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The dissertation centers on the systematic study of emotionality in public speeches from a diachronic perspective, with particular focus on the theoretical foundations of the ancient rhetorical tradition and their reflection in modern communication practices. It draws on classical rhetorical concepts, particularly Aristotle's view of pathos as a key element of persuasion, and traces how the functions, forms, and legitimacy of emotional appeals have evolved from antiquity to the present day. The research aims to identify and compare rhetorical strategies for creating and delivering emotions, their persuasive power, ethical considerations, and audiences' responses in political, social, and media contexts. Methodologically, the study combines a theoretical-historical analysis of major rhetorical texts with a qualitative examination of selected modern speeches, starting with Cicero's Second Philippic as a reference and model. The results of this work will contribute to a deeper understanding of the role of emotionality in the persuasion process and to linking classical humanistic heritage with current communication challenges.

Humor in the Swedish Public Discourse in Times of Political Conflict

The aim of this doctoral dissertation is to examine political verbal humor in the Swedish public discourse in the context of social and political conflicts, with particular emphasis on the war in Ukraine and Sweden’s shift from neutrality to NATO membership. The study will primarily focus on political satire, exemplified by the television program Svenska nyheter, while stand-up performances (e.g., Magnus Betnér) and online humor platforms (e.g., Svenska memes) will be analyzed as complementary material. The theoretical framework draws on the General Theory of Verbal Humor (Attardo), pragmalinguistic approaches to humor (Dynel, Tsakona), studies emphasizing its ideological and persuasive functions (Billig, Davies), as well as relevant Nordic research (Doon & Bruhn; the FemHum research group, among others). The analysis will focus on identifying key discourse actors (van Dijk) and speech tactics and on linking these to discoursive strategies (Wodak, Reisigl) through which humor frames political attitudes and legitimizes particular narratives. Proficiency in Swedish at the C1 level is required, and knowledge of another Scandinavian language (e.g., Norwegian) at least at the B2 level is considered advantageous. 

Rhythm has traditionally been studied within versification theory, with a primary focus on metre; however, contemporary tendencies toward non-metrical poetry and prose call for greater attention to other factors that shape the rhythm of discourse. This study contributes to the systematic investigation of rhythmic elements with the aim of formulating conclusions relevant to linguistics, literary studies, and translation practice. It examines how rhythm in (artistic) prose is constituted in Spanish and Slovak and how typological and prosodic differences between the two languages influence authors’ rhythmic strategies and their transformation in literary translation. The analysis focuses on manifestations of rhythm such as sentence length, intonational patterns and segmentation, narrative tempo, pauses, repetition, parallelism, and syntactic symmetry. Particular attention is paid to the degree to which these features are preserved in translation and to the compensatory strategies employed by translators. The research is based on authentic written texts and on the contrastive analysis of parallel source and target texts in Spanish and Slovak.