This thesis analyzes the depiction of Abraham Lincoln in two novels of the previous decade that include elements of the supernatural: Lincoln in the Bardo (2017) by George Saunders, and Abraham...Show moreThis thesis analyzes the depiction of Abraham Lincoln in two novels of the previous decade that include elements of the supernatural: Lincoln in the Bardo (2017) by George Saunders, and Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter (2011) by Seth Grahame-Smith. With a focus on Lincoln's images as Savior of the Union and as The Great Emancipator, this thesis demonstrates in what ways the novels use the supernatural in their portrayal of the President and how this use contributes to the cultural memory of Lincoln that continues to exist in the United States today.Show less
This thesis explores some of the different ways that scholars and authors have dealt with the Arthurian legends when working within different cultural contexts. The aim of this thesis is to analyze...Show moreThis thesis explores some of the different ways that scholars and authors have dealt with the Arthurian legends when working within different cultural contexts. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the use of Arthurian legends over time and to compare the relevance of those legends in cultures familiar with the story, such as America, and cultures less familiar with the story, such as Japan. The comparison will be aimed at shedding light on how differences in the interpretations of Arthurian legends between America and Japan reflect, or are caused by, differences in each culture’s familiarity with said legends.Show less
This thesis examines the expression of female same-sex relations and desire, or queer in union, in early modern England by considering the poetry of Katherine Philips and Aphra Behn each other. To...Show moreThis thesis examines the expression of female same-sex relations and desire, or queer in union, in early modern England by considering the poetry of Katherine Philips and Aphra Behn each other. To achieve this, this thesis first establishes the cultural categories within which, or outside of which, early modern women could formulate and define their relations with one another and develop a sexual subjectivity by examining various literary and non-literary texts available to early modern women. From these texts, the two contrasting figures of the ‘chaste’ female friend and the ‘monstrous’ tribade emerge. Building on Valerie Traub’s argument, who has shown that these two figures came to be combined during the development of the later perception of ‘lesbian’ identities in the eighteenth century, this thesis illustrates the earlier confluence of these two figures in the poetry of Philips and Behn. While Philips draws on the figure of the ‘chaste’ female friend and Behn on the tribadic or hermaphroditic body, both women writers can be seen to use the same adaptation and reclamation strategies. Going against the early modern perception of female same-sex relation, desire, and sexual acts as impossible, unnatural, and monstrous, Philips and Behn create a preferable, alternative pastoral space in which (sexual) relations can be expressed free from arbitrary, gendered constraints.Show less
This thesis sets out to discover how the effects of social class on human agency are explored in Ian McEwan’s novels: Atonement, Saturday, and The Child in Time. In these three novels, all...Show moreThis thesis sets out to discover how the effects of social class on human agency are explored in Ian McEwan’s novels: Atonement, Saturday, and The Child in Time. In these three novels, all characters are subject to the constraints of the social class system. Although researchers such as Dominic Head and David Malcolm have contributed to the debate around the social relevance of McEwan’s novels, few researchers have analysed the three aforementioned novels in the light of social class and its effect on human agency. In the three aforementioned McEwan novels, the character's agency is hugely influenced by the social class system. This thesis will focus on the effects the constraints of their social class system have on the characters’ agency. I am specifically interested in the interaction between social class and human agency. I will argue that all characters are subjected to these constraints. Moreover, the characters’ agency is to a large extent dependent on the social class to which they belong.Show less
A textual analysis of three case studies taken from twenty-first century rock and metal music in order to analyse the use of rhetorical appeals in lyrics and video. The analysis is aimed at...Show moreA textual analysis of three case studies taken from twenty-first century rock and metal music in order to analyse the use of rhetorical appeals in lyrics and video. The analysis is aimed at exploring the combined use of different rhetorical appeals in the two media forms, in order to investigate the hybrid appeals that results from this combined rhetorical effort.Show less
