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 looks at how adolescence is symbolised by children's journeys to exotic Fairylands. This is a place where they learn to integrate their emotional side (id/unconsious) with their moral...Show moreThis thesis looks at how adolescence is symbolised by children's journeys to exotic Fairylands. This is a place where they learn to integrate their emotional side (id/unconsious) with their moral/conscious side (superego/ego/persona). The integration of these elements signifies maturity. The thesis takes Bruno Bettelheim's Freudian analysis of the Brothers Grimm's fairy tale 'Brother and Sister' as a 'base structure' and looks at how this structure is applicable to three books from the early twentieth century: Nesbit's "Phoenix and the Carpet", J.M. Barrie's "Peter and Wendy" and Hope Mirrlees's "Lud-in-the-Mist".Show less
This thesis offers an analysis of the development of Salman's Rushdie's work through a close reading of two early novels (Midnight's Children and The Satanic Verses) and two most recent novels (The...Show moreThis thesis offers an analysis of the development of Salman's Rushdie's work through a close reading of two early novels (Midnight's Children and The Satanic Verses) and two most recent novels (The Golden House and Quichotte). The research question is to establish whether a major change in style has taken place. The premise is that a shift seems to have taken place from what Brian McHale calls the ontological dominant in postmodernism to an ethical and moral dominant. This thesis focuses particularly on typical postmodern topics such as the questioning of the ontological relationship between reality and truth, since Rushdie’s style of fantastical writing invites such a focus.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
William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is, among many other things, a play that subtly criticises the patriarchal society in which it is set, advocating a more equal society instead, and...Show moreWilliam Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is, among many other things, a play that subtly criticises the patriarchal society in which it is set, advocating a more equal society instead, and this interpretation is confirmed and built upon by Henry Purcell and Benjamin Britten in their respective operas based on the play.Show less
This thesis investigates how Henry James’s The Princess Casamassima, George Gissings’s Demos and Frances Hodgson Burnett’s Little Lord Fauntleroy address contemporary social anxieties about class...Show moreThis thesis investigates how Henry James’s The Princess Casamassima, George Gissings’s Demos and Frances Hodgson Burnett’s Little Lord Fauntleroy address contemporary social anxieties about class and gender identity by exploring the themes of inheritance and social mobility in relation to the idea of the gentleman. In all three novels the male main character tries to improve his own social position while at the same time he tries to deal with social inequality. Driven by their ideals Hyacinth Robinson, Richard Mutimer and Cedric Errol all try to make positive contributions to the society they live in. Their attempts are not equally successful.Show less
This is a thesis that analyses several Dr Who serials in relation to concepts such as Colonialism, Empire, Fascism, and Humanist values. As such it treats its popular-culture subject seriously and...Show moreThis is a thesis that analyses several Dr Who serials in relation to concepts such as Colonialism, Empire, Fascism, and Humanist values. As such it treats its popular-culture subject seriously and shows how such long-running TV serials are much more than just commercial entertainment.Show less
Although the Victorian age is popularly understood to be an age in which motherhood was glorified, by the end of the nineteenth century mothers in late Victorian novels were often portrayed as...Show moreAlthough the Victorian age is popularly understood to be an age in which motherhood was glorified, by the end of the nineteenth century mothers in late Victorian novels were often portrayed as negative characters and motherhood as an institution was under attack. The rise of feminism and the introduction of the New Woman could be seen as provoking this negative portrayal. Not only women but also men criticized women’s and mothers’ positions in society. Straightforward criticism on the position of mothers was likely to be censured. Writers took it on themselves to portray the mother’s distorted social position, one that made her practically invisible within the public realm. Some feminist writers attacked motherhood in order to advocate another life and lifestyle equal to men; in literary texts, they used discouraging depictions to show women what would happen to them if they too would walk into the trap of marriage and motherhood. I shall argue that such writers portrayed mothers as undesirable characters in order to expose what the social conventions invented by a patriarchal society did to mothers and how it affected their behaviour. I shall analyse what motherhood meant in the late nineteenth century and how ‘the mother’ was characterized in literature during that time period. Two novels and a play will be analysed for the support of my argument: George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs Warren’s Profession (1894); Henry James’s The Spoils of Poynton (1897); and Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (1899). I shall demonstrate that in each primary source the author criticizes a distorted situation that affects mothers and their behaviour that is regarded as deleterious.Show less
Throughout the years, young adult dystopian fiction has become a well-known and widely-read genre. Simultaneously, the division of the world into typically masculine or feminine matters has changed...Show moreThroughout the years, young adult dystopian fiction has become a well-known and widely-read genre. Simultaneously, the division of the world into typically masculine or feminine matters has changed as well. This same idea applies to literary genres. Science fiction has been dominated by male characters and writers throughout the years, for instance in books such as Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, or in television series like Star Trek and Babylon 5. Nevertheless, the more contemporary young adult dystopian novels, as a subgenre of science fiction, have seen an emergence of other heroic protagonists, namely girls. These girls, such as Katniss Everdeen in Suzanne Collin’s Hunger Games, are suddenly able to exert agency in a genre that initially mainly had male protagonists, and in which female characters were merely supporting those real heroes. In fact, the modern female protagonists use their gendered traits to drastically change the society they live in. While these capacities