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  • 1.
    Alafifi, Markus
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Presidential Manifestation of Verbal Dominance: A discourse analysis of conversational dominance strategies employed by Joe Biden and Donald Trump2021Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
    Abstract [en]

    This study aims to observe linguistic disparities in the distribution of the conversational dominance strategies interruptions, amount of talk, and questions in the first U.S. 2020 presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Subsequently, these findings establish the evaluation of how the interactive phenomena relate to the masculinity conceptualizations of hegemonic masculinity and subordination. To examine the study objective, the methodology conducted was a discourse analysis of the debate transcript. Hence, the method intended to measure to which extent Biden and Trump employed interruptions, amount of talk, and questions during the debate. The outcome of the review established the discursive dominance framework used to discuss how the presidential candidates demonstrated adherence to diverse masculinities’ conceptualizations. The discourse analysis outcome revealed an asymmetrical distribution of the interactive phenomena across all variables measured in favor of Donald Trump. These results suggest that Trump’s discursive performance signaled adherence to hegemonic masculinity norms to a greater extent than Biden through employing more conversational dominance strategies during the debate. Consequently, Biden’s discursive performance indicated closer relations to masculine subordination than Trump’s performance.

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  • 2.
    Andersson, Emelie
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Teachers' Attitudes Affect Students: A Study of Swedish Primary School Teachers' Attitudes towards CLIL2019Independent thesis Advanced level (professional degree), 20 credits / 30 HE creditsStudent thesis
    Abstract [en]

    Teachers play an important role in teaching English as a second language. Since many studies of students’ attitudes towards leaning English already exist this study aims to compensate the lack of studies examining teachers’ attitudes towards methods of teaching English as a foreign language. The main focus of the study is on Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). The definition and effects of CLIL are presented and discussed as well as pedagogical implications about teaching English as a foreign language. Via an online survey questionnaire, this study examines the attitude towards CLIL of ninety-seven teachers in the Swedish primary school’s preschool class to grade three. Findings of this study implicate that teachers in general have a positive attitude towards a content integrated approach to teaching English as a foreign language. Finally, suggestions for future research are presented.

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  • 3.
    Backlund, Anna-Pia
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    The Impermanence of Norms: A Study of Fahrenheit 451 Based on Foucauldian Concepts2022Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
    Abstract [en]

    In 1953 Ray Bradbury wrote the novel Fahrenheit 451. The plot is set in a fictional, North American future. This essay aims to show that what is considered normal regarding fundamental values such as knowledge, love, and respect in this imaginary future society is different from what was considered normal in North America in the 1950s when Bradbury wrote the book. The norms differ to such an extent that it is possible to claim that Fahrenheit 451 is set in a new episteme. Episteme is a term used by the French philosopher Michel Foucault. It designates a time in which society has an underlying understanding of what is considered normal. According to Michel Foucault, the year 1953 when Bradbury wrote the book, belonged to the episteme of Modernity. This essay aims to illustrate that in the future fictional society of Fahrenheit 451, the norm regarding some aspects of the culture has changed to the extent that there is reason to call the era a new episteme, and that a proper name would be the episteme of Ignorance. This name signals the lack of regard for knowledge in the society of Fahrenheit 451. This essay's analytical tools are Michel Foucault’s terms, theories, and concepts. 

    Keywords: Episteme, Michel Foucault, Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, knowledge, ignorance, norms, power.  

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  • 4.
    Bianchi, Giovanni
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    ICT as a tool and a resource in teaching English: A study of teachers’ motivations and attitudes towards using ICT in the English classroom2019Independent thesis Advanced level (professional degree), 240 HE creditsStudent thesis
    Abstract [en]

    This study examines what motivates language teachers in primary school to use ICT and what attitudes they have towards ICT. Six teachers working in four different Swedish primary schools between the first and third grade were interviewed. The teachers actively used some kind of ICT resource during their English lessons. The study showed that external factors such as requirements from the school and local school authorities motivate teachers to work more actively with ICT. These external motivators can influence the teacher’s perception and use of ICT in both positive and negative ways. When it comes to internal factors that affect the teachers’ motivation to use ICT in English, the most important factor is whether they consider ICT tools to be a positive addition to their teaching and whether a good balance between digital and traditional tools can be achieved to accommodate every student’s need.

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  • 5.
    Binder, Ella
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    World Englishes in Lower Secondary School Textbooks: A comparative study between a Polish and a Swedish Textbook2018Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
    Abstract [en]

    The aim of this study has been to find out whether the authors of English textbooks in two EU countries, Poland and Sweden, view diversity and promote World Englishes in the same way or whether there are any differences. The attempt has been made to analyse reading texts in the two textbooks for teaching English as a foreign language, a Polish and a Swedish one, in order to see what different Englishes have been promoted there, and to which extent they are represented in both textbooks. For the purpose of this analysis, Marko Modiano´s descriptive model of World Englishes has been used. The study has shown that the Polish textbook focuses mostly on British and American English, and to a great degree on European countries where English is taught as a foreign language. On the other hand, the Swedish textbook promotes both British and American English, as well as major and local varieties of English, but does not mention European countries, except Great Britain obviously, almost at all. World Englishes are present both in the Polish and in the Swedish textbook but the textbook authors take slightly different approaches in promoting them. 

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  • 6.
    Brunsell, Oskar
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Teaching and Learning English Online: A Study of the Effects of Transitioning to Online Education in an Upper Secondary School in Sweden2021Independent thesis Advanced level (professional degree), 20 credits / 30 HE creditsStudent thesis
    Abstract [en]

    This study investigates how teachers and students in a Swedish upper secondary school experience the sudden transition to teaching and learning English as a second language online. Students and teachers have answered questions in online questionnaires and the answers were analyzed and compared to previous research and secondary literature. The results indicate that both students and teachers prefer the physical context compared to the online context. Communication and natural interactions are expressed to be the worst consequences for both the teachers and students. This study aims to provide a deeper understanding of the effects on both teachers and students the transition to an online context due to Covid-19 have had and how similar events can be conducted better. 

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  • 7.
    Cananau, Iulian
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Between Womanhood and Citizenship: A Conceptual-Historicist Approach to Antebellum Women's Literature of Protest2018Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    This study investigates the tension between the antebellum ideas of “womanhood” and “citizenship” as represented in three classic texts of women’s literature of protest: the “Declaration of Sentiments” of the Seneca Falls Convention, Margaret Fuller’s Woman in the Nineteenth Century, and Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. After a brief discussion of what is meant by “literature of protest” and the reasons why these texts belong to this category, I proceed to read them and their historical context following a method inspired by Reinhart Koselleck’s history of concepts (Begriffsgeschichte); I approach “womanhood” and “citizenship” as concepts whose semantic fields can and should be analyzed in their diachronic and synchronic dimensions. Here, however, I will focus on the latter, in an attempt to account for conflicts as well as commonalities between them.

