Hjemmeeksamen ENG4115 – Texture and Linguistic Structure, høst 2013

Hjemmeeksamen i ENG4115 – Texture and Linguistic Structure, høst 2013. En pdf av oppgaveteksten finnes her. 

Question 1a: Cohesive chains (similarity and identity)

For a series of linguistic signs to be perceived as text (“language that is functional” (Halliday 1989: 10)), it must have unity (Hasan 1989a: 52). According to Hasan, one “source of textual unity” is texture (1989b: 70), which is constituted by “semantic relations between ... individual messages” of a text (ibid.: 71). Semantic relations are realized formally in a text by cohesive devices (Hasan 1989b: e.g. 75, 79–80); provided that cohesive devices are inter­preted as cohesive by the reader/listener (Fries 2004: 22) – i.e., they are understood – they will form cohesive ties between items in a text (Hasan 1989b: e.g. 73, 75). Whenever “a set of items” are semantically related – or tied – throughout the whole or a part of a text, they form a cohesive chain (Hasan 1989b: 84). A text will normally consist of several cohesive chains; these will normally interact. According to Fries (paraphrasing Hasan), “two chains of equi­valent terms interact if the same experiential relation is reiterated between their members” (Fries 2004: 27). As I understand Hasan, the relative strength and comprehensiveness of a text’s chain interaction determines its degree of cohesive harmony (1989b: 93–4); this, finally, is a condition (but, according to Fries (2004: 24), not always necessary) for our experience of a text as being coherent (Hasan 1989b: 94).

Bokhistoriens to teknologiske revolusjoner: Hovedtrekk ved utviklingen i dag og for 500 år siden. Hvilke konsekvenser får teknologiskiftene på lesersiden?

Hjemmeeksamen i LIT4403 – Bokhistorie og tekstkritikk, høst 2013.

Min besvarelse vil følge oppgavens to deler, slik jeg forstår den: En redegjørelse for de viktigste trekkene ved de to teknologiske revolusjonene i bokhistorien, henholdsvis opp­finnelsen av trykkekunsten rundt 1450, og digitaliseringen av bokmarkedet de siste tiårene; og en drøfting av konsekvensene disse teknologiske endringene har hatt for slutt­brukerne av teknologisk transformert tekst, nemlig leseren. Oppgaven legger opp til to inn­ganger til disse historiske endringene: et produksjons­perspektiv og et resepsjonsperspektiv. For det første, de konkrete teknologiske innovasjonene og de medfølgende materielle kon­sekvenser av disse: På hvilke måter tekster formgis, hvordan de produseres og distribueres. For det andre, hvilke konsekvenser endringer i tilgang til tekst, og endringer i innpakning av tekst, har for individu­elle lesere, og samfunn av lesere. Imidlertid vil jeg argumentere for at det er unaturlig med et skarpt skille mellom disse perspektivene: Lesere skriver og skribenter leser, og lesere gir til­bake­meldinger til produsenter, som baserer ut­forming av sine produkter på antagelser om leser­atferd. Som McGann sier om enkeltstående verk, utspiller også bokhistorien seg i en gjensidig avhengighet mellom resepsjons- og produksjons­historiens «doble heliks» (16). Jeg vil derfor behandle teknologi­skifter og leser­respons parallelt, og påpeke tilfeller av betydnings­­­full interaksjon mellom aktører i begge ender av spekteret, der det er relevant.

Paralysis, Simony, and Gnomon in James Joyce’s "Dubliners"

Hjemmeeksamen i ENG4365 – The Short Story in English, vår 2013. En pdf av oppgaveteksten finnes her. 

James Joyce’s “The Sisters” was first written on commission as an isolated story for The Irish Homestead (Gabler xv–xvi). When included as the first in the short story cycle Dubliners, the opening paragraph was amended (e.g. Kerins 243; compare the reprint of the original version in Norris, Contexts 204) to include the three concepts of paralysis, simony, and gnomon, presented by the young first person narrator. According to Murray McArthur, the purpose of this and other emendations was to “[shape] ‘The Sisters’ as the macro-index or riddle that stands as first text or opening frame” not only of Dubliners, but of the entire Joycean canon (245). Thus one can fairly assume that all revisions of and additions to the first version of “The Sisters” are important for understanding the entire cycle – or oeuvre – it was meant to frame; and that italicized additions to the opening paragraph are even more so.

Kvalifiseringsoppgaver RETKOM4140 – Tekstvitenskap, vår 2013

Obligatoriske kvalifiseringsoppgaver i RETKOM4140 – Tekstvitenskap, vår 2013. En pdf av oppgaveteksten finnes her.

Oppgave 1: Tekst som språkbruk, tekst som kulturelt fenomen

Omfanget til gruppen av fenomener som kan falle inn under betegnelsen «tekst», varierer av­hengig av teoretisk ståsted. Den kanskje mest minimale definisjonen av tekst – og dermed den hvis eksten­sjon blir mest omfangsrik – kommer fra tilhengere av det Berge (1994: 98) kaller det abstrakte, objektivistiske synet på språksystemet, som man gjerne karakteriserer som tradi­sjonell ling­vistikk. Selv om det også her er teoretisk varia­sjon, vil nok de som anser språk som et abstra­herbart og regelmessig semiotisk system, anse hver enkelt (mer eller mindre) vel­lykket situa­sjonell instansiering av dette systemet som tekst – om enn med forskjellig terminologi (jamfør Berge 1994: 98).  

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.

“Big Blonde” as a Feminist Critique of American Society of the 1920s

Semesteroppgave ENG4435 – The Lost Generation and the 1920s, vår 2012.   

Dorothy Parker’s short story “Big Blonde,” first published in 1929 and an O. Henry Prizewinner for best American short story of that year (Kinney 137), is a mercilessly damning portrait of the role of women in contemporary American society, with specific focus on urban middle class – or, perhaps more specifically, the “roaring” part of it – gender roles and gender dynamics. In this essay I will present some salient themes of Parker’s story, and try to identify her position on these themes. I will focus my interpretation on how women are portrayed and on the interaction between women and men, and use that analysis as a point of departure for a discussion of how “Big Blonde” can be analyzed as a feminist critique of contemporary American society in the twenties.

Hazel Morse is the story’s focalizing protagonist. The development of her character, and the interplay between her gradually deteriorating self and the series of men she surrounds herself with and depends upon, becomes the main vehicle by which Parker’s commentary on society is both presented and represented. Hazel, and the series of states she is in, is the object of a continual mirroring in her own immediate context: The series of men, the neighbor Mrs. Martin, the newspaper clippings, the series of encounters with horses, and so on, all become reflections of the development of her character. Thus, the following interpretation of “Big Blonde” will center on this focal character.