were usually not given to young women in dominant patriarchal societies, nowadays it has been made possible by the increasing presence of conventions of the romance genre in science fiction, and its subgenre, dystopian fiction. The combination of the conventions of both genres results in a change of subject matter of dystopian fiction, but also a change in the intended audience. This is because both genres have a different focus as well, as the focus of science fiction is scientific and technical developments and societal problems, whereas the focus of romance fiction is romantic behaviour, emotions, and relationships. The increasing popularity of contemporary young adult dystopian fiction shows that adolescents are ready for a change. My thesis will analyse the portrayal of female characters in a popular Young Adult dystopian fiction series, namely Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games (2008-2010), and it will examine how the genres of science fiction and romance have merged together, and what the consequences have been. To ensure a thorough analysis that is supported by relevant and substantiating theories, the thesis is divided into two parts. The first part contains thorough analyses of the romance genre, the science fiction genre, and the latter’s subgenre dystopian fiction. The focus is on these genres, for the reason that the text in question, The Hunger Games, fuses these genres, and one of the objectives of this thesis is to place Young Adult dystopian fiction between the two seemingly conflicting genres, in order to show that these two genres have combined their characteristics. By examining these genres individually, I shall eventually demonstrate to what extent these genres merged together, and what the consequences have been in terms of role division and the distribution of power between the male and female characters. The second part of my thesis explores the portrayal of female characters in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, to research the extent to which certain characteristics of the romance genre and the strong female characters have invaded the science fiction and dystopian genre, and what the effects have been in this particular series. In other words, the second part will demonstrate how romance in The Hunger Games has resulted in the creation of a strong female character, Katniss Everdeen, who exerts agency and who is able to use her femininity in order to rebel against and change the government of Panem. This part consists of three chapters, all of which contain an analysis of one book of the trilogy. The three analyses will show how the female protagonist in the series has obtained agency by embracing her own femininity, which has been made possible by the addition of important characteristics of the romance genre, and how this change in agency, created by the combination of the two genres, enables her to fight against and bring down the totalitarian government, and create a better place for all Panem’s citizens.Show less
One thing that stands out when looking at Alfred Hitchcock's films is the director's interest in domestic space. By looking at the 'Hitchcock House' from top to bottom, from outside to inside, this...Show moreOne thing that stands out when looking at Alfred Hitchcock's films is the director's interest in domestic space. By looking at the 'Hitchcock House' from top to bottom, from outside to inside, this thesis argues that domestic architecture in Hitchcock's films has a symbolic function. Influenced by Victorian literature and German Expressionism, Hitchcock's 'topography' is characterized by houses whose architectural style, rooms and elements reflect the narrative and the protagonists' characters. In addition, Hitchcock's houses at times become characters in their own right, trapping and wounding their inhabitants. Besides that Hitchcock attributes a symbolic meaning to his domestic sets, he also uses them to play with the private/public contrast, one of the most important conventions of social space.Show less
This thesis follows in the great popularity of first Suzanne Collins’s “Hunger Games” trilogy and later Veronica Roth’s “Divergent” trilogy, both works of dystopian fiction aimed at young adults....Show moreThis thesis follows in the great popularity of first Suzanne Collins’s “Hunger Games” trilogy and later Veronica Roth’s “Divergent” trilogy, both works of dystopian fiction aimed at young adults. This thesis will argue that the identities of the female protagonists of these trilogies are both formed, moulded, by their respective oppressive (dystopian) societies, but that they eventually take their own fates and that of their societies in their own hands in order to change it for the better, thus becoming active agents in their own lives. Although Katniss Everdeen remains a pawn of the system which requires her to perform various (gender) roles until the very end, her conclusion signifies that she has learned to discriminate between the real and the appearance of the real: she kills President Coin, the next evil dictator, and allows a peaceful and stable future for herself as well as for the entire nation. Similarly, Tris Prior is for a long time confined to thinking according to her society’s faction system, but she ultimately recognizes the fallibility of this system which only creates prejudice, social division, and limits identity formation. Tris is essential in taking down this faction system and allowing her society a chance to start afresh.Show less
Compared to the protagonist of the classic Who series, since 2005 the Doctor has darkened considerably. This finding of moral complexity in the character best shows itself in ambiguities in the way...Show moreCompared to the protagonist of the classic Who series, since 2005 the Doctor has darkened considerably. This finding of moral complexity in the character best shows itself in ambiguities in the way in which the Doctor addresses and discusses (with 'laymen' in the show, such as his companions, or passers-by who somehow get involved) the show’s monsters and villains, and himself.Show less
This thesis investigates the representation of female heroism in the nineteenth century in the novels Middlemarch by George Eliot and Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell. It concludes that...Show moreThis thesis investigates the representation of female heroism in the nineteenth century in the novels Middlemarch by George Eliot and Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell. It concludes that both determinist authors imply that female heroism was not possible on the scale of romantic heroes, or able to reach its full potential. However, both writers give their heroines the best possible ending; their actions can influence a small part of the web of causality around them. This quiet heroism is their small but important power.Show less