  • 8.
    Cananau, Iulian
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Black holes in the American space; or nostalgic journeys through the wonders of time in Andrei Codrescu’s recent poetry2022Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    Andrei Codrescu is an American litterateur of many labels: commentator, raconteur, humorist, flâneur, essayist, novelist, film maker, editor, professor, and Jewish-Romanian émigré. He is above all a poet and a memoirist. For a few years now the bard has been revisiting old amours, places, and times from the vantage points of age, Facebook, and bilingualism: New York (and other American cities), Allan Ginsberg, Ted Berrigan, Lucian Blaga, the Romanian language, and poetry itself among many others. In this paper, I explore the poetic incursions into the past, present and future in Codrescu’s latest poems in English and Romanian, collected in no time like now, Metroul F [Subway F], and Visul diacritic [The Diacritical Dream]. His nostalgia is neither resigned nor dramatic, but youthfully wonder-struck by the mysteries of then and now. As he put it in an interview from 2010, “Beauty is there when you bring your senses to increase the mystery of what arrests your attention.” The attempt to chase down wastelands seems futile in this poetry of wonder, yet the poet occasionally despairs of things like AI, cellphones, verbal and mental clichés, “the human illusion of singularity,” and the annoyingly persisting habit of stuffing the future with the placebo pills of hope and progress. In keeping with the topic of this conference, I stop by these and other shadows of wasteland that populate Codrescu’s poetic universe at this time of retrospection. Here’s a foretaste from his poem “funny not funny”:“American space bent around the black holes I made in it. / Many people found that funny. I not so much but not not funny.”

  • 9.
    Cananau, Iulian
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Conceptualizing "Americanness"2012Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    In sharp contrast with “Englishness”, which is an important category of scholarship on national identity in Britain, the notion of “Americanness” has suffered from chronic lack of conceptualization. Treated as if its meaning were self-evident, “Americanness” now features only sporadically and marginally in studies of US culture, where it is used as a synonym for “American identity” semantically subsumed to concepts such as “ideology”, “exceptionalism”, “whiteness”, and “masculinity”, depending on the author’s thesis and scholarly interests. No dedicated study of Americanness has been produced, at least nothing of the kind Englishness has engendered. Perhaps it is time we put it on the map of literary and American studies in a new, scholarly rigorous and dispassionate way.

    Within the methodological framework of conceptual history, I propose that “Americanness” might be viewed as a concept with a broad, albeit historically specific, semantic field. Today for example, “Americanness” grasps several historical objects and theoretical notions, serving as their common designator; among these, U.S. national identity, political culture, conflicts and negotiations along the lines of race, gender, ethnicity, class, and sexual preference, a national corpus of law, a higher education system, a system of government as well as an economic and financial system, world hegemony, popular culture, literary canon, and several varieties of English. Here, however, in order to investigate the conceptual quality of the term, I will focus on the diachronic dimension of “Americanness” and address the problem of its frequent confusion with the older notion of “Americanism”.

  • 10.
    Cananau, Iulian
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Constituting Americanness: A History of the Concept and Its Representations in Antebellum American Literature2015Book (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This book is based on my PhD dissertation, entitled Representations of the Concept of “Americanness” in the Canon of Antebellum American Literature. It is a work in cultural history and literary theory that suggests a fresh and potentially fruitful approach to the old notion of Americanness, an idea that lay at the foundation of American studies in mid-twentieth century, only to be exposed as “ideological fiction” by the New Americanists. Surprisingly, neither its advocates nor its critics have made the scholarly effort necessary to theorize or conceptualize Americanness. 

    The subtitle indicates what is distinctive about this project: this is a study of the concept of Americanness. Thus, following Reinhart Koselleck’s history of concepts (Begriffsgeschichte), I propose that “Americanness” is not an ordinary word, but a concept with a broad, albeit historically specific, semantic field. Thus, in the three decades before the Civil War, the semantic field of “Americanness” was constituted at the intersection of several concepts, in different stages of their respective histories; among these, nation, representation, individualism, sympathy, race, and womanhood. By tracing the representations of these concepts in literary texts of the antebellum era, paying attention to their overlapping with the rhetoric of national identification, I uncover some of the meaning of “Americanness” in that period. 

    As far as literary history writing is concerned, Begriffsgeschichte has a double potential: first, to explain the source of confusion between historically different semantic loads of the same concept and, second, to check the critic’s tendency to relativize concepts and therefore make the past a little too familiar. The concept-focused close reading of literary works of the past involves a reformulation of the text/context binary so as to account for contingencies without diminishing the importance of exegesis (a crippling tendency in contemporary literary studies); ultimately, this work aims to reconsider the relationship between history and literature.

    To lay out the meaning of “Americanness” I analyze a wide range of antebellum texts by Emerson, Melville, Thoreau, Douglass, Whitman, Stowe, Jacobs, Hawthorne, Poe, and Fuller, against the background of critical reception and recent scholarship. Thus, to college students and faculty, this book offers a period study of major American writers of the antebellum era.

  • 11.
    Cananau, Iulian
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Critical Thinking and English Literature in Higher Education: The Theoretical Models and the Swedish Syllabi2021In: Nordic Journal of English Studies, ISSN 1502-7694, E-ISSN 1654-6970, Vol. 20, no 2, p. 99-128Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    Critical thinking is an ever-growing interdisciplinary field of research. This paper introduces key aspects of the vast scholarship on critical thinking in higher education to the academic community of English literary studies in Sweden. Its aim is to provide a sound framework for research-based discussions of the potential for critical thinking in literature courses. To achieve this goal, the paper first presents a synopsis of the main theoretical models of critical thinking in higher education: as cognitive-argumentative skills, as cognitive-argumentative skills and psychosocial dispositions, as resistance to oppression, and as a crucial step toward critical acting and being. These models and approaches are then used to identify the conceptions of critical thinking that inform the learning objectives in undergraduate-level English literature syllabi in Sweden. The study finds that the cognitive-argumentative-skills approach dominates the conceptualization of critical thinking in English literature syllabi, but the other three models are also present in various degrees. The article ends with a call for a systematic discussion of the curricular and teaching practices that cultivate critical thinking in English literary studies.

