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Detta nummer av Budkavlen fokuserar på vad äckel och äcklighet åstadkommer i olika sammanhang. Det äckliga kan både avstöta och attrahera, väcka både nyfikenhet och avsmak. Äckel är en kulturellt formad känsla som kan ha starka effekter i världen och i enskilda människors liv. Artiklarna som ingår visar bland annat hur hur äckel kan användas för att styra in människor i önskad riktning, engagera människor att handla och avskräcka dem från oönskat beteende. Red. Blanka Henriksson & Ann-Helen Sund

In this thesis, we aspire to convey the nature and sense of self of the heavy metal fan culture. Adopting multidimensional methods, we examine how sensory ethnographic research can contribute to the content and design process of a museum's exhibition about heavy metal and its fans. Our compiled methodologies and empirical research consist of the apprentice approach, academic research within the field of heavy metal and interviews with six heavy metal fans for the purpose of gaining valuable first-hand insight in the field. Specifically, our research discusses how to understand and communicate the values, norms, and conventions of the culture, without exposing them in an emotional or aesthetic way.In conclusion, the concert culture and the influence of affect on the body, form and create a significant and loving community and solidarity within the culture. Their sense of self originates from this argument, and the mosh pit is a constant impetus and prism for the norms and core values of the culture. The results from our informants present a discrepancy between the fans and the academic scholars within the field, which surfaces in and defines our research. This discrepancy reveals a clash between an outsider- and an insider-perspective, including wherever metal is estreme, seeks transgression and practices the abject.The heavy metal fans see and discourse themselves as a subculture of outsiders, and through the apprentice method, we as researchers also participate as outsiders. Conveyed and interpreted into a museum narrative, this insight can be a preferable but also powerful concept for Ragnarock - The Museum for Pop, Rock and Youth Culture. For future museum designs, we would recommend applying user-involving design methods to optimize the potential for maximum identification with all that is and could be metal.

V aktualnem besedilu se fokusiram na sodobne smernice v filozofiji (spekulativni realizem), implikacijo abjekta in estetiko campa ter produkcijo objektov iz termoreverzibilnih materialov in epoksija. Dekadentni romanopisec Joris Karl Huysmans, natančneje njegovo delo Proti toku, mi služi za analogijo ustvarjalca, potopljenega v modalnosti svojega umetniškega objekta. Definiram virtualen, navidezen kontekst, iz katerega so ti objekti ekstrahirani, in se ukvarjam z razpršeno naravo njihove distribucije. Kot ključne oporne točke pri vizualni produkciji uporabim delo Charlotte Posenenske, glasbeni video Grace Jones v režiji Nicka Hookerja, postinternet in Evo Hesse. Slednja mi je v pomoč pri odkrivanju serialnega značaja lastnega dela. Koncentriram se na princip semplanja, transgresijo, najdeni predmet in objektu določim konkretno fizično dispozicijo v prostoru. My thesis focuses on contemporary trends in philosophy (speculative realism), the implication of the abject, camp aesthetics and the production of objects from thermoreversible materials and resin. Joris-Karl Huysmans, French decadent novelist, or more precisely, his work Against Nature, provides an analogy for a creator immersed in the modality of his art object. I define the virtual context from which these objects are extracted, and deal with the dispersed nature of their distribution. Charlotte Posenenske, Grace Jones’ video directed by Nick Hooker, Postinternet and Eva Hesse are used as key points in my visual production. I rely on the latter to discover the serial character of my work. I concentrate on the principle of sampling, transgression, the found object and determine the object’s physical disposition in space.

This essay explores and examines disgust in five literary figures and books based on scent, bodyfluids and abjection. Together with Julia Kristeva's Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection and Sara Ahmed's "The Performativity of Disgust" in The Cultural Politics of Emotion, I analyze these books, and my position as a researchsubject. The questions I ask are: What does disgust mean? How do the subject's boundaries shift when things penetrate the body? How are scents, body fluids and disgust expressed in relation to power and the female body? And what does it mean that I stick my reading experiences on the texts I read? The analysis begins in Mare Kandre's novel Aliide, Aliide and how gaze, power and girlhood are made, as well as how abjection takes place in the intake of milk and larvae. Body in body and body against body are analyzed based on Aliide's disgust in the novel. I discuss how something growing inside is experienced as disgusting and frightening and connect it to the pregnant body and the fetus as abjection. In the second chapter of the analyze, it is Parfymen: berättelsen om en mördare by Patrick Süskind that focuses on the scent of the female body that Grenouille, the main character tries to extract and master. The gaze on the female body and the extraction of fragrance is in focus here and in Nekrofilen by Gabrielle Wittkop, Lucien's desire for the dead body is examined. The body fluids, such as the vomit that the bodies excrete can be read as limits to life and death. In the third and final analysis section, I read these books with affect. I reconnect to my introduction where Ulf Lundell's poems made me feel disgusted. I use Ahmed's concept of performativity to discuss how cannibalism - reading - eating body fluids are connected, and how writing about disgust, is a form om vomiting. I examine my own writing subject and what an affective reading does to literary studies and the research position. In conclusion, I discuss how the universal and the subjective making of disgust effect research.

