid är samtidig (Benedetto Croce).

Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur dagens data- och telekommunikation påverkar tio studenter vid BTH i deras vardag. I vår frågeställning hade vi tre frågor som vi sökte få svar på. Dessa frågor behandlade vilka kommunikationsvanor tio studenter vid BTH har, hur dessa vanor påverkar deras vardagsliv samt vilka uppfattningar som fanns om den globala IT-kommunikationen. Utifrån intervjuerna med studenterna sökte vi skönja generella likheter/skillnader hos det resterande samhället. Under 1800-talet inleddes utvecklingen av globala nätverk. Telegrafen var först med att använda elektriciteten för kommunikation. Bell uppfann telefonen 1876 och det var inledningen till det senaste århundradets utveckling av telefonen. När mobiltelefonen skapades gav det människor möjligheten att kommunicera trådlöst, och Internet möjliggjorde kommunikation via chattprogram eller mail. Det geografiska avståndet blev inte längre ett hinder för direkt kontakt med andra. Som teori valde vi att använda oss av Castells, Thompson och Habermas. Vi ansåg att dessa tre teoretiker kompletterade varandra då Castells forskning är omfattande, aktuell samt framtidsskönjande. Habermas teorier är grundläggande för språket- samt handlingskommunikationen medan Thompson är länken mellan dessa båda erkända teoretiker. Castells omfattande teoribygge behandlar nätverkskommunikationen och de konsekvenser IT har på den moderna världen. För att komplettera teorin valde vi även att använda oss av Thompson som uppmärksammat kommunikationen i nutiden samt hur den globala kommunikationen utvecklats. Habermas är den tredje teoretikern vi använt oss av. Hans teori är inriktad på det kommunikativa handlandet och hur språket utvecklas i konversationer med andra. Genom att använda dessa tre teoretiker har vi fått ett omfattande teoribygge vilket är grundstommen för vår analys. Efter övervägande kring för- och nackdelar med kvalitativa/kvantitativa undersökningar valde vi att genomföra kvalitativa intervjuer till grund för vårt arbete. En fördel med kvalitativa intervjuer är deras öppenhet och att vi som forskare får en direkt kontakt med dem som intervjuas. Vi eftersträvade att studenterna förutsättningslöst skulle beskriva sina kommunikationsvanor i vardagen. Respondenterna i vår studie är mellan 20-40 år och könsfördelningen är jämn. Utifrån vårt resultat och analysen av densamma har vi funnit intressanta aspekter såsom att respondenterna i vår studie som är över trettio år hade svårare att acceptera de förändringar data- och telekommunikation medför. De såg fördelar som att mobiltelefonerna gav dem en ökad flexibilitet i vardagen och att det samtidigt är en trygghet. Men, de ansåg även att mobiltelefonerna var ett störande inslag, något som de yngre respondenterna inte gjorde några kommentarer om. De var istället av uppfattningen att mobiltelefoner och SMS är ett funktionellt sätt att hålla kontakten med vänner och bekanta. Respondenterna reflekterade över att mobiltelefoni ställer nya krav på dem. Samhället kräver att de alltid ska vara kontaktbara vilket uppfattades som påfrestande av dem. Vi bad även respondenterna beskriva hur en vanlig dag ser ut ur kommunikationssynpunkt. Flertalet beskrev att IT-kommunikationen är en viktig del av deras vardag. Dels för att klara av studier dels för att skapa och behålla kontakten med bekanta. Sättet för att göra detta har förändrats sedan mobiltelefonens intåg och med den, möjligheten att skicka SMS. Respondenterna berättade att de inte ringer familj och vänner lika frekvent för att bara säga hej, utan de anser det viktigt att ha ett ärende för att ringa någon. Resultatet ligger som grund för analysdelen där vi fann att faktorer som flexibilitet, krav, trygghet, missförstånd och avstånd sammanlänkade respondenterna och deras vanor. I analysen reflekterar vi även över resultatets överensstämmelse med teorin. Efter analysen följer en diskussion där nya frågeställningar som uppkommit under arbetets gång presenteras.