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  • 12.
    Cananau, Iulian
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Critical thinking and ideological thinking2022Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    At least in the context of (higher) education pedagogy, critical and ideological thinking are regarded as irreconcilable opposites: one desideratum, the other anathema. In the aftermath of WWII, for example, the first official mention of critical thinking as a goal in Swedish education assigned it a crucial role in the making of independent democratic citizens capable of resisting propaganda (SOU 1948, p. 504). But the distinction between critical thinking and ideology is not so clear-cut. Opposing camps within critical thinking studies have accused each other of ideological blindness (Burbules & Berk 1999). Inasmuch as critical thinking as an educational goal has become a normative idea ritualistically iterated in educational policies and in curricular parlance, it can be said to perform the function of legitimizing and perpetuating a certain worldview in support of a larger and systematic body of normative ideas that we may call “ideology”. Finally, as Leo Berglund (following Luc Boltanski) argues in his recent PhD dissertation, the appropriation and operationalization of the potentially subversive critical dimension of critical thinking by the educational institution’s actors (researchers, educators) and within the educational institution for the purpose of strengthening its position and justifying its mission is fundamentally an ideological act (Berglund 2021, p. 50). Conversely, ideological thinking may not be so incompatible with democratic life if, following Clifford Geertz (1973), we conceive of ideologies as indispensable symbol-systems that provide blueprints for social and psychological processes and can therefore be considered prerequisites for our condition as political animals. 

    It matters how we define critical and ideological thinking. For the former, I will use the taxonomy I presented in a recent article on critical thinking in the course objectives of English literary studies in Sweden. In that article, I identified four major models of critical thinking in higher education: as cognitive-argumentative skills, as cognitive-argumentative skills and psychosocial dispositions (these first two comprising the Critical Thinking Movement), as resistance to oppression through critical pedagogy, and as a crucial step toward critical acting and being, a direction known as criticality (Cananau 20021). Out of the many theories of ideology, I rely on Paul Ricoeur and Clifford Geertz’s approaches, which are particularly appealing for literary historians. 

  • 13.
    Cananau, Iulian
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Democracy and the Teaching of English at the University of GävleManuscript (preprint) (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    The aim of this study is to investigate these practices, notions, and attitudes as they inform (and are carried out in) the teaching of English as an academic subject at the University of Gävle. The research questions are: 1) What are the conceptions of democracy in education among the English faculty at the University of Gävle? 2) Which norms, structures and practices are considered to foster democracy in higher education and which norms, structures and practices are considered real or potential challenges to democracy in higher education? 3) How does democracy fare in the teaching practice, i.e. in objectives, content, assessment, as well as in the implementation and course/lesson design? 4) What specific advantages does the teaching of English have for democratic education? 5) How well are the teachers acquainted with official documents that outline the University of Gävle’s policy on promoting and maintaining democracy in this institution? To answer these questions, semi-structured interviews have been conducted with four of the six teachers who made up the English faculty at the University of Gävle in the spring semester of 2017. The respondents’ answers and their subsequent analysis constitute the core of this qualitative research.

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  • 14.
    Cananau, Iulian
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    English-Language Literature Teaching and Democratic (Higher) Education2017Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    Out of the values, norms, and practices that constitute the semantic field of democracy, this study hones in and reflects on those that are relevant for the goals and principles of higher education in the national context. Furthermore, the scope of this study is narrowed down to the teaching of English-language literature in Swedish institutions of higher education. Given the relatively high degree of autonomy that the teaching of literature has within the academic subject of English and the wide diversity of lecturers’ and professors’ research interests and backgrounds, it is important to account for the educators’ notions of, and attitudes toward, democratic education and democratic values as well as for the ways in which those values are reflected in their teaching practice. The main questions are: 1) Which norms, structures and practices are considered to foster democracy in higher education and which norms, structures and practices are considered real or potential challenges to democracy in higher education? 2) What specific advantages does the teaching of English-language literature have for democratic education? 3) How do the democratic values fare in the teaching practice (in objectives, content, assessment, as well as in the implementation and course/lesson design)? Empirical evidence will be gathered through semi-structured interviews with English-language literature faculty from several Swedish universities. Some partial results of this investigation, which is part of an on-going project, will be presented at the conference.

  • 15.
    Cananau, Iulian
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Exorcising COVID in Queens near Corona Park: Tropes of discontinuity in Andrei Codrescu's poems of the plague2023Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    A longtime NPR commentator, Andrei Codrescu is a Romanian-born American poet, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, creative writing professor, and translator. “Our funniest /saddest contemporary bard,” as Marjorie Perloff affectionately called him, has spent more than half a century observing American life and history and faithfully recording his reflections on, and interactions with, his adoptive country with Dadaist humor, wit, sound criticism, and a touch of youthful wonder. 

    The main title of this paper is taken from the contributor information in the May 2020 issue of The Brooklyn Rail, which featured two poems by Andrei Codrescu. Throughout the national and global Covid crisis, he continued to cast spells, play with words, observe, reflect, hope, and sometimes despair, keeping poetic chronicles of “The Plague” with the avowed intention to soothe and heal. Many of them are collected in Too Late for Nightmares, his new volume of poetry released on September 1, 2022. In keeping with the topic of the conference, I am going to explore the tropes of discontinuity in these poems paying special attention to Codrescu’s older quarrels with consumerism, the blind faith in the new technology, the disappearance of the “outside” now complete with the virtual irrelevance of the body, the illusion of singularity, and the habit of stuffing the future with the placebo pill of progress. 

  • 16.
    Cananau, Iulian
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Fictionalisations of American Populism: From Edward Bellamy's Utopia to Angie Thomas's Black Lives Matter Novel2022In: Populism, Democracy, and the Humanities: Interdisciplinary Explorations and Critical Enquiries / [ed] Iulian Cananau and Peder Thalén, Lanham, Maryland, USA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2022, p. 183-201Chapter in book (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This chapter discusses three best-selling fictional novels published at key moments in the history of American populism. The first one, Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward 2000-1887, is a famous utopia and protest novel that helped crystalize the populist movement and exerted influence on the political agenda and organization of the People’s Party in the early 1890s. The second, It Can’t Happen Here, is a realist dystopia written by Nobel Prize laureate Sinclair Lewis in 1935, in an epoch marked by the successes and failures of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and the rise of fascism and communism in the United States and abroad. It was also the time when the populist label had been extended to a special kind of left-wing political profile, one centered on the charismatic leader whose discourse and policies were tainted by demagoguery and authoritarianism. Huey P. Long, the colorful political boss from Louisiana, and Father Charles Coughlin, a Roman Catholic priest turned radio star from Detroit who spoke admiringly of Hitler and Mussolini, are prime examples of that species. The third novel is African American writer Angie Thomas’s bestselling work of young adult fiction The Hate U Give from 2017. This book dramatizes a black teenager’s trauma of witnessing the absurd killing of her friend by a white police officer and follows the protagonist’s transition from innocent bystander to antiracist rioter and protest leader. The narrative and its screen adaptation from 2018 may have played an important role in galvanizing the public opinion in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.   

    Reading these novels and reflecting over their relationship with populism may shed light on the perceptions and manifestations of American populism, based on two opposite approaches to the national democratic project: a view that American democracy has yet to be realized and an anti-democratic one fueled by irrational resentments. In addition, approaching the history of American populism though these novels enables one to focus less on the “supply” side of populist politics (i.e. the populist leader and the populist party), as most analysts and commentators of populism do, and more on the “demand” side of it (i.e. the people/voters’ perception of and need for populist politics and politicians). Out of the many and often contradictory definitions of populism in political science, one is selected, argued for and used throughout the essay.