Magistrsko delo skuša orisati strukturne spremembe delovanja suverenosti in njene hrbtne plati – uživanja. Če se je suverena oblast pred moderno v svojem delovanju morala nanašati na svojo inheretno praznino, a je zato delovala v transcedentalnem okviru, moderna to praznino vzame kot poglavitni zastavek, s tem pa permutira logiko delovanja suverene oblasti in jo bistveno imanentizira. A v tej imanentizaciji še vedno deluje v svoji praznini in jo toliko opredeljuje preostanek – imanenta transcedentnost, kot to poimenuje Roberto Esposito. Nanašajoč se na teoretsko psihoanalizo in predvsem na dela Erica Santnerja na tem področju skuša magistrska naloga slediti zastavkom analize inherentne praznosti suverenosti moderne suverenosti Ernsta Kantorowicza in slediti sodobnim permutacijam tega momenta v analizah biopolitike Michela Foucaulta in nekaterih sodobnih avtorjev, ki so z biopolitiko skušali misliti aktualno delovanje oblasti. Čeprav moderna in njena analiza v magistrski zajema ohlapno določeno zgodovinsko obdobje in je primarno konceptualna opredelitev, se osredotoča predvsem na zgodovinsko obdobje dvajsetega stoletja, ko moderni preostanek imanentne transcedentnosti postane jasneje razviden, predvsem v blodnjah Daniela Paul Schreberja, ki inavgurira dvajseto stoletje. Čeprav med teoretično zastavitvijo in konkretno analizo nekega pojava oziroma dogodka vedno zeva razlika, skuša magistrska dalje opredeliti kje je bila moderna oblika oblasti vidna v izrednih razmerah prve svetovne vojne in kako je prva svetovna vojna vplivala na normalizacijo te oblasti. Konkretno skuša to ponazoriti na primeru internacijskih praks in v momentih tekom vojne, ki so vplivali na vzpostavitev nacije na območju Avstro-Ogrske. The paper tries to describe the structural changes of sovereign power and its other side – pleasure. If before modernity sovereign power was operating in its referencing to its own inherent emptiness and was as such operating in a transcedental frame, modernity takes this emptiness »head on«, with which it permutates the logic of sovereign power and immanentizes it. In this immanentization however sovereignity still operates in its emptiness because of which it is governed by its renmant abject – an immanent transcedence as Roberto Esposito puts it. Leaning on theoretical psychoanalysis and the works of Eric Santner, the paper tries to follow the outline of sovereign power in the works of Ernst Kantorowicz and the the analysis of biopolitics in the works of Michel Foucault and modern authors that tried to think the present power through biopolitics. Even though modernitiy and its analysis historically expands over a longer period and is primarily a conceptual definition, the paper focuses on twentieth century, when the modern abject of immanent transcedence beocmes more evident, especially in the delirium of Daniel Paul Schreber, who inavgurates the twentieth century. Even if there is always a disparity between theory and concrete historicaly analysis, the paper tries to define how modern soverignity was reflected during states of exception of first world war and how the first world war infuenced the normalization of this power. Concretely it tries to show this in the case of internation during the world war and tries to follow moments of consolidation of nation state in the case of Austri-Hungary.

