The plays by Shakespeare have been adapted countless times. However, the original plays are often themselves based on other stories, or historical accounts. The history plays, for example, are...Show moreThe plays by Shakespeare have been adapted countless times. However, the original plays are often themselves based on other stories, or historical accounts. The history plays, for example, are written on the basis of historical accounts. In this sense, they are already adaptations in their own right. This makes any adaptation of one of his plays a double adaptation; an adaptation of an adaptation. This thesis will take this notion as its starting point. It will take a look at how Shakespeare used his sources in Coriolanus, and after analysing this play, two adaptations for the screen will be analysed, Ralph Fiennes 2011 film and Robert LePage’s 2019 stage adaptation. The focus of the analyses will be on which themes are emphasised in a particular adaptation, and how these themes are informed by the times in which the work was created. Fiennes and LePage move the political arena away from the speeches Shakespeare uses in his play. Instead, they create a modernised, media arena becomes the place where politicians fight for control over Rome.Show less
In royal (self-)representation, one recurring symbol is that of the phoenix. Symbolizing eternal life and hermaphroditism, the phoenix is connected to the theories of the body politic and the body...Show moreIn royal (self-)representation, one recurring symbol is that of the phoenix. Symbolizing eternal life and hermaphroditism, the phoenix is connected to the theories of the body politic and the body theatrical. The phoenix was used as a symbol by both male monarchs, such as James VI & I (1566-1625), Louis XIII (1601-1643), and Louis XIV (1638-1715), and female monarchs such as Elizabeth I (1533-1603) and Christina of Sweden (1626-1689). Elizabeth I’s use of the phoenix symbol is generally understood to refer to perpetual renewal and eternity,1 whereas Christina of Sweden’s use of the phoenix symbol is interpreted as a reference to hermaphroditism and the dual-gendered body politic. Scholarship on the French kings connects the phoenix symbolism to contemporary (political) anxieties over monarchial succession. To date, no systematic study has been made of the phoenix symbol as an expression of monarchial succession anxiety in early modern English society. This is curious, since the English monarchy has seen quite a number of problematic successions since the death of Henry VIII in 1547 and throughout the seventeenth century. The last decades of the reign of Elizabeth I, who died childless in 1603, is known to have caused succession anxiety. Therefore, this thesis aims to fill this gap in scholarship by performing a quantitative as well as a qualitative analysis of the occurrence of phoenix symbolism in early modern English literature and art, with an emphasis on the symbol’s use as an expression of succession anxiety. For the study of the occurrence of the phoenix symbol in early modern English literature, the Early English Books Online (EEBO) database has been used. A search on EEBO for the keyword ‘phoenix’ yielded 5810 hits in 2768 records/documents. The search results were manually sorted, excluding documents referring to the Elizabethan frigat ‘Phoenix’ and the Phoenix Theatre in Drury Lane, London. Ultimately, 2474 documents containing phoenix symbolism were identified (listed in Appendix A), of which 270 documents directly refer to either a monarch or to royal succession (listed in Appendix B). These results have been visualized in the graphs depicted throughout this thesis in order to clarify my arguments. For the qualitative analysis the most interesting and noteworthy EEBO search results have been selected for analysis. The quantitative and qualitative analyses presented in this thesis reveal that the phoenix symbol can be considered an expression of anxieties over succession. The phoenix symbol is not only used as a universal symbol of the monarchy, but also often served to specifically invoke the memory of the persona ficta and the (posthumously mythologised) reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Instead of being a general symbol of royalty, the phoenix symbol in early modern English society was often used to signify Queen Elizabeth I or her reign, which was hailed as the Golden Age as part of the rhetoric of nostalgia as well as her posthumous memorial cult. This strong connection to Elizabeth I caused the use of the phoenix symbol to soar in the first half of the seventeenth century. Ironically, this strong connection is also the main reason for the symbol’s downfall at the end of the century. Moreover, the Scientific Revolution and the demythologisation of the monarchy caused royal symbolism in general to lose its significance and its meaning by the start of the eighteenth century. The rise and fall of the phoenix symbol, spanning from the mid-sixteenth until the early eighteenth century, mirrors these socio-political developments.Show less
This thesis analyses how the character and stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle have been adapted in season three and four of the BBC’s Sherlock and how the character of the detective develops...Show moreThis thesis analyses how the character and stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle have been adapted in season three and four of the BBC’s Sherlock and how the character of the detective develops throughout these two seasons. This analysis was performed through the lenses of both Adaptation Theory (Hutcheon, Joyce, Kline) and Character Studies (Eder, Jannadis & Schneider, Redmond), in order to achieve a complete picture as to how the character of Sherlock Holmes was adapted from Doyle’s stories and further developed for the television series. This study, first critically explores the stories and the character of Holmes in Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories and how the detective handles the situations in which he finds himself as well as how he interacts with other characters. The second chapter studies the development of the character of Sherlock throughout both seasons of the series, with an emphasis on season three, as well as explore the cases Sherlock gets involved in, since they are starting to bleed into his personal life. The third chapter focuses on season four of BBC Sherlock, in which the character of Sherlock and his relationships completely overshadow the cases, shifting the series towards the genre of melodrama. The series is compared to the content of Doyle's stories throughout all chapter in order to explore how the creators of the television series adapted the Victorian Holmes to a twenty-first century Sherlock.Show less