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  • 17.
    Cananau, Iulian
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Funny not funny.Humor, pathos, and poetic duty in Andrei Codrescu’ too late for nightmares: A roundtable in memory of Professor Octavian Roske2023Conference paper (Other academic)
  • 18.
    Cananau, Iulian
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    On the Path to Citizenship: A Conceptual Historicist Reading of Antebellum Women's Protest Literature2020In: Orbis Litterarum, ISSN 0105-7510, E-ISSN 1600-0730, Vol. 75, no 1, p. 1-14Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This essay introduces a new approach to the history of pro‐ test literature, and to literary history writing in general. My case studies investigate three antebellum American works by women that express discontent with women’s condition: the “Declaration of Sentiments” of the Seneca Falls Convention (1848), Margaret Fuller’s Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845), and Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (published in 1861, but written probably between 1852 and 1857). Drawing on Reinhart Koselleck’s theory and practice of conceptual history, the essay includes an analysis of the semantic field of citizenship in these works with an aim to explore the textual politics of their protest within the con‐ ceptual and ideological context of antebellum America.

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  • 19.
    Cananau, Iulian
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    "Partialist" and "Universalist": Figurations of U.S. Exceptionalism in Antebellum Writing2018Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    In this paper, I investigate the tension between particularism and universalism at the core of antebellum American exceptionalism. “Particularism” is herein understood as a broader term encompassing “nationalism”, “jingoism”, “sectarianism”, as well as “individualism” and “self-interest”.  As for “universalism”, it is conceived neither in theological terms as the doctrine that all people will be eventually saved, nor as a kind of foreign policy, but as virtually synonymous to “universality”, or the condition and quality of being universal. Taking my cues from one of Emerson’s famous paradoxes, namely that “every man is a partialist… and… every man is a universalist also” (in the essay “Nominalist and Realist”), I proceed to identify and compare representations of particularism and universalism in antebellum writings on U.S. national identity by Emerson, Fuller, Simms, Douglass, and Delany.

  • 20.
    Cananau, Iulian
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Poe and the New Order of Free Enterprise Capitalism: An Illustration of the Uses of Reinhart Koselleck’s Begriffsgeschichte for Literary Studies2013Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    In her influential review of the “new formalist” movement, Marjorie Levinson grounds her discussion on the polemic of resurgent formalist views and theories with materialist approaches to literary history and interpretation represented by the well-established, institutionalized, school of new historicism. The most frequent problem invoked by representatives of the formalist “countercurrent” in literary studies today is the tendency of reducing literary texts to “a simple-minded mimesis” of their cultural and historical contexts, which has come to replace “the dynamic formalism that characterized early new historicism”. By recourse to Reinhart Koselleck’s notion of historical structure (which he discusses in connection with the practice of conceptual history), I propose an analysis of Poe’s narrative response to and representation of the new order of free enterprise capitalism, a period of huge transformations in antebellum America, brought forth by the rapid transition from an agrarian society to a market economy dominated by industrial capitalism. With this new historicist exercise informed by Koselleck’s philosophy of history, I hope to get a closer look at the elusive mechanisms of the dialectical relation between work and world, literature and history - a central issue for many of those writing against the new historicist “current”.

  • 21.
    Cananau, Iulian
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Putting Context to New Use in Literary Studies: A Conceptual-Historicist Interpretation of Poe's 'Man of the Crowd'2017In: Partial Answers, ISSN 1565-3668, E-ISSN 1936-9247, Vol. 15, no 2, p. 241-261Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    Poe’s adherence to a strict aesthetic formalism used to be problematic for studies of the relationship between his work and its American context; the methodology of New Historicism has helped to surmount this problem but sometimes with excessive emphasis on socio-historical contexts. This essay examines critical practices at work in the interpretation of Poe’s canonical piece “The Man of the Crowd” in light of the recent debates in literary studies around the problem of context and contextualization in general and the “hegemony” of new historicism in particular. It then suggests an alternative method of reading literary texts and their contexts — one based on Reinhart Koselleck’s history of concepts. It offers an analysis of “The Man of the Crowd” as an illustration of this method.

  • 22.
    Cananau, Iulian
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Searching for a point d'appui: Constructions of National Identity in Antebellum American Literature2015Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    In the decades before the Civil War, American society witnessed the intensification of political and social tensions over issues such as slavery, Irish immigration, laborers’ rights, and women’s rights; the major economic transformations and the drive toward the new order of free enterprise capitalism (especially in the North); the expansionist policies materialized as Indian removal or military aggression against a neighboring country. Such disruptive forces were taking a heavy toll on the national fabric. At least this is what some American literati feared; through all the tumult and vitality of antebellum America, they discerned a sort of moral groundlessness. The America(s) they imagined seem to point to this ethical dimension as their common denominator. Thoreau is one of those antebellum writers who peeped into the American conscience and tried to find a “point d’appui”, a new ethical foundation for the national project that was underway. This paper investigates his and others’ literary re-constructions of America.

  • 23.
    Cananau, Iulian
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Teaching and learning criticality in higher education: A practical example in online courses in literary studies in English2023Conference paper (Other academic)
  • 24.
    Cananau, Iulian
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    The Conversational Framework, Democratic Education, and Pedagogic Design in the American Literature Survey: A Case Study2016Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    This presentation attempts to probe the applicability of Diana Laurillard’s “conversational” model of collaborative learning to the teaching of the American Literature Survey at the University of Gävle. For the purpose of exemplification, I have selected a unit on race and gender representations in late nineteenth-century fiction, with a focus on Mark Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, respectively. Given that the vast majority of students who take up this course are enrolled in the teacher training program, an important research question is how this pedagogic framework might contribute to developing and consolidating democratic values and practices in their future roles as high school teachers of English in Sweden. This aim converges with the curricular objective that civic values and attitudes should underpin the teaching of all subjects in the Swedish school system. The study is part of a project entitled “Democratic Vistas in the Classroom: Teaching American Literature in Swedish Higher Education”.

  • 25.
    Cananau, Iulian
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Toward a comparatist horizon in conceptual history2019In: History of European Ideas, ISSN 0191-6599, E-ISSN 1873-541X, Vol. 45, no 1, p. 117-120Article, book review (Other academic)
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  • 26.
    Cananau, Iulian
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Toward a Methodology of Intuitive Critical Thinking in Literature Teaching2018Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    Literature has a special relation with truth. It often purports to reveal that there are many ways of conceiving truth, that indeed there is no absolute truth. Yet there are, in literature, notions of truth like the truth of the slave narratives and all of the so-called protest literature that resist relativization. In a sense, much of our work and expertise as literary scholars is to distinguish between claims to truth and to advance one claim against others through persuasive and valid arguments. To do that, we employ an ability to think critically that we have developed and trained as part of our professional identity. So embedded is this ability in the practice of literary studies that it might be considered exemplary for what theorists of critical thinking tentatively call “a way of being” and “a habit of the mind”. After a brief discussion of a few conceptualizations of truth in literature and literary studies, I present the notion of “intuitive critical thinking” and its possibilities for teaching literature in higher education, with a focus on the syllabi of some of my literature courses at the University of Gävle.