Inledning: Julia Kristeva har utvecklat det teoretiska begreppet abjektet. Syftet med studien var att förstå mer av abjektet och vilken betydelse det kan ha för den psykodynamiska praktiken. Frågeställningar: Hur upplever terapeuter förtrogna med begreppet abjekt dess kliniska relevans och användbarhet? Vilka implikationer för, och vilka specifika intrapsykiska och/eller intersubjektiva kännetecken i, terapin beskrivs? Metod: Genom intervjuer med sex terapeuter förtrogna med Kristeva söktes abjektets relevans och användbarhet samt specifika intrapsykiska och intersubjektiva kännetecken i relation till det kliniska arbetet. Intervjuerna analyserades med hjälp av deduktiv tematisk analys. Resultat: Abjektet som fenomen beskrevs visa sig som affektiva och kroppsliga symptom, där patienten visar föga förankring i språket, och där sammanblandade och gränslösa relationer framträder. Det präglas av att patienten agerar ut med syftet att fortsatt symbiotiskt sammanblandas eller i försök att differentiera och separera. Arbetet med det abjekta visade sig kliniskt innebära att en tillitsfull relation behöver upprättas; ett terapeutiskt sammanhang markerat av gränser, möjliggörande rörelse och benämning av tidigare osymboliserat material. Patienten kan i det ideala fallet upprättas som subjekt, sörja över separationen och bristen, ges tillträde till en plats i sin historia och förmå stå ensam och separat i relation till andra. Diskussion: Av analysen framkommer att de intervjuade terapeuterna antog positioner i olika grad längst en å ena sidan ickespråklig nivå av närvaro i terapirummet och en å andra sidan språkligt avgränsad nivå. I analysen visar sig arbetet med det abjekta syfta till separation och subjektets tillblivelse. Ett arbete som i sin tur ses vara avgörande för att individen ska kunna ingå i relationer med andra. Introduction: The aim of the study was to investigate the term Abject as developed by Julia Kristeva. Research questions: How do therapists familiar with the term Abject perceive its clinical relevance and usefulness? Which are the implications described concerning intrapsychic and/or intersubjective characteristics in therapy? Method: Interviewing six therapists, all familiar with Kristeva, the study sought to find how the Abject is relevant in psychodynamic therapy in Sweden today, as to understand its intrapsychic and intersubjective implications. The interviews were analysed using deductive thematic analysis. Results: The phenomenology of the Abject was described as presenting itself through affective and somatic symptoms, devoid of symbolic representation and relational boundaries. It was further described as characterized by patients acting out, seeking to symbiotically merge or to differentiate themselves as separate. The study showed that working clinically with the Abject requires the therapist to construct a relation based on trust, define borders and to help the patient to express formerly unspeakable experiences, thus enabling the patient, ideally, to establish themselves as subject, mourn the separation and develop the capacity to stand alone. Discussion: In working with the abject, the interviewed therapists appear to assume positions of varying degree along, on the one hand a non-verbal level of presence in the therapeutic room and on the other hand a verbally demarcated level. In every case the work with the Abject appear to aim for separation and the formation of the subject. This work appears to be crucial for the individual as to be able to relate to others.

This paper deconstructs twelve contemporary political speeches from leaders of the Swedish parliament, using Julia Kristeva’s interpretation of the abject. Focusing mainly on Annie Lööf (C) and Jimmie Åkesson (SD), it examines speeches made at Almedalsveckan, spanning the years 2014–2019. In addition to these speakers, but to a lesser extent, it references Ebba Busch Thor (KD) and Jonas Sjöstedt (V) from the same time period and event. Rather than looking at these narratives from a rhetoric point-of-view, this paper analyses the reader’s/listener’s affective relationship to the text. Are the speakers attempting to arouse feelings of horror, disgust, repulsion, or anxiety in their audience with their choices of words and images? When, how… and why? To answer these questions some sociological and political theories are utilised alongside Kristeva’s, namely those of Randall Collins and Murray Edelman. In applying Collins explanation for how group solidarity is generated – by extension, how group identity is created – this paper suggests that abjection serves a vital role in these speeches as part of the political strategy to gain and maintain support. Through separation and exclusion, delineating what the speaker and their sympathisers are and are not, as well as designating enemies on whom they can project their fears and frustrations, the speaker effectively forges group cohesion. This process can provide members of said group (i.e. readers and listeners) with a release of tension, or feelings of reassurance or excitement. The result of these political narratives, whether intended or not, is an imagined, idealised Swedish subject, who affirms the “necessity” of the political leader that imagines them.

