Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
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In this thesis I examine the poetic works of Zbigniew Herbert and Wallace Stevens through the lenses of object-oriented ontology of Graham Harman and alien phenomenology of Ian Bogost. I...Show moreIn this thesis I examine the poetic works of Zbigniew Herbert and Wallace Stevens through the lenses of object-oriented ontology of Graham Harman and alien phenomenology of Ian Bogost. I demonstrate how those philosophical positions can open new interpretative possibilities for poetry. I show how Herbert's poetry depicts objects and their relationship with humans. In particular I focus on the question of independence of object and I show how Herbert can broaden the ontological understanding of independence with an ethical component. In the case of Wallace Stevens I demonstrate how his poems could be read as simulations of consciousness of various non-human beings. In particular I focus on the analysis of conditions of such simulation – what makes it possible to simulate non-human being's experiences, what are the limits of such simulation and how such simulation affects the ontological nature of simulated beings.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
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This research aims to explore the reciprocal relationship between the arch-texts of Sophocles’ Antigone and Euripides’ Medea and late 20th century adaptations of them by four Irish poets and...Show moreThis research aims to explore the reciprocal relationship between the arch-texts of Sophocles’ Antigone and Euripides’ Medea and late 20th century adaptations of them by four Irish poets and playwrights. Based on a textual analysis of the original texts and adapted versions, I intend to disclose how the Irish adaptors borrow and rework the characters of Antigone and Medea and their well-known tragic stories in order to provide a critique upon tangible Irish socio-political issues. However, by adopting Antigone and Medea, the Irish authors do not merely use the two heroines as instruments for the satisfaction of their authorial aspirations, but they also provide answers to questions regarding the status and understanding of the two rebellious women that remain obscure in the originals. The research will be situated within Classical Reception Studies, a rather new field of research, which – unlike conventional Classics – focuses on the bidirectional process of adaptation arguing that by revisiting a canonical text, the pre-text is a changing object too. It will do so by using theories of reception of the Classics by Charles Martindale, Tim Whitmarsh, and Astrid Van Weyenberg. By doing so, I propose a contemporary understanding of the figures of Antigone and Medea, which liberates them from the moral ambiguity of their transgressive deeds, and instead, considers them as two heroines of Justice.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
open access
As the first episode of BBC's astronomically long-running science fiction show Doctor Who opens on November 11th, 1963, the audience is treated to a set of images portraying a foggy junk yard, in...Show moreAs the first episode of BBC's astronomically long-running science fiction show Doctor Who opens on November 11th, 1963, the audience is treated to a set of images portraying a foggy junk yard, in which an apparently out-of-use police box is standing. The print on the front of the police box (“Police Telephone / Free for Use of Public / Advice and Assistance Obtainable Immediately / Officers and Cars Respond to Urgent Calls / Pull to Open”) lingers on the screen before “An Unearthly Child” turns to a scene showing what seems to be a teenage 1960's school girl, outrageously outwitting her school teachers. In what follows, the audience, together with the girl's teachers Ian Chesterton (a role by William Russell) and Barbara Wright (played by Jacqueline Hill), discover that the girl, Susan Foreman (Carol Ann Ford), has as an unlikely dwelling place the police box from the opening scene. In addition, she does not even live there alone, but together with her grandfather – a figure known only as the Doctor (at this moment portrayed by William Hartnell). It transpires that the discarded police box is not at all a discarded police box, but rather a “bigger on the inside” space-and-time travelling machine know as a TARDIS. Moreover, Susan and the Doctor turn out to be not a 1960's school girl and her grandfather but “wanderers in the fourth dimension […] exiles […] Susan and I [The Doctor] are cut off from our own planet.” In other words, though they look completely human, the Doctor and Susan are time-travelling aliens; and not only that – they possess a technology and knowledge far more advanced than our own. This is apparent most obviously in the simple fact that they have – and know how to work with – a time travelling machine, but also for example when the Doctor responds to Ian's objection that “You're treating us [Ian and Barbara] like children” how “The children of my [The Doctor's] civilisation would be insulted!”; the Doctor implies that even the children on his and Susans home world would understand much more about technology and science than Ian and Barbara currently do. In a way, we might think of the Doctor and Susan as post-humans – as an attempt by the series' makers to imagine what it might mean to think beyond humanity and away from a human-centred focal point. This is a streak that the series would continue in the 53 (and counting) years to come; if only since the Doctor is, after all, the protagonist to the series. Because a sense of the posthuman seems so central to Doctor Who, this thesis will explore the ways in which the series, through being an object of science fiction as well as one of popular imagination, explores what it might mean, and in doing so, highlights the difficulties of, thinking in the lines of a philosophical current that has in recent years come to be know as posthumanism.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