  • 27.
    Cananau, Iulian
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Two Fictionalizations of American Populism: Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward (1888) and Sinclair Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here (1935)2019Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    This paper discusses two best-selling fictional novels published at key moments in the history of American populism. The first one, Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward 2000-1887, is a famous utopia and protest novel that helped crystalize the populist movement and exerted influence on the political agenda and organization of the People’s Party in the early 1890s. The other, It Can’t Happen Here, is a realist dystopia written by Nobel Prize laureate Sinclair Lewis in 1935, in an epoch marked by the successes and failures of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and the rise of fascism and communism in the United States and abroad. It was also the time when the populist label had been extended to a special kind of left-wing political profile, one centered on the charismatic leader whose discourse and policies were tainted by demagoguery and authoritarianism. Huey P. Long, the colorful political boss from Louisiana, and Father Charles Coughlin, a Roman Catholic priest turned radio star from Detroit who spoke admiringly of Hitler and Mussolini, are prime examples of that species. Reading these two novels and reflecting over their relationship with populism may shed light on the transformation of the perception of American populism in its first fifty years of existence, from a progressive reform movement to an anti-democratic movement fueled by irrational resentments. In addition, approaching the history of American populism though these novels enables one to focus less on the “supply” side of populist politics (i.e. the populist leader and the populist party), as most analysts and commentators of populism do, and more on the “demand” side of it (i.e. the people/voters’ perception of and need for populist politics and politicians). Out of the many and often contradictory definitions of populism in political science, one will be selected, argued for and used throughout the essay.

  • 28.
    Cananau, Iulian
    et al.
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Sims, Caroline
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Educational sciences, Educational science, Curriculum studies.
    Teaching Literature, Implementing Multicultural Education2017In: Kunskap, motstånd, möjlighet: Humanistisk forskning i dag / [ed] Ulrika Serrander & Peder Thalén, Halmstad: Molin & Sorgenfrei, 2017, 1, p. 297-316Chapter in book (Refereed)
  • 29.
    Cananau, Iulian
    et al.
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Thalén, PederUniversity of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, Religious studies.
    Populism, Democracy, and the Humanities: Interdisciplinary Explorations and Critical Enquiries2022Collection (editor) (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    In this volume, twelve Sweden-based researchers reflect on the phenomenon and concept of populism in relation to democracy and the humanities from the multiple vantage points of various disciplinary backgrounds: philosophy, history of ideas, media and communication, journalism, political science, gender studies, organization science, education theory, popular culture, and literary studies. While the study of populism has attracted a lot of attention in political science, this topic has been rarely explored by scholars in the humanities. Rather than contribute to the already established area of populism studies in social and political sciences, our authors take a more open and exploratory stance through which they attempt to open up new fields and directions for inquiry from an interdisciplinary humanistic perspective.

  • 30. Dixon, Tülay
    et al.
    Egbert, Jesse
    Larsson, Tove
    Kaatari, Henrik
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    What is formality?: Triangulating corpus data with teacher perceptions2022Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    Academic writing is often referred to as formal, but the construct of formality is yet to be clearly defined. To some scholars (e.g., Kolln & Gray, 2017), formality refers to the presence or absence of certain linguistic features in a text. To others (e.g., Smith, 2019), it refers to situational characteristics of a text (e.g., research articles are formal because of their target audience and purpose). 

    The goal of this study is to explore the elusive construct of formality in the context of academic writing. We asked instructors of first-year composition courses to rate the level of formality in 60 short texts on a five-point scale. The texts were from two publication types (university textbooks, journal articles) in three disciplines (psychology, biology, history). We used instructors’ perceptions to (a) identify relationships between perceptions of formality and the use of linguistic features in academic texts, and (b) determine the extent to which the situational characteristics of texts (e.g., differences in audience, purpose) are related to perceptions of formality. To investigate the linguistic features that are associated with more formal texts, we used Multi-Dimensional analysis to reduce 56 lexico-grammatical features to five dimensions of linguistic variation and correlated those dimension scores with instructor’s perceptions. 

    Preliminary analysis indicates that texts perceived to be more formal included more linguistic features that help package information such as pre-nominal modifiers, nouns, and agentless passive voice (r = .58). Texts that were considered to be less formal included more of the linguistic features associated with colloquial narrative such as phrasal verbs, past tense verbs, and activity verbs (r = -.50). Additionally, differences in publication types explained 55% of the variance in perceptions of formality. These findings can inform how formality is taught and assessed, contributing to equity in the assessment of student writing.

  • 31.
    Dixon, Tülay
    et al.
    Oxford College of Emory University, Oxford, GA, USA.
    Egbert, Jesse
    English Department, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
    Larsson, Tove
    English Department, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
    Kaatari, Henrik
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Hanks, Elizabeth
    English Department, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
    Toward an empirical understanding of formality: Triangulating corpus data with teacher perceptions2023In: English for specific purposes (New York, N.Y.), ISSN 0889-4906, E-ISSN 1873-1937, Vol. 71, p. 161-177Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    Academic writing is often referred to as “formal,” but the teaching and assessment of formality can be challenging as formality has been conceptualized in many ways. The goal of this study is to explore the elusive construct of formality in the context of academic writing, especially with regard to what formality means to academic writing instructors. We used instructors’ perceptions of formality (i) to identify relationships between the use of linguistic features in academic texts and perceptions of formality and (ii) to determine the extent to which the situational characteristics of texts (e.g., differences in audience, purpose, and discipline) are related to perceptions of formality. Specifically, we asked 72 academic writing instructors to rate the formality level of 60 short academic text excerpts on a five-point scale. The excerpts were sampled from two publication types (university textbooks, journal articles) in three disciplines (psychology, biology, history). Overall, the results indicate that perceptions of formality can be explained by both linguistic features and situational characteristics. As linguistic features and situational characteristics are intertwined, differences in perceptions of formality seem to be functionally motivated. Implications for the teaching of academic writing are discussed.

  • 32.
    Drion, Elisabeth
    et al.
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, Swedish.
    Marston, Pamela
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Action research in Swedish LSP practice: Can we do it? Can we get FUNDED for it?2013Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    Action research is an internationally established method of inquiry, primarily within education.  It is not a research method that is widely practiced within Sweden, although given its specific focus, that of a disciplined inquiry undertaken by an instructor with the intent that this research will inform and possibly change her/his teaching practices in the future, this poster will explore the possibilities of using this method within LSP.