Diplomsko delo z naslovom Abjektno telo v mojem slikarstvu je raziskovanje specifične skupine človeškega telesa v odnosu do dojemanja slikovnega polja. V likovno-teoretičnem delu skušam najprej razčleniti ključne pojme, ki so izraz koncepta abjektnosti v slikarstvu. Te podkrepim s filozofskimi stališči in s slikovnimi primeri določenega obdobja. Najprej predstavim pojma telo (in) abjekt, kjer skozi različne interpretacije skušam izpostaviti njune temeljne lastnosti. Telesa nato razčlenim na zunanji in notranji del, kjer obravnavam odnos med telesom in duhom ter subjektom in objektom. Ker je telo osrednji faktor pri performativni umetnosti, obravnavam tudi body art ter njegove predstavnike. Skozi poglavja se venomer osredotočam, da se pojem abjektnega telesa vselej vključuje v sam razvoj diplomskega dela ter tako skušam na osnovi teoretskih dejstev razmišljati tudi o svojih načelih ustvarjanja. V likovno-praktičnem delu predstavim serijo slik in risb abjektnih teles v prostoru. Skozi fotografije prikažem proces ustvarjanja, ki me je popeljal mimo različnih misli v »končno« slikarsko umevanje The thesis entitled Abjective Body in My Paintings is an exploration of a specific group of human body in relation to the perception of the visual field. In the theoretical part, I firstly try to analyze the key terms that are an expression of the concept of abstractness in painting. I endorse these with philosophical views and with examples of a certain period of painting. In the first chapter I introduce the concept of body (and) abjective, where I try through various interpretations, highlight their basic properties. Then I divide bodies into the outer and inner parts, where I deal with the relationship between the body and the spirit and the dualism between subject and object. Since the body is the central factor in performative art, I also deal with body art and its representatives. Throughout the chapters, I always focus on the idea that the notion of the abjective body is always included and I try to think on the basis of theoretical facts about my principles of creation. In the practical part, I present a series of paintings and drawings of abjective bodies in the visual space. In pictures, I show the process of creativity, which led me through various thoughts into »final« painting poetry.

In this essay I aim to examine how camp could be used as a method in the reading of camp as a theory. This will be followed by an analysis of how The Watermelon Woman (Cheryl Dunye, 1996) could be seen as an expression of camp. I am intending to do so by using camp as a method combined with queer phenomenology and theory about social abjection. By having a phenomenological base I hope to show how camp is contextual - and how its resistance is fluid. In my analysis I will look closer at the relationship between Dunye, the director, Cheryl, the protagonist - played by Dunye, and Fae - the actress who has been lost in the archives. Together, they show how camp becomes a method in the film itself, as a film, as well as a film within the film. Camp will be my method in the reading of The Watermelon Woman, claiming that the film as well uses camp as a method - both as an aesthetic expressions and as a (re)writer of history.

En masteressä i form av ett egentillverkat fanzine. Ett collage av bilder från mitt konstnärliga arbete och text. Där text och bild samverkande reflekterar över vad jag faktiskt gör. Den gestaltande delen var en rumsinstallation med 4st videor, målat golv, målat papper och målade objekt. Det rörde bland annat ämnen som abjekt, moderskap, "kvinnoyrken", vardagsliv, och kropp. Anna-karins loop från examensutställningen finns tillgänglig i Kungl Konsthögskolans bibliotek.

Within the field of cinema studies, the question of visual representation is a fundamental pillar. An immense volume of theoretical work has been written on the subject, with various academic approaches such as feministic, postcolonial and gay/lesbian. Yet there is a large social group that seems to have been overlooked within the representational discourse: the elderly. This group of people appears to be a blind spot on the multicultural retina, too often neglected within the area of cultural studies. But as the baby boomer generation, who has always redefined the different stages of life (youth, adulthood, middle age), is entering old age, things are slowly changing. Utilizing a post-structural framework, this essay investigates the visual representation of elderly within the cinematic landscape of the western world. Since the subject is somewhat uncharted territory, a broad interdisciplinary approach is necessary where modern social gerontology meets the field of cinema studies. In a cultural context, social grouping based on age implies a distinct position versus the normative, compare to other types of minorities. Changes of sex, skin colour or sexual preference are uncommon, whereas changing age is the fate of every human being. The elderly as the “the Other” is thus every man’s future destiny. This rather unique position carries an immanent paradox since the only way to avoid the periphery in question is death. As a philosophical counterpoint to this rather dystopian outlook, Gilles Deleuze’s theory of becoming is brought into the discussion. The theoretical part of the essay ends with the ontology of age, a historical review of the field of gerontology and the concept of ageism. After a descriptive section, where contemporary examples of film and other media with old age as a main theme are identified, the analytical part of the essay ensues. With the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu as a theoretical frame of reference, a close reading of the films Avalon (Axel Petersén, 2011), About Schmidt (Alexander Payne, 2002) and RED (Robert Schwentke, 2010) are performed, emphasising aging identity and imposed age-normative behaviour. The semiotics of the aged body is discussed through Jacques Lacans mirror stage and Julia Kristevas abject theory, exemplified by the works of Donigan Cumming. The final part of the essay concerns the great eternal questions within film philosophy: life, death, time and memory, which for the elderly are not merely philosophical concerns but rather notable existential realities. Using Deleuze as a philosophical toolbox, these grand topics are illuminated with examples from The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (David Fincher, 2008), Amour (Michael Haneke, 2012) and Ingmar Bergmans classical works, such as Smultronstället (1957), Saraband (2003) and Gycklarnas afton (1953).

