‘Much augmented‘ and ‘somewhat beautified’ : Revisions in Three Female Complaints of the 1590s.

This essay focuses on revisions in Samuel Daniel’s The Complaint of Rosamond (1592, rev. 1594), Thomas Churchyard’s Shores Wife (1563, rev. 1593), and Michael Drayton’s Matilda (1594, rev. 1596), examining intrageneric connections visible in the revisions as indicative of a dialogic process of genre formation in the complaint group. The essay argues that Churchyard’s, Daniel’s and Drayton’s revised versions to an important extent were “corrected,” “augmented,” or “beautified” in dialogue with other poems in the complaint group, and that this affected the shape of the revisions and, by extension, of the genre as a whole. By exploring specifically the three complaints that were thoroughly revised in the 1590s, and by charting revisions as well their effects, the analysis points to differences between the revisions, but also indicates that they have a number of tendencies in common: all three revised poems are longer than the original versions, and all add focus on their heroines; elaborated descriptions of beauty, added or expanded speeches, and increased emotional focus all seem designed to heighten drama as well as reader sympathy, and they make for more developed characterization. Mrs. Shore’s competitive boasting of her beauty, Rosamond’s warnings against the miseries of marrying an older man, and Matilda’s paradoxical rhetoric are some features that were expanded on by Churchyard, Daniel, and Drayton. Disparate as the examples may seem in isolation, this essay shows how they can still be described as developing or changing the scale of a topic already existing in the repertoire of the female complaint. Seemingly designed to strengthen the cases for the individual complaint heroines, at times, though, some additions can be seen to undermine the assumed intention, thus contributing to the self-contradictory characteristic of many complaints. The shining exception that proves the rule is Matilda, the chaste heroine whose saintliness is almost complete in Drayton’s 1596 text. The essay thus shows that by tracing the emulative dialogue behind the revisions, we can understand on the one hand why the revised complaints show certain features, and on the other how the genre was shaped in an ongoing dialogue between poets and poems

Fibromyalgia : A litteraturstudy on fibromyalgias possible risk factors

Bakgrund: Fibromyalgi är ett syndrom som kännetecknas av utbredd smärta, överkänslighet vid beröring men även att övriga delar av kroppen påverkas. Metod: En litteraturstudie har genomförts där 10 stycken vetenskapliga artiklar har analyserats och utgjort resultatet. Syfte: Huvudsyftet är att undersöka möjliga riskfaktorer som kan påverka utvecklandet av fibromyalgi. Resultat: Studiens resultat har tagit upp fyra teman med tänkabara riskfaktorer. Traumatiska barndomshändelser, där både fysisk och verbal misshandel och sexuellt utnyttjande var riskfaktorer. Att bli utsatt för trauma som vuxen, där fysisk misshandel, operation och arbetsrelaterad skada ingick, var också en riskfaktor. Stress och ett högt BMI-värde var också riskfaktorer relaterade till utvecklandet av fibromyalgi. Diskussion: Studiens resultat visade på att det är flera riskfaktorer som påverkar utvecklandet av detta syndrom. Alla som utsätts för en av dessa riskfaktorer utvecklar dock inte fibromyalgi, utan med största sannolikhet så är det en kombination av flera riskfaktorer som gör att man utvecklar fibromyalgi. Slutsats: Det behövs mer forskning för att studera sambandet mellan fysiska, psykiska och sociala riskfaktorer.Background: Fibromyalgia is a syndrome characterized by widespread pain, hypersensitivity to the touch but other body areas are also affected. Method: A literature study was conducted in which 10 scientific articles were analyzed and discussed. Purpose: The main purpose was to investigate possible risk factors that may affect the development of fibromyalgia. Results: The results of this study raised four themes describing risk factors. Traumatic childhood events, including both physical and verbal abuse and sexual abuse, were risk factors. Becoming a victim of trauma as an adult, where physical abuse, operation and work related injuries were included, was a risk factor as was stress and a high BMI. Discussion: Study results showed that there are many risk factors that affect the development if this syndrome. All persons exposed to one of these risk factors however does not develop fibromyalgia, so most likely it is a combination of several risk factors that makes the development of fibromyalgia possible. Conclusion: More research is needed to study the connection between physical, psychological and social risk factors

Richard III (Rickard III), presented by the Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm, May 29, 2014.

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