    This poster will outline the three basic types of action research ( individual, collaborative, and institutional) and will briefly note the benefits and drawbacks of each type from a Swedish university organizational perspective.  This poster will also present several direct examples/ eventual case studies of action research areas/ types of inquiries within two disciplines, English studies and Swedish studies, at Högskolan i Gävle.

    New research methods are adapted in direct relation to their possibility of being funded, and this poster will also address this.  Several of the major funding agencies in Sweden, including VR, RJ, SI, and STINT, will be examined here in terms of the possibilities of acquiring support for action research within the context of their respective guidelines.  The poster will present various potential inroads and research cluster constellations as possible options.

  • 33.
    Edsman, Martina
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    A Choice in Reading: A Study of Student Motivation for Studying English Literature in Upper Secondary Schools in Sweden2019Independent thesis Advanced level (professional degree), 20 credits / 30 HE creditsStudent thesis
    Abstract [en]

    This essay aims to examine the attitudes and motivation toward literary studies in English in upper secondary school students as well as to determine which tools practicing teachers can apply to increase their students’ language learning motivation within literature teaching in the Swedish curriculum. The questions that this study set out to answer was: How do students rate their ability to succeed in different tasks relating to English literary education? How can teachers in Sweden design their lessons in English literature to motivate their students? Which are some of the best ways to teach literature to students from a motivational standpoint? The primary theories used in this study are; self-efficacy theory and theories regarding intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. This study used a qualitative method to examine the students’ attitudes towards reading English literature in schools. The research tool used is a questionnaire with both general questions regarding literature in addition to questions about how the students would rate their chance to succeed with a task relating to literary studies. This study found that one of the primary methods that teachers should apply when teaching literature to EFL students was giving the students a choice in reading material as well as using age-appropriate material. Using shorter texts such as short stories and extracts from novels was also a method that the students’ preferred. This study showed that using standardized testing is the least preferred examination method to use when assessing the students. On the other hand, the preferred examination methods were writing book reports, essays or using group discussions or answering study questions. Furthermore, it is important for the teacher to know the group and plan accordingly and listen to the students and give them a choice in what they read and how to assess them at the end of the literary module to give the students a greater chance of success.

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  • 34.
    Edsman, Martina
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    The Immortal Life and Immoral Values of Dorian Gray: A Study of Immortality and Immoral Behavior in The Picture of Dorian Gray2018Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
    Abstract [en]

    This essay aims to examine how immortality and immoral behavior are represented in The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. The claim in this essay is that an immortal life is not a desirable life and that it traps you in a paradoxical existence that cannot be desirable. The method used in this essay is close reading of the narrative focusing on the protagonist Dorian Gray examined through two theories, ‘The Makropulos case’ and the subsequent analysis regarding contingent and categorical desires introduced by Bernard Williams as well as a theory focusing on endless frustration by Aaron Smuts that evolved through critiquing Williams’ theory on contingent and categorical desires. By analyzing Dorian Gray’s behavior and comparing his choices to the theories presented by Williams and Smuts the results are unanimous and support the claim that an immortal life is undesirable. Dorian Gray ended up confined to a life without meaning as he left everything that held meaning to him behind in his pursuit of pleasure and youth.

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  • 35.
    Eklund, Manne
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Does Politics Trump Gender?: A Study of Linguistic Features Among American Voters During the 2016 Presidential Election2017Student paper other, 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
    Abstract [en]

    In this essay, the usage of several linguistic features of 13 members of a televised political discussion are studied. The members of the discussion were private citizens, and not political experts. This particular discussion was filmed during the 2016 American presidential election, just before the second national debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The studied linguistic features are: hedges, tag-questions, interaction and humor. By categorizing the members in three categories; age, gender and politics, this essay is able to investigate the results of the televised discussion by each category, and compare them to each other. The central question of the essay is if gender is a bigger divide regarding these linguistic features, than political views. The result shows that while gender still is the biggest divide regarding hedges, there are some specific elements where politics seems to trump gender.   

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  • 36.
    Eklund, Manne
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Understanding English 5: A Study of the Central Content and Knowledge Requirements for the Course of English 52017Independent thesis Advanced level (professional degree), 20 credits / 30 HE creditsStudent thesis
    Abstract [en]

    This study regards the central content and knowledge requirements for the subject of English 5 in the Swedish upper secondary school system. The study is based on an analytical reading of the documents and is complemented by a questionnaire that was answered by upper secondary school teachers. The aim of the study was to investigate what parts of the documents lack clarity, from a new teacher’s perspective. The study finds a few examples of terms that are likely to confuse new teachers when grading students. Furthermore, questions were raised regarding the course in general, such as how to give the students confidence to speak English, when to use Swedish in the classroom and which English speech communities and cultures teachers should focus on. The questionnaire provided answers that could be helpful to newly graduated English teachers who are preparing to work in the Swedish upper secondary school system.

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  • 37.
    Fagertun, Charlott
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Teaching English Vocabulary: A Case Study of TPRS and Reading Aloud as Teaching Methods in an Elementary School in Sweden2020Independent thesis Advanced level (professional degree), 20 credits / 30 HE creditsStudent thesis
    Abstract [en]

    There are numerous methods of teaching English as a second language to pupils in the lower grades of elementary school. Previous research indicates that some teaching methods are successful among children in pre-school and older pupils, but few studies have investigated their effects on 6-8-year-old pupils. The aim of this study is to compare two teaching methods, TPRS and Reading Aloud, to decide which one is more effective in second language vocabulary learning. Previous research in the field is presented and compared to the results of this study. This case study was conducted in an elementary school in Sweden, with 12 pupils in their first year of compulsory school and 13 pupils in their second year of compulsory school. The results suggest that TPRS as a teaching method is more effective than reading aloud when it comes to second language vocabulary learning. Further research suggestions are also presented in this essay.

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  • 38.
    Gebara, Jonny
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Male Patriarchy and "Othering": Brave New World from a Postcolonial and Feminist Perspective2021Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
    Abstract [en]

    This paper aims to show how Brave New World, a dystopia by Aldous Huxley, has strong postcolonial traces within it. Edward Said's concept of Orientalism and Gayatri Spivak's analyses of Bertha Mason, the fictional representation of the colonial female subject in nineteenth-century English literature, tie up the similarities in how the Reservation and Linda are portrayed within the book. Comparing Gayatri Spivak's theories with Huxley's writings adds a new perspective to the novel. This essay will also include a close reading of the book and aims to unveil how specifik events concerning Linda and the part of the world referred to as "the reservation" are in link with "Orientalism", "othering" and feminism. The argument will be that both Linda and "the reservations" description in the novel are in frame with British imperialistic writings and male patriarchy.