This paper examines the representation of female antagonists in three popular children’s books – C. S. Lewis’s Narnia books, Roald Dahl’s The Witches, and Philip Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass – by referencing Kristeva’s theory of abjection and Creed’s discussion of the monstrous-feminine. In both the Narnia series and The Witches, female antagonists are simplified, stereotyped and negatively portrayed as evil figures that threaten the stability of a well-ordered community. They are represented as the abject that blurs the borderlines between life and death, human and non-human, masculine and feminine. At the end of both narratives, the monstrous-feminine is ejected, eliminated, and the ‘purification’ brings relief and a vengeful pleasure. In Pullman’s book, the harpies are represented as monsters that can be reasoned with. They are honoured as generous and “Gracious Wings”. Yet, while the attempt of positive reinvention of the monstrous-feminine is noticeable, they play only a secondary role acknowledged by the symbolic order – the monstrous-feminine stereotype is nevertheless perpetuated., Rad istražuje načine prikazivanja ženskih likova u ulozi protivnika u trima popularnim književnim pripovijedima za djecu – u ciklusu Chronicles of Narnia [Kronike iz Narnije] C. S. Lewisa te u romanima The Witches [Vještice] Roalda Dahla i The Amber Spyglass [Jantarni dalekozor] Philipa Pullmana – pozivajući se na teoriju abjekcije Julije Kristeve i na raspravu o čudovišno-ženskom Barbare Creed. I u ciklusu o Narniji i u romanu Vještice, ženski su protivnički likovi pojednostavljeni, stereotipni i negativno okarakterizirani kao zle figure koje prijete stabilnosti dobro organiziranoga društva. Prikazane su kao abjekti koji nejasnima čine granice između života i smrti, ljudskoga i ne-ljudskoga, muškoga i ženskoga. Na kraju obiju pripovijedi čudovišno-žensko se izbacuje, eliminira, a ‘pročišćenje’ donosi olakšanje i osvetničko zadovoljstvo. U Pullmanovoj su knjizi harpije prikazane kao čudovišta s kojima se može razborito razgovarati. Časti ih se kao velikodušne i imenom „Dobrohotna Krila.“ Pa ipak, premda je uočljiv pokušaj ponovnoga uspostavljanja pozitivnoga pojma čudovišno-ženskoga, takvi likovi igraju tek drugorazrednu ulogu koju im nameće simbolički poredak, a stereotip se ipak i dalje održava., Anknüpfend an die Abjektionstheorie von Julia Kristeva und an die Diskussion über das Monströs-Feminine bei Barbara Creed werden in diesem Beitrag die Darstellungsweisen der Frauengestalten als Kontrahentinnen in drei populären kinderliterarischen Erzählwerken – im Romanzyklus Chronicles of Narnia [Die Chroniken von Narnia] von C. S. Lewis sowie in den Romanen The Witches [Hexen Hexen] von Roald Dahl und The Amber Spyglass [Das Bernstein-Teleskop] von Philip Pullman – erörtert. Sowohl im Narnia-Zyklus als auch im Roman Hexen Hexen werden diese Frauengestalten auf eine vereinfachte, stereotype und negative Weise als Verkörperung des Bösen dargestellt, die die Stabilität einer ansonsten gut organisierten Gesellschaft bedrohen. Sie werden als ‚Abjekte’ dargestellt, die die Grenze zwischen Leben und Tod, dem Menschlichen und dem Unmenschlichen, dem Männlichen und dem Weiblichen, verwischen. Am Schluss beider Erzählwerke wird das Monströs- Feminine ausgegrenzt bzw. eliminiert, wobei diese als ‚Purifikation’ empfundene Aktion das Gefühl der Erleichterung und Zufriedenheit hervorruft. In Pullmans Werk dagegen werden Harpyien als Monster dargestellt, mit denen dennoch eine vernünftige Kommunikation möglich ist. Man verehrt sie als großzügige Wesen, weshalb man sie u.a. als „Sanfte Flügel“ bezeichnet. Obwohl darin der Versuch einer Wiederherstellung des positiven Begriffs vom Monströs-Femininen zu erblicken ist, spielen solche Gestalten jedoch nur eine – von der symbolischen Ordnung zugewiesene – zweitklassige Rolle, so dass das Stereotyp trotzdem erhalten bleibt.

