Stanley Fish and Wolfgang Iser

Semesteroppgave i ENG4369 – Reception Studies, høst 2012. En pdf av oppgaveteksten finnes her.

I have chosen to compare and contrast two theorists from our syllabus, Stanley Fish and Wolfgang Iser. Albeit both propagandists of the so-called reader response theory of literary criticism, they differ on some central tenets in their respective theoretical approaches: The importance of the primary text, the importance of the author, the extent of the work done by the reader, the importance of the relative situatedness of the reader, and the stability of texts across readers and readings.

I will outline their main contributions to the field of literary criticism, with a focus on their importance for our specific field of enquiry, reception studies; point out where their approaches conflict; and try to tentatively offer my own criticism of their stances. Where I deem their approaches inadequate, I will supplement them with other theorists. My main thesis statement for this essay is thus: In what ways do the works of Stanley Fish and Wolfgang Iser inform the study of reception?

The Interaction between Science and Religion in American History

Hjemmeeksamen i NORAM4584 – Religion in American History, høst 2012. En pdf av oppgaveteksten finnes her. 

Throughout American history, the relationship between science and religion has been an uneasy one. Either has had to adjust to the other, having to redefine, reconsider or reconstruct itself as the other gained prominence. Sometimes there have been efforts to integrate and create synergies, at other times we have witnessed retractions and redefinitions in the face of the other. From the early paradigm-changing scientific breakthroughs in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries – among those most prominently the work of renowned English physicist Isaac Newton – and the Enlightenment period with its focus on rational thought and empirical proofs, both challenging the position of the Church, through to the present-day debate between creationists and evolutionists creating headaches for school boards throughout the United States, the tension between scientific and religious approaches to individual morality, communal organizations, the larger American polity and society, and the origin and make-up of creation itself has defined many of the most important existential debates in American history.