One of the central points developed in this thesis is that the Nigerian-Biafran War, represented in Chinua Achebe's Girls at War and Other Stories (1972) and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a...Show moreOne of the central points developed in this thesis is that the Nigerian-Biafran War, represented in Chinua Achebe's Girls at War and Other Stories (1972) and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), exacerbates the deterioration of Biafra by revealing the inherited corruption adopted from colonisation. The lives and identities of both Achebe's and Adichie's central characters are dramatically altered when exposed to the trials and traumas of civil war; relationships break down, national pride falters and societal constructs are dismantled. By humanising stories of civil conflict, both narratives work towards shaping and legitimising the wartime experiences of the Igbo community, whose struggle for independence has often been blamed as the cause of a disastrous civil war.Show less
This thesis examined Maxine Hong Kingston's three works on Chinese Diaspora life in American, namely The Woman Warrior, China Men, and Tripmaster Monkey. It demonstrates the individual trauma and...Show moreThis thesis examined Maxine Hong Kingston's three works on Chinese Diaspora life in American, namely The Woman Warrior, China Men, and Tripmaster Monkey. It demonstrates the individual trauma and collective traumas Chinese American immigrants endures and also examines the strategies to fight against victimization and the differences between different groups in fighting their trauma. The three works also serve as Kingston's working through her own personal trauma to establish her a mature Chinese American Identity.Show less
A comparative study of the ways in which African American authors Ralph Ellison and Toni Morrison use the classical tradition in their novels Invisible Man and Song of Solomon. The thesis explores...Show moreA comparative study of the ways in which African American authors Ralph Ellison and Toni Morrison use the classical tradition in their novels Invisible Man and Song of Solomon. The thesis explores the texts through the lens of reception theory and considers the potential problems involved in writing about black classicism or 'classica africana.' It finds that both Ellison and Morrison not only comment on the classical tradition but also, through strategic allusion and appropriation, challenge the ideas of cultural purity and literary hierarchy it has historically been used to assert.Show less
This MA thesis contains analyses of the status of same-sex desire in late medieval Europe and researches how same-sex desire is depicted in three Arthurian stories written during this period: the...Show moreThis MA thesis contains analyses of the status of same-sex desire in late medieval Europe and researches how same-sex desire is depicted in three Arthurian stories written during this period: the Lai de Lanval, the Prose Lancelot and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The thesis examines whether these depictions engage with or react to the socio-historical circumstances around same-sex desire in the late medieval period.Show less
Christine de Pizan was one of the very first female authors in medieval Europe. She produced texts in which women are defended against misogyny. In her treatises Christine makes use of existing...Show moreChristine de Pizan was one of the very first female authors in medieval Europe. She produced texts in which women are defended against misogyny. In her treatises Christine makes use of existing misogynistic texts and uses them in her advantage in order to paint a positive picture of women. In addition she reprimands authors who besmirch the reputation of females. This thesis focuses on the manner in which she defends women against misogyny (which was common in medieval Europe) while she uses contemporary sources containing the very misogynistic ideas she argues against.Show less
Jonathan Edwards’ “Personal Narrative” is a chronological, retrospective account of Edwards’ spiritual life interposed with comments and reflections on his experiences with the Divine. He describes...Show moreJonathan Edwards’ “Personal Narrative” is a chronological, retrospective account of Edwards’ spiritual life interposed with comments and reflections on his experiences with the Divine. He describes multiple powerful, highly emotional encounters as he recounts his religious development from his childhood to the present. It stands as a central text of eighteenth-century spirituality, a touchstone of religious thinking in this period. This thesis argues that concerns with the fallibility of language are central to Jonathan Edwards’ “Personal Narrative” (c.1740), as he struggles adequately to describe spiritual experience in words even as that experience is said to go beyond language, including in its emotional and bodily effects.Show less
This thesis is an analysis of two modernist texts, Virginia Woolf’s 'Mrs. Dalloway' and Jean Rhys’ 'Good Morning, Midnight', as a means of exploring how the contrasting states of solitude and...Show moreThis thesis is an analysis of two modernist texts, Virginia Woolf’s 'Mrs. Dalloway' and Jean Rhys’ 'Good Morning, Midnight', as a means of exploring how the contrasting states of solitude and sociality influence self-concept. As both of these texts engage with concepts of selfhood amid themes of social engagement and social isolation, they make ideal candidates for an investigation of this kind. The intentions of this thesis are, firstly, to show how the texts reveal that perceptions of self can be moulded by these contrasting states of sociality and solitude, and, secondly, to highlight the novels’ depictions of the consequences of each state. Because the perceptions of self these states generate manifest themselves in real-world behaviour and essentially influence self-creation, it is worth considering these consequences as represented by a literary movement which so carefully scrutinised the dichotomies of perception and reality, and self and other. By employing a psychological approach to character analyses of selected figures in the texts, this research will cast light on these characters’ personal relationships with sociality and solitude, consequently revealing how their lives, and their understandings of themselves, are positively and negatively influenced by each.Show less
Because Isle of Dogs is simultaneously an animated picture involving talking animals and a work of socio-political critique, the movie and its central themes can be perceived differently by both...Show moreBecause Isle of Dogs is simultaneously an animated picture involving talking animals and a work of socio-political critique, the movie and its central themes can be perceived differently by both children and adults (Rosenburg). For children, Isle of Dogs tells the tale of a boy’s desperate quest to find his lost dog. For adults, however, themes of imprisonment such as dogs in camps allude to American soldiers in Japanese POW camps, Japanese American citizens in American internment camps, and the large amount of Jewish people in German concentration camps. For many adults watching the film, animals, and the dogs specifically, become allegorical vehicles for historical tenors. Moreover, contemporary political philosophies such as Trumpism are also respectively scrutinized, criticized, and satirized in the film, adding another layer of political allegory to this richly allusive film. In turn, the references to the various events that took place during the Second World War draw out contrasts and parallels with current American politics, emphasizing that history can repeat itself, according to Anderson.Show less