Die Arbeit betrachtet drei Romane, die allesamt im Rahmen kolonialer Gesellschaften in unterschiedlichen Konstellationen am Beispiel der Protagonistinnen dramatisieren, inwiefern diese aufgrund von Geschlecht, Klasse und ethnisch-kulturell-nationaler Herkunft Probleme haben, eine Identität auszubilden, die mit den Normen der politisch dominanten Ideologien kompatibel ist. Die fatale Verquickung von sexistischen und rassistischen Geschlechterstereotypen macht die Protagonistinnen zu psychischen Grenzgängerinnen, die in allen drei Texten schwere psychische Krisen durchleben aufgrund derer sie als verrückt gelten. Der Arbeit geht es darum, sub-alterne Identitäten herauszuarbeiten, die hybrid, vielschichtig und dynamisch sind, sich jedoch nicht außerhalb von kolonialen Diskursen bewegen. Die Protagonistinnen verweisen auf Gegendiskurse zu den hegemonialen Diskursen, wobei diese nicht zwangsläufig auch Orte der Lebbarkeit und einer Stimme repräsentieren. Diese Gegendiskurse tauchen vornehmlich auf als das aus dem kolonial-eurozentrischen Diskurs Verdrängte, das in der Erinnerungsarbeit der Protagonistinnen als Leerstelle markiert ist, so dass die kulturell dominante Vorstellung von Repräsentierbarkeit im Sinne eines fixierten Wahrheitsparadigmas durch einen allmählichen Bruch mit tradierten Erzählmustern unterlaufen werden muss. Die Protagonistinnen sind „haunted identities“, da ihre Psychen von dem verfolgt werden, was sie selbst im Zuge der Subjektivierung ausgrenzen. Um die Zusammenhänge zwischen Psyche und Gesellschaft genauer zu fassen, entwickelt die Arbeit eine detaillierte Analyse er durch Butlers Begrifflichkeit als Melancholische Prozesse fassbar gemachten, psychischen Entwicklung der Protagonistinnen und will auf dieser Basis außerdem analysieren, welche gesellschaftskritischen Aspekte mit den literarischen Darstellungen von Wahnsinn einhergehen. Dabei erweist sich Butlers Modell als sehr geeignet, um die Situation von Frauen zu beschreiben als das Dilemma, etwas betrauern zu müssen, das vom dominanten kolonialen Diskurs als nicht betrauernswürdig markiert ist.

This study researches fictional representations of dead bodies in two television series in which representations of dead bodies are prominent features. The study introduces a brief history of the human body as a societal metaphor. The narrower theme of the study, the dead body as a cultural surface and carrier of meaning and ritual potential, is discussed through specific popular cultural television productions. The two television series discussed in this study, CSI: Miami and Six Feet Under, are researched both through film analyses and focus group discussions. The film analyses have aimed to show to what use dead bodies are put in the narratives of the programs. The focus group discussions have sought to shed light on the audiences understanding of the meaning of the dead body, and also how this feature of the programs influence the audience and their experience of the programs. The study shows that both series introduce and underline dead bodies as floating in-between subject and object status. A dead person is often introduced as a subject and then stripped of his or her cultural identity and reintroduced as an object or as having an uncertain cultural status which lies somewhere between object and subject. This borderline status of the body serves as a threat in the series, and the subject status of the body is reinstated in every case possible. Order is a central concept for the study and both series strive to reassert and maintain order, either in relationships or on a societal level. The reinstatement of order is reflected on the physical body as a metaphor and narrative device in both series. The reestablishment of the subject status of a dead body is part of this strive for order. The audience research concludes that all focus group members agree that the representations of dead bodies in the programs are important for their experience of the programs. Some find them unpleasant while others think they are interesting. The audience also listed several other themes of the programs which they found important. The representations of dead bodies strike the audience members both as “real” and material, and as metaphors.