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  • 39.
    Gisslén, Ida
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Mandarin L1 speakers’ difficulty with phonetic perception in English as an L22021Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
    Abstract [en]

    The study focuses on three research questions. The first question addresses whether it is possible to improve phonetic perception in English as an L2 for Chinese primary school children speaking Mandarin as an L1, through the didactic methods High Variability Phonetic Training and Onset Rhyme Detection Test. The second question addresses if it is possible to improve phonetic perception over a short period of time, using didactic methods focused on improving phonetic perception during two sessions for each method. The third and last question addresses, if it is one of the two didactic methods, High Variability Phonetic Training and Onset Rhyme Detection Test, is better than the other in a short-term learning situation.

    Forty-five students participated in the study, divided into three groups; one was a control group. Two groups received treatment, one with the Onset Rhyme Detection Test and the other High Variability Phonetic Training method. All groups conducted a pretest and posttest. The results revealed that the two methods used had some positive effect on the development of phonetic perception for Chinese primary school children. Through didactic methods, it is possible to improve phonetic perception to some extent, even during a short period of time. 

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  • 40.
    Glennon, Shane
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Fangoso Lagoons: Hyperreality and Imaginary Stations in The Crying of Lot 492022Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
    Abstract [en]

    This essay analyses Thomas Pynchon’s novel The Crying of Lot 49 (1966) in relation to postmodern literary theory, specifically the concepts of hyperreality and imaginary stations. In Simulacra and Simulation (1981), Jean Baudrillard proposes that the Disneyland theme park in California is an imaginary station that conceals the fact that it is the world outside of Disneyland that is hyperreal. These ideas were developed further in relation to California by Umberto Eco in Travels from Hyperreality (1986). Baudrillard’s model is applied in this essay to the housing development of Fangoso Lagoons in The Crying of Lot 49. By analysing the mediums through which it is portrayed, how it is described and the events that occur there, Fangoso Lagoons is found to be similar to Baudrillard’s example of Disneyland because it is presented as an amazing, fantastic and bizarre spectacle. However, the true hyperreality lies outside of the development, in the novel’s semi-fictional California. This essay argues that Fangoso Lagoons is presented as hyperreal, similar to Baudrillard’s example of Disneyland or Umberto Eco’s example of Hearst Castle, but that it is in fact an imaginary station. As Baudrillard and Eco propose, the purpose of the imaginary station is to make the world outside appear as real through contrast. The imaginary station achieves this by feeding reality energy to its hyperreal surroundings.

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  • 41.
    Gustrén, Cia
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Getting out of Strange Spaces: A Reconstructive Reading of Paul Auster’s Oracle Night2019Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
    Abstract [en]

    As the title of this essay suggests, Paul Auster’s 2003 novel Oracle Night is studied with regard to what is here considered to be a search for a way out of estrangement. This search, as narrated from the point of view of the protagonist, is followed by a certain recognition of the limits of human existence – which may be essentially meaningless but is nevertheless portrayed as an intentional state of being, not least through the act of writing as a means of subjectification. Thus, the novel is read with a special focus on the thematic representation of writing and human subjectivity. These overarching themes may be approached with reference to two different philosophies or theoretical positions – postmodernism and existentialism. The purpose of the essay is to study the extent to which Oracle Night may be understood in terms of an existentialist (reconstructive) critique of, or challenge to, a postmodernist (deconstructive) perspective. In order to follow this line of inquiry, the analytic method rests on narrative thematics. This kind of narratological study answers the question what Auster’s novel is about and in what ways the theoretical perspectives in question are expressed in the novel. Thematic motifs are examined within the frame of a six-step model of narrative units. These units are based on Carsten Springer’s (2001) elaboration on the theme of identity crisis in Auster’s fiction and made it possible to put different motifs into a context and convey the point of view of the text in a systematic way.   

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  • 42.
    Hadin, Joacim
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Learning by Gaming: Investigating the Influence of Playing Video Games on Vocabulary Level among Swedish ESL Learners2019Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
    Abstract [en]

    The video game industry is one of the fastest growing markets in the world today. The fact that playing video games has become such a popular recreational activity among youths and adolescents has created a need for research investigating the effects of video game playing. Because of the role of the English language as a global lingua franca, most video games are released in English. Since most video games are released in English, many believe that the utilization of video games can help learners of English to improve their knowledge of how to utilize the English language. The aim of this study is to investigate whether video game playing does positively influence the English receptive vocabulary level of ESL learners. In addition, the present study also investigated the influence of other factors, such as the utilization of online communication tools, the average time spent playing video games, and the type of video games played, on English receptive vocabulary level. The study was conducted using quantitative research methods. Since the aim of the study was to investigate the relation between two separate aspects, the study had to utilize two separate elicitation methods for the data collection: one questionnaire (that was supposed to determine each informant’s video game habits) and one vocabulary test (that was supposed to get an approximation of each informant’s receptive vocabulary level). When the data had been collected, the tests were corrected, and the participants were categorized according to the previously mentioned variables. The mean scores of the categories were later examined and compared to each other. Differences between groups that were of high importance were further examined, with a t-test, to determine whether the difference was statistically significant or not. The results of the study show that the vocabulary level difference between ESL learners that do play video games and ESL learner that do not play video game is insignificant. The results further show that the utilization of online communication tools while playing video games positively influences vocabulary level, as the mean score difference on the vocabulary test between OCT users and OCT non-users was revealed to be significant by the t-test. The analysed data thus show that the influence of the utilization of online communication tools on English receptive vocabulary level are more significant that the influence of playing video games.

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    J. Hadin - Learning by Gaming
  • 43.
    Hallström, Linnea
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Representations of motherhood in Erdrich’s Love Medicine and Morisson’s Beloved2017Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
    Abstract [en]

    This thesis is a comparative analysis of the African American author Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved and the Native American writer Louise Erdrich’s novel Love Medicine. The focus of this essay will be the theme motherhood. A feminist theoretical and critical approach are used throughout the thesis and focus is laid upon the third wave of feminism which: “borrows from post-structural and contemporary gender and race theories (…) to expand on marginalized populations’ experiences.” (Purdue OWL). In the novel Love Medicine the characters Marie and Lulu are examined. Both characters are strong independent women and through them the author challenges the Western-European image of motherhood, family and female characteristics. In the novel Beloved, the characters Sethe and Baby Suggs are studied with two focus points. The first is the impact that motherhood can have on the development of the self and how Morrison shows this through the character Sethe. The second focus point is the effects that come from slavery and mainly the effects that can come from the denial of motherhood. These novels manage to challenge the western norm of motherhood through different aspects and in different ways.

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  • 44.
    Hammarström, Andréa
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Digital Literacy and IT Plans in English 5, Sweden: Are teachers aware if and how they teach digital literacy and do the schools have a plan for it.2021Independent thesis Advanced level (professional degree), 20 credits / 30 HE creditsStudent thesis
    Abstract [en]

    With the digitalisation of the world, digital literacy is a vital skill. This study investigates how the Swedish upper secondary school incorporates digital literacy in the course English 5 and if the schools have an IT plan. Previous studies have shown that Sweden does not include the competence levels of the European Union for citizens in the steering documents of the upper secondary school or English 5 Syllabus. A survey and the question of participating in an interview were sent out to 1,300 upper secondary schools in Sweden. Information was obtained through an online survey aimed at English 5 teachers. The survey had 33 respondents which resulted in semi-structured interviews with five teachers. The results showed that teachers teach digital literacy in English 5 according to the Swedish steering documents but not according to the European areas of competence. The results also showed that not all Swedish schools have an IT plan on how to educate students in digital literacy.

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  • 45.
    Hansson, Michelle Folashade
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Signifying in Toni Morrison’s Beloved2019Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
    Abstract [en]

    This essay discusses how language, culture and spirituality are intertwined and used as a defensive mechanism as well as an identity marker, with strong emphasis on Toni Morrison’s Beloved. Language is not just a means of communication, but an interweaving of cultural nuances and a means of establishing identity, demanding autonomy and defying powerlessness. Language is a tool that is embedded in the culture and traditions as well as the experiences of the user of that language. In Morrison’s Beloved, language is not just words used for the purpose of communication, but as a link between that which is real and that which is not; as a representation of a culture that celebrates the importance of remembering – linking the present with the past in a continuum that is particular to the culture, tradition and beliefs of the users. It also symbolises a means of defiance to powerlessness, by defecting from the norm. In Morrison’s Beloved, language as vernacular or “Black Man’s Talk” is characterised by puns, taunts, double-meanings and innuendos that are particular to the Black Race as a way of rejecting the status quo, of defying the white man’s language; of saying “Ah kin signify all Ah please, …., so long as Ah know what Ah’m talkin’ about” (Gates 212).

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  • 46.
    Heaps, Johanna
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Puns and Language Play in the L2 Classroom: Pragmatic Tests on Swedish High School Learners of English2018Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
    Abstract [en]

    ABSTRACT: Puns are short humorous texts that play on structural ambiguity in order to create incongruous scripts. The perception of their humour requires considerable pragmatic manipulation, which may present problems for L2 learners, which is why many scholars agree that they are best reserved for more advanced students. Using a combination of Quantitative and Qualitative analysis of data yielded from a survey containing puns and referential jokes, this study confirms that humour through puns is largely inaccessible to Swedish High School learners of English, with ambiguity being the main obstacle across the test groups. However, since language play has been proven to be facilitative to language learning, and since students themselves express a wish to be able to participate in humorous interaction, learners may well benefit from working with puns and language play in the classroom in order to gain greater linguistic abilities and well-rounded communicative competence.

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  • 47.
    Illerhag, Erik
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Life or Death: Biopower and Racism in Huxley´s Brave New World2018Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
    Abstract [en]

    Aldous Huxley´s Brave New World describes how a totalitarian power has taken control over both body and mind of the whole population. A hierarchical caste system, where a person´s role in society is predetermined long before birth, maintains stability together with brain-washing methods and propaganda. Huxley expressed his fears of what might happen if science was used for the wrong purposes, and wrote his futuristic novel Brave New World in the beginning of the 1930s, inspired by the turbulent world around him. It was a time preoccupied with race and classification of populations, which ended in the disastrous Holocaust. Huxley´s novel is equally important today when eugenics is on the comeback and democracy is challenged by nationalist and populist movements. This essay will consist of a close reading of Brave New World, analyzed from the perspective of the theories of French philosopher Foucault. He launched his concept of biopower in the 1970s, where he linked a negative use of controlling citizens with state racism. The focus of this essay will be to explore how biopower and racism are used by the totalitarian state in the novel to maintain control of the population. The argument will be made that racism, internal division and exclusion are vital tools to achieve that purpose.

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  • 48.
    Inch, James
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Communism and the betrayal of the revolution: a Marxist critique of the post-revolutionary manipulation of the proletariat in Animal Farm2016Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
    Abstract [en]

    George Orwell wrote Animal Farm to warn of the dangers of a totalitarian regime in the practical application of communist ideology. His novella reflects his experience of, and response to, momentous events occurring in Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. It is a acknowledgement of the extent to which totalitarian leaders rely on the manipulation of thoughts and actions in order to maintain power across the class boundaries. In this essay, Orwell’s political and personal standpoints are examined and the book is analysed from a Marxist and socialist perspective. Whereas Animal Farm was written to reflect the terrible experience of Orwell and many of his contemporaries, its message is in many ways limited by his efforts to adhere to a parody of the events in Soviet Russia. Attention is given to the role of propaganda and Squealer, the chief propagandist in Animal Farm. Although Squealer does not wield power overtly in the way that Napoleon does, he is pivotal in the maintenance of a cowed population. Further, and more importantly from the point of view of the Marxist criticism of Orwell's novella, the Author is found wanting in his depiction of the working classes and his ability to champion those upon whom he in actual fact looked down.

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    Communism and the betrayal of the revolution:
  • 49.
    Isvind, Elin
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Diversity is Magical: Teaching representation through fantasy literature in the intercultural classroom.2017Student paper other, 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
    Abstract [en]

    The world today is globalized like never before and with countries becoming more multicultural it is important to strive towards an intercultural society. This essay aims to answer the question “In what ways can one teach representation in the intercultural classroom through fantasy literature?”. That is, to illustrate and exemplify how one can use fantasy literature in the English classroom to give students intercultural knowledge through discussions on representation and intersectionality. The discussions in the essay are based in the democratic values stated in the Swedish course curriculum for upper secondary school (Gy11) in relation to the theoretical background. With examples from the book Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor, the essay breaches both difficult and sensitive subjects that can be discussed to make certain issues less alien for the reader. Cultural diversity is magical and it is important that students get the right tools to form deep relationships across cultural borders, and the fantasy genre is a great tool to use in the classroom to lessen these bridges between different cultures since the genre creates an arena for intercultural meetings where ‘the other’ is in focus, which reduces the alienating aspect of different cultures and identities.

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  • 50.
    Jensen Strandberg, Emelie
    University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, English.
    Using Students’ Interests and Experiences in English Teaching: A Study of Teachers’ Approaches and Attitudes to the Choice of Content in English Language Learning2019Independent thesis Advanced level (professional degree), 20 credits / 30 HE creditsStudent thesis
    Abstract [en]

    This study examines teachers’ approaches and attitudes towards their choice of content in English language teaching and learning. The study identifies if, and in what amount, teachers use students’ interests and experiences in English language learning. To examine this, interviews with teachers, material and lesson plan analysis and ethnographic observations focused on the teachers’ actions were conducted. The results reveal that some teachers attempt to use students’ interests and experiences when planning English lessons, but in diverse amounts. Because of the time constraints of the English subject in Swedish primary school, the aspect of using students’ interests and experiences is often set aside.

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