open access
2017-06-01T00:00:00Z
Between 1617-1672, the Spanish comedia nueva was immensely popular in Amsterdam. While the comedia nueva was originally devised by playwright Lope de Vega (1562-1635) in Spain where he also had his...Show moreBetween 1617-1672, the Spanish comedia nueva was immensely popular in Amsterdam. While the comedia nueva was originally devised by playwright Lope de Vega (1562-1635) in Spain where he also had his first successes, his comedias were transferred to other European countries, such as the Dutch Republic. This Master Thesis reflects on the seemingly contradictional popularity of the comedia nueva in Amsterdam, while the Dutch Republic was revolting against its Spanish overlord. As such, the comedia nueva is being compared to the native Dutch Senecan-Scaligerian tradition, which promoted patriotism. This thesis aims to understand how the comedia nueva and Senecan-Scaligerian plays functioned alongside each other, while it is hypothesized that the emotional response of an audience provided for the popularity of a play. Through an analysis of both the dramatic macrostructure and microstructure, this is made clear, showing that both dramatic traditions were able to successfully instil emotions in the auditor ignoring political hostilities between the Spanish Empire and the Dutch Republic.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
open access
This thesis argues that the literary relevance of The Private Memoirs is its examination of the sometimes problematic desire for belonging and self-realisation. The novel, seen as a satirical...Show moreThis thesis argues that the literary relevance of The Private Memoirs is its examination of the sometimes problematic desire for belonging and self-realisation. The novel, seen as a satirical Bildungsroman, shows that Robert Wringhim’s failure both to reach maturity and assimilate into society is the result of his inability to change. One needs to constantly (re)negotiate between self and other to safely integrate into society – this is a form of Bildung, as understood in Herder’s conceptualisation of the term. However, Robert fails to integrate, because he refuses to change his early identity, which, in turn, leads to the creation of a doppelgänger. Also, his parents teach Robert that he is preordained to live in heaven which causes him to feel that above all he belongs to this future state. Ultimately, with no self-realisation and a strong desire to go to where he feels he belongs, Robert’s short life can only end in his premature death. Finally, The Private Memoirs is not merely a critique of bad parenting or religious excess. Rather, Robert and his family become a metonymy for something larger and more prevalent: liberalism and civil society, where freedom becomes freedom to have property, rather than freedom of thought. In the end, liberalism is portrayed as a system of exclusion rather than inclusion of differences.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
closed access
Despite the fact that there have been recent attempts to broaden ekphrasis into its antique and medieval sense, these attempts have not taken the concept of living presence into account. My thesis...Show moreDespite the fact that there have been recent attempts to broaden ekphrasis into its antique and medieval sense, these attempts have not taken the concept of living presence into account. My thesis takes this more generous sense of ekphrasis as a point of departure. I draw on the attitudes of Christianity towards the representation of the divinity in verbal and visual terms (including the Eucharist) to argue that there are fundamental differences between the two media. The concept of living presence response is introduced as a tool to analyse the agency of the visual representations upon the worshippers. Drawing on works from Geoffrey Chaucer and on the anonymous Piers the Plowman's Crede, I suggest that the broad sense of ekphrasis should be further enlarged to include any textual attempts to reproduce, or any textual awareness of, living presence response. This inclusion, in turn, must encompass the role of the receiver in allowing the effects to occur in the first place. I challenge two claims: that ekphrasis is a narcissistic mode of literary discourse; that Chaucer is paying homage to the inseparability of different media. Recommendations for further research include the investigation of whether there is a correlation between ekphrasis viewed as lifelikeness and iconoclastic periods, on the one hand, and between living presence response and medieval theories of sight, such as Roger Bacon's, on the other.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
open access
In the The Waves (1931) Virginia Woolf is approaching the possibilities of true knowledge in fiction. She does so both on the level of content and form. Bernard, one of the novel’s speakers, has an...Show moreIn the The Waves (1931) Virginia Woolf is approaching the possibilities of true knowledge in fiction. She does so both on the level of content and form. Bernard, one of the novel’s speakers, has an epiphany while shaving as a middle-aged man. He discovers that time has changed. Time no longer indicates the possibility of the future, but rather the missed possibilities of the past. This new experience of time results in Bernard losing his urge to describe the world. Instead Bernard attempts a different mode of narration in order to communicate and grasp his new experience of life. Bernard’s problem with representation is also Woolf’s problem. The Waves is similarly qua its form an experimental piece of fiction that is following the rhythm of the sea rather than a traditional plot structure. By doing so Woolf is posing the same questions to fiction as Bernard: How is it possible to describe the world objectively? The thesis is investigating this question by extensively using Ann Banfield’s book The Phantom Table (2000).Show less
