Ny teknologi, gamle forestillinger : kloning og kunstige mennesker i Shelleys Frankenstein, Goethes Faust II og Huxleys Brave New World

Nå er science fiction blitt virkelighet! Setningen ble gjentatt som et mantra da nyheten om den klonede sauen Dolly spredte seg i 1997. Kunne man klone en sau, kunne man i prinsippet også klone et menneske. I møtet med den nye bioteknologien grep media og publikum til gamle fortellinger om kunstige mennesker. I avhandlingen Ny teknologi, gamle forestillinger. Kloning og kunstige mennesker i Shelleys Frankenstein, Goethes Faust II og Huxleys Brave New World tar Siv Frøydis Berg utgangspunkt i debattene knyttet til Dolly, og undersøker skapelsen av kunstige mennesker i tre litterære tekster. Følgende spørsmål stilles: Hvordan skaper man et kunstig menneske av organisk materiale, ved vitenskapens hjelp og uten guddommelig assistanse? Og dersom man skulle lykkes, vil slike skapninger kunne realiseres kulturelt, sosialt og eksistensielt? De to eldste tekstene beskriver halvskapninger: Frankensteins Monster (1818) skapes som en kropp uten sjel, mens Goethes Homunculus (1832) skapes som ånd uten kropp. I Brave New World (1932) masseproduseres hele mennesker: kropper langs samlebåndene, identiter gjennom behaviourisme og sosial kontroll. Tekstene setter i spill forståelser av teknologi og vitenskap, natur og kultur, skapelse og kreativitet, kunnskap og dens potensielt destruktive konsekvenser. Avhandlingen viser hvordan kulturhistorien kan bidra til å belyse kompleksiteten i samtidige vitenskapelige kontroverser, og at gamle fortellinger også virker inn på dagens oppfatninger av ny teknologi og vitenskap

Knowledge for Sale: Norwegian Encyclopaedias in the Marketplace

Encyclopedias present and contain knowledge, but historically they have also been commercial commodities, produced for sale. In this article, we study the self-presentations of a selection of Norwegian encyclopedias, as these are expressed in the form of commercial images, advertising texts and slogans. We thus present a brief but detailed study of what might be called a number of paratextual matters associated with 20th-century Norwegian encyclopedias, with the aim of identifying the most significant or recurring topoi in the material. Our analysis shows that claims about speed and modernization are among the most conspicuous ingredients in these self-presentations, claims which, we argue, feed into a particular logic of a particular version of 20th-century modernity. The article begins with an analysis of the commercially successful Konversationslexicon, the first Norwegian encyclopedia, published in 1906 and for a long time market leader of the bourgeois tradition. The Konversationslexicon was produced with the explicit aim of providing a source of conversation for the educated classes, a new and expanding group of readers. We also show how the publisher Aschehoug went on to strengthen its own position in this market through a sophisticated process of differentiation. Seen as a contrast to these market leaders, we explore the Norwegian tradition of counter-encyclopaedias, with the radical PaxLeksikon as our main example. This encyclopaedia came into existence as a result of a strong ideological motivation and was run by left-wing idealists. Nevertheless, and perhaps inevitably, it ended up situating itself within the same market mechanisms and the same commercial logic as the bourgeois encyclopaedias. The article ends by a brief consideration of the change from commercial print encyclopaedias to internet-based encyclopaedias, and of the new challenges this poses in a small nation, rhetorically and in the struggle for funding

Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources

The long tradition of Kierkegaard studies has made it impossible for individual scholars to have a complete overview of the vast field of Kierkegaard research. The large and ever increasing number of publications on Kierkegaard in the languages of the world can be simply bewildering even for experienced scholars. The present work constitutes a systematic bibliography which aims to help students and researchers navigate the seemingly endless mass of publications. The volume is divided into two large sections. Part I, which covers Tomes I-V, is dedicated to individual bibliographies organized according to specific language. This includes extensive bibliographies of works on Kierkegaard in some 41 different languages. Part II, which covers Tomes VI-VII, is dedicated to shorter, individual bibliographies organized according to specific figures who are in some way relevant for Kierkegaard. The goal has been to create the most exhaustive bibliography of Kierkegaard literature possible, and thus the bibliography is not limited to any specific time period but instead spans the entire history of Kierkegaard studies. "Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources in Macedonia" is a overview of the Kiergegaard papers published in Macedonia and in Macedonian by Macedonian authors so far. The paper is divided on two sections: Macedonian translation of Kirekegaard works and Secondary Literature on Kierkegaard in Macedonian, whith more than ten papers listed in both sections

Reproducing the indigenous: John Møller’s studio portraits of Greenlanders in context

Between 1889 and 1922, John Møller (1867–1935), the first professional Greenlandic photographer, produced more than 3000 glass plate negatives documenting life in Western Greenland around the turn of the twentieth century. Rooted in an internal understanding of self, Møller’s photographs played an important part in the formation of a contemporary image of Greenlandic indigenous identity. At the same time, Møller’s photographic practice was arguably entangled in and delimited by a historical reality that was structured by colonial relations of power. This paper examines the social and art- historical contexts of Møller’s work, focusing in particular on a selection of his formal studio portraits. My reading of these portraits suggests a case in which conflicting impulses coincide. On the one hand, Møller produced images that played out the “ethnographic convention”, a European form of representation dating back to the sixteenth century used for the documentation of non-Western indigenous peoples as specimens. However, in acting out that convention, Møller’s photographs hint at a subtle, progressive building-up of identity that reclaimed images of Greenlanders for themselves, and turned an originally negative, external image of indigeneity into a positive sense of self