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I den här uppsatsen utforskas André Acimans roman Call Me by Your Name (2007) och regissören Luca Guadagninos filmatisering av verket (2017) i relation till det antika begreppet eros (ung. begär). Det finns sedan tidigare en konstnärlig tradition i västvärlden att tillämpa antik tematik vid gestaltningen av manligt samkönat begär och för att åskådliggöra hur detta sker även i Acimans och Guadagninos respektive verk används i den här uppsatsen Platons Gästabudet (Symposion, ca 385 f. Kr) som en återkommande utgångspunkt i analysen. Utifrån ett urval tematiska inslag i Gästabudet, som alla anknyter till Platons övergripande behandling av begär ur ett filosofiskt perspektiv, riktas i det här arbetet uppmärksamheten mot hur dessa teman även förekommer i Call Me by Your Name, roman som film. Detta gäller inte minst Platons presenterade tanke att eros, under rätt omständigheter, har förmågan att leda filosofen mot upplysthet och förståelsen av en upphöjd och evig ordning. Utöver att visa på hur båda verken (som utspelar sig i relativt modern tid) genomsyras av denna antika begärstematik är ett annat mål med uppsatsen att genom en komparativ analys, och med ett genusvetenskapligt och queerteoretiskt perspektiv, blottlägga hur skillnaderna mellan romanförlagan och filmadaptionen påverkar bilden av den unge huvudpersonen Elio och dennes utforskande av sin sexualitet – även då bilden av sexualitet i en mer generell mening. Slutsatsen som den här uppsatsen leder fram till är att Acimans förlaga vid en första anblick framstår som mer utmanande i förhållande till en modern heteronormativ ordning (så som åskådliggjord av Judith Butlers heteronormativa matris) medan Guadagninos version – trots skildringen av samkönat begär i berättelsens centrum – innefattar mer konservativa indikationer. Samtidigt är de utmanande aspekterna i Acimans roman inte heller helt oproblematiska vid en andra anblick. I den mån Acimans skildring med hjälp av den antika tematiken gör motstånd mot moderna uppfattningar om sexualitet, begär och relationsformer leder nyttjandet parallellt till att andra diskriminerande och begränsande uppfattningar om kön, genusidentitet och könsmaktsordning snarare bekräftas inom berättelsens ramar mer än vad de utmanas.

Inter-governmental organisations (IGOs) are given mandates by states to perform particular tasks: from refugee protection to the management of migration to promoting development. As new global challenges arise, such as climate change, these organisations must decide whether to ignore them or change in response. But what drives inter-governmental organisations to move beyond their mandates, if it is not their member states? International Relations offers a limited account of if and how they will respond to new issue areas. Principal-agent theory treats IGOs as units with fixed preferences to expand and maximise their tasks and scope (Hawkins et al. 2006; Nielson and Tierney 2003; Pollack 2003). Meanwhile, sociological institutionalism argues that IOs are driven by a logic of appropriateness and staff will only support expansion if it fits coherently with their organisational identity and culture (Barnett and Coleman 2005). I build on these two theories and propose that IGO behaviour should be explained by organisational type. IGOs exist along a spectrum from normative to functional ideal-types. Normative IGOs have supervisory status over a body of international law, seek moral legitimacy and follow a logic of appropriateness. Functional IGOs are projectised organisations which seek pragmatic legitimacy and adopt a logic of consequences. I illustrate how IGO type interacts with the status of the new issue area to determine the timing, nature and extent of organisational change. I focus on the responses to climate change of three inter-governmental organisations: the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, a normative organisation; the International Organisation for Migration, a functional organisation; and the United Nations Development Programme, a hybrid organisation. IGO type has important implications for IR scholars and policy-makers as we look to these institutions to provide global solutions to global issues such as climate change, migration, refugees and development.

