This thesis explores how the hybrid form of photo-fiction suits migrants’ experiences. Taking Aleksandar Hemon’s The Lazarus Project (2008) and W. G. Sebald’s The Emigrants (1996) as my case...Show moreThis thesis explores how the hybrid form of photo-fiction suits migrants’ experiences. Taking Aleksandar Hemon’s The Lazarus Project (2008) and W. G. Sebald’s The Emigrants (1996) as my case studies, I focus on themes of history, memory, and identity. I analyze how the tensions between photographs and prose complicate our understanding of the way traumatic historical events shape the present, the unjust historical treatment that migrants endure, the mobilization and materialization of memories, the constructed nature of migrant identities, and the way exile becomes a desired state of being in the world. Through comparative close readings of Hemon and Sebald’s novels I explore how both authors challenge the conventional notion that photography’s telos is bearing witness to historical truths and how their novels also call for a reconsideration of the relationship between memory and photography. I seek to show that the hybrid photo-fiction form, which emphasizes blurriness and dualities inherent in acts of memory and in constructions of self-histories and identities, illuminates how migrants meaningfully engage with the world. Sebald and Hemon’s novels move us between two aesthetics, engage us with two modes of storytelling, and in doing so highlight the positive nature of hybridity and the beauty in rootlessness and rupture.Show less
Bachelor thesis | Film- en literatuurwetenschap (BA)
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In deze scriptie staat de volgende onderzoeksvraag centraal: Hoe manifesteert trauma zich in de Afrikaans-Amerikaanse literatuur? Om deze vraag te beantwoorden richt ik mij op het werk van de...Show moreIn deze scriptie staat de volgende onderzoeksvraag centraal: Hoe manifesteert trauma zich in de Afrikaans-Amerikaanse literatuur? Om deze vraag te beantwoorden richt ik mij op het werk van de invloedrijke Afrikaans-Amerikaanse auteurs Toni Morrison en James Baldwin en zal ik uitlichten hoe trauma zich manifesteert in Morrisons The Bluest Eye (1970) en Baldwins Go Tell it on the Mountain (1953). Met behulp van een vergelijking tussen de manifestatie van trauma in The Bluest Eye en Go Tell it on the Mountain kan de ontwikkeling en relevantie van trauma in de Afrikaans-Amerikaanse literatuur in kaart worden gebracht.Show less
Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
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This thesis intends to explore the relation between memory and matter, through an analysis of contemporary art. The research begins with an investigation of the meaning of memory and explores...Show moreThis thesis intends to explore the relation between memory and matter, through an analysis of contemporary art. The research begins with an investigation of the meaning of memory and explores alternatives to this understanding, as proposed by major theorists in the field of cultural memory studies. These alternatives are then further researched through an analysis of the work by Gabriel Orozco, Anish Kapoor and Navid Nuur. Their work will function as case studies in which certain artworks are related to the comprehension of memory as proposed in the first chapter. Through the study of the performative, transformative and evocative qualities of the artworks, the affect and agency of art will be revealed. These analyses will include an exploration of the connection between memory and matter, as it uses new materialist's notions to reconsider the idea of memory. Through applying a new methodology into an existing field of research, this thesis intends to spark thought for the reconsideration of notions that we take for granted. Ultimately this thesis aims to reevaluate what we know about memory, objects of memory and art.Show less
Bachelor thesis | Film- en literatuurwetenschap (BA)
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Dit onderzoek draait om de mogelijkheid van representatie en interpretatie van depressie in postmodernistische literaire werken. Ik begin mijn onderzoek met het proberen te komen tot een werkbare...Show moreDit onderzoek draait om de mogelijkheid van representatie en interpretatie van depressie in postmodernistische literaire werken. Ik begin mijn onderzoek met het proberen te komen tot een werkbare definitie van depressie. Vervolgens ga ik aan de hand van de kenmerken die ik aan het ziektebeeld kan toewijzen verder de diepte in voor wat betreft de representatie van dit ziektebeeld. Hier ga ik ook in op hoe de representatie in Oblomov er uitziet. Vervolgens maak ik de sprong in het diepe naar het postmodernisme, ik zal wederom eerst proberen te komen tot een werkbare definitie, vervolgens behandel ik de gekozen literaire werken en stel ik vast op welke manier ze omgaan met de representatie van depressie in een postmodernistische verhaalwerkelijkheidShow less
Although trees are not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of the Israel/Palestine conflict, the aim of this thesis is to demonstrate that specific trees play a significant and active...Show moreAlthough trees are not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of the Israel/Palestine conflict, the aim of this thesis is to demonstrate that specific trees play a significant and active role in the conflict and in the construction of Israeli and Palestinian collective memories and identities. Beyond providing mere metaphoric expressions of Israeli and Palestinian rootedness, trees give material form to claims to the contested land of Israel/Palestine. Thus, the Israel/Palestine conflict is not merely a struggle over land, but also a struggle conducted and articulated through the land and through trees more specifically, as both Israelis and Palestinians invest memory in “their” trees, the pine tree and the olive tree respectively.Show less
