This thesis analyzes how the representation of Anton Chigurh in Joel and Ethan Coen’s neo-noir film No Country for Old Men (2007), translates a postmodern obscurity of good and evil and how this...Show moreThis thesis analyzes how the representation of Anton Chigurh in Joel and Ethan Coen’s neo-noir film No Country for Old Men (2007), translates a postmodern obscurity of good and evil and how this phenomenon characterizes a post 9/11 American society. While analyzing various aspects of the film, most importantly its dramatis personae, it becomes evident that representations of serial murder as the portrayal of serial killer Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men, alongside Ed Tom Bell and Llewelyn Moss, in addition to the film’s narrative and dialogue, contribute to the ambiguation of the dividing line between good and evil, leaving the serial killer at a borderline state. The confusion surrounding the serial killer is in an era that has been marked by a postmodern ambiance of unpredictability, angst, and perplexity. As such, representations of the serial killer epitomize and challenge the complexities and the growing moral dilemma in contemporary post 9/11 American society.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
This thesis will examine the way women are presented in Elizabeth Gaskell’s works Mary Barton (1848), North and South (1854). The thesis will argue that the portrayal of women in these novels...Show moreThis thesis will examine the way women are presented in Elizabeth Gaskell’s works Mary Barton (1848), North and South (1854). The thesis will argue that the portrayal of women in these novels reveals the role of women in different layers of society within the context of the Industrial Revolution and rejects the traditional expectations of women as simple, emotional creatures only suitable for being wives and mothers. Gaskell portrays her women as strong female characters and uses them as agents at all levels of society. The novels present their leading ladies as smart, independent women who are allowed to be both strong and emotional, and who are permitted to have their own mind free from the expectations of society. Firstly, I will look at the cultural and social-historical context in which the novels are placed and what the traditional role was for women in different levels of society. My research will also explore what the Industrial Revolution meant for women in British society, and the impact of new ideas regarding the possibility that one could rise in their station. Secondly, I will look at how each woman protagonist within the novels deal with these expectations. I shall also examine the novels in comparison to each other, and look at the differences and similarities between the female characters in each novel. For this part of my research, I shall make use of articles by Brown, Davis, Elliot’s ‘The Female Visitor’ and ‘Servants and Hands’, Pike, and Surridge, as these recent critical interpretations are central to current discussion of the novels and the ways in which they represent mid-nineteenth-century society.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
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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
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
Recent fairy-tale film releases by Disney show that the company is attempting to retell the classical fairy-tale films from new perspectives, especially featuring stronger fairy-tale heroines. This...Show moreRecent fairy-tale film releases by Disney show that the company is attempting to retell the classical fairy-tale films from new perspectives, especially featuring stronger fairy-tale heroines. This change is the result of a cry for subversion after feminist writers discovered values of a strictly patriarchal society in fairy tales, and they therefore campaigned for the abolition of female passivity in Disney’s fairy-tale films. This thesis will examine the theme of female agency and villainy in Disney’s fairy-tale films. Comparing and contrasting the original Walt Disney Sleeping Beauty (1959) adaptation with the same studio’s most recent film version Maleficent (2014), this thesis argues that the two movies reveal an apparent shift in the way they explore and present female identity, from valuing passivity to celebrating agency, and closely related to this, a growing sympathy towards the figure of the morally ambiguous villain who appears to seek redemption through motherhood. The notion of moral ambiguity will be discussed in relation to the villainous female character, and the differences in the portrayal of their agency compared to the agency attributed to the heroine.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
The topic of this thesis is the representation of fairies in various film productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream. In this paper, I explore how Shakespeare might have envisioned the fairies in his...Show moreThe topic of this thesis is the representation of fairies in various film productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream. In this paper, I explore how Shakespeare might have envisioned the fairies in his play and what the divergent interpretations of the fairies reveal about our changing relation to Shakespeare's play and the possiblities of performance, particularly through the arