This thesis analyses how Brexit and its causes and consequences are reflected in three contemporary English novels. Scholars such as Anderson, Said and Leerssen have shown that national and...Show moreThis thesis analyses how Brexit and its causes and consequences are reflected in three contemporary English novels. Scholars such as Anderson, Said and Leerssen have shown that national and cultural identities are constructions. A decisive moment such as the outcome of the Brexit referendum shows how people have different constructions with regard to their common nation. This thesis explores what is distinct about English identity and shows the fragmented way in which it is formed. The chosen novels explore how these constructions influence both individuals and relationships. Anthony Cartwright’s The Cut, Amanda Craig’s The Lie of the Land, and Jonathan Coe’s Middle England show how people are confronted with the fact that they have been imagining their nation in fundamentally different ways than their fellow countrymen. The analysis shows that fragmentation and imagination have been key factors in the Brexit process.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
The research focus of this thesis is an analysis of Angela Carter's writing as her means of exploring and renouncing traditional ideals of femininity and social roles prescribed to women. Two...Show moreThe research focus of this thesis is an analysis of Angela Carter's writing as her means of exploring and renouncing traditional ideals of femininity and social roles prescribed to women. Two recurrent themes from her canon - violence and madness, are juxtaposed and analysed in relation to widespread gender stereotypes surrounding masculinity and femininity. Through exploration of the influence of psychoanalysis, psychiatry, cultural and literary depictions of women, this thesis traces Carter's manner of offering critique and analyses her role of a feminist writer.Show less
Through a close reading and historical-biographical contextualisation of two eclogues and the introductory poem, “At Toombridge”, in Electric Light concerning poems by W.B. Yeats, I would like to...Show moreThrough a close reading and historical-biographical contextualisation of two eclogues and the introductory poem, “At Toombridge”, in Electric Light concerning poems by W.B. Yeats, I would like to explore Heaney’s and Yeats's opposed responses to violence. I will claim that this response is due to contemporary Irish political upheaval and that both Heaney and Yeats appropriate Eclogue IV by the Roman Poet Virgil to broaden the scope of their claims. This thesis links the marked contrast between Yeats's and Heaney's response to political violence in an Irish context to their interconnected yet very different backgrounds and times. While the selected poems by Heaney and Yeats are imbued with violence, the contrast lies in both poets' treatment of this theme. The chosen poems from Yeats's middle period (the 1910s – 1920s) seem to condone political violence whereas the selected poems by Seamus Heaney published after the 1998 Peace Treaty in Northern Ireland seems to condemn it.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
In literature, madness has frequently been used by female writers as a guise, or as Elaine Showalter refers to it, a mask, to express the inexpressible. Using Showalter's term of the 'mask of...Show moreIn literature, madness has frequently been used by female writers as a guise, or as Elaine Showalter refers to it, a mask, to express the inexpressible. Using Showalter's term of the 'mask of madness', this thesis explores the image of madness and its link to self expression in three contemporary novels by female authors. Through a close reading of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway (1925), Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing (1972), and Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects (2006) – novels all featuring protagonists exhibiting signs of mental illness – this thesis examines how the image of madness can feature as a response to oppression, and how it can be used as a tool for societal criticism.Show less
In this thesis I aim to provide a close reading of the influence of societal forces on characters' conceptions of themselves in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. To do so, I consider how Clarissa...Show moreIn this thesis I aim to provide a close reading of the influence of societal forces on characters' conceptions of themselves in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. To do so, I consider how Clarissa Dalloway, Peter Walsh and Elizabeth Dalloway are affected by the enigma that is the perfect hostess, Mrs. Richard Dalloway.Show less
This thesis looks into two of Margaret Atwood's famous novels, Alias Grace and The Handmaid's Tale, to analyse how the female protagonists of both novels illustrate the marginalisation of women who...Show moreThis thesis looks into two of Margaret Atwood's famous novels, Alias Grace and The Handmaid's Tale, to analyse how the female protagonists of both novels illustrate the marginalisation of women who were being suppressed in a patriarchal society during Atwood's own early adulthood. Furthermore, it looks into how the women in Atwood's novels respond to this marginalisation and whether the response is comparable to the ideals of feminism.Show less
This Thesis analyses the path toward a hybrid identity of the female protagonists in The Woman Warrior and White Teeth. The main theory is Homi Bhabha's Hybridity and Third Space. By comparing the...Show moreThis Thesis analyses the path toward a hybrid identity of the female protagonists in The Woman Warrior and White Teeth. The main theory is Homi Bhabha's Hybridity and Third Space. By comparing the similarities and differences between the two female character's search for an identity, the thesis concludes that the narrator in The Woman Warrior is in a primary stage of hybridity and that Irie in White Teeth is in a much advanced and modern stage of hybridity.Show less