In the last decade there has been a significant shift in the framing of climate governance. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has moved from an explicit focus on mitigation, to also include adaptation. Climate change is no longer simply about reducing emissions but also about enabling countries to deal with its impacts – be it on development, migration, or health. Yet most studies of the climate regime have focused on the evolution of mitigation governance, not adaptation. This tendency is partly because adaptation was considered a ‘taboo’ topic in the UNFCCC as many states did not want to concede that climate change was occurring, or did not want it to be considered a substitute for mitigation. In short, global adaptation governance is understudied and poorly conceptualized. In this paper, we ask: what constitutes and characterizes global adaptation governance? We attempt to characterize governance efforts in terms of what, who and how adaptation is governed. We examine: the constituent parts of an emerging regime (principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures), the institutions involved, and how these parts have been manifested in concrete modes of governance (standards and commitments, operations, finance, knowledge and networking). To aid this mapping, we use the mitigation regime as a heuristic for comparison. We find that there is indeed an emerging global regime around adaptation, although characterized by ‘soft’ procedural and facilitative modes of governance. Furthermore the institutional complexity and fragmentation we see in global adaptation governance arises for different reasons than for the mitigation regime. Namely the epistemic ambiguity around adaptation, including its scalar framing, and the power politics around controlling donor funds for adaptation. This paper contributes to our understanding of the shift in framing of global climate governance, from mitigation to adaptation, and the coherence of this regime.

In this essay I’m exploring the novel The Road (2006) by the American author Cormac McCarthy. My main subject of interest is the thematic presence of consumption in general and meat consumption in particular in the text, and how this theme takes on an extreme form in the described and implied acts of cannibalism. Throughout the history of the Western World cannibalistic acts have been most commonly condemned and the cannibal has been, in a wide range of discourses, a cultural symbol of opposition to the idea of – and identification with – the ”civilized (Western) self”. Within the frames of popular culture cannibalism is generally portrayed along these lines as an expression of primitivism, animalistic behavior, depravity and monstrosity. As a reader of The Road, one may classify this story as a part of this tradition in its depiction of cannibalism. However, my goal is to illustrate how the subject can be viewed in a more diverse way, which potentially leads the reader to recognize the cannibal: Not in the form of the Other but as a part of the Self; not as a telling agent of evil times but as a critical mirror image of our own. I do this by shedding light on how cannibalism can be said to connect with other discourses throughout McCarthy’s text: Meat consumption as mentioned earlier is one of them and by following that trail my reasoning also comes to include industrialized meat and cultural consumerism. The conclusion of this essay is that the occurring cannibalism in The Road can be, and in my opinion should be, read as criticism of our contemporary society and its exploitive relationship to animals.

In this essay I’m exploring the novel The Road (2006) by the American author Cormac McCarthy. My main subject of interest is the thematic presence of consumption in general and meat consumption in particular in the text, and how this theme takes on an extreme form in the described and implied acts of cannibalism. Throughout the history of the Western World cannibalistic acts have been most commonly condemned and the cannibal has been, in a wide range of discourses, a cultural symbol of opposition to the idea of – and identification with – the ”civilized (Western) self”. Within the frames of popular culture cannibalism is generally portrayed along these lines as an expression of primitivism, animalistic behavior, depravity and monstrosity. As a reader of The Road, one may classify this story as a part of this tradition in its depiction of cannibalism. However, my goal is to illustrate how the subject can be viewed in a more diverse way, which potentially leads the reader to recognize the cannibal: Not in the form of the Other but as a part of the Self; not as a telling agent of evil times but as a critical mirror image of our own. I do this by shedding light on how cannibalism can be said to connect with other discourses throughout McCarthy’s text: Meat consumption as mentioned earlier is one of them and by following that trail my reasoning also comes to include industrialized meat and cultural consumerism. The conclusion of this essay is that the occurring cannibalism in The Road can be, and in my opinion should be, read as criticism of our contemporary society and its exploitive relationship to animals.

In this essay I point out that the presence of ”Otherness” plays a key role in the novel The Beach by Alex Garland, and that the text relates to a colonial literary tradition. I’ve mainly used the distinction of Otherness and cultural representation presented by the postcolonial theorist Edward W. Said to guide me. In my examination of the text the presence of Otherness, how it is described and the effects that it has on the story’s central group of characters, has been my focus point. I’ve investigated the occurrence of different elements in the text which creates the sense of Otherness and identified the two most prominent opposition groups in relation to the protagonist of the story. On the story’s setting level aside, a colonial and imperialist theme can also be found on an intertextual level by made references to American war movies like Apocalypse Now, a specifically good example as the script of that movie is based upon the colonial themed novel Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. I will summarize how the opposition between the Self and the Other throughout The Beach effects the plot’s outcome, and present my conclusion: that the author Alex Garland intentionally places his novel in a tradition of colonial storytelling to give a critical comment on the modern world’s similarities with its colonial past, especially when it comes to contemporary tourism. In my opinion the novel is also questioning the human’s civilized state and social evolvement.

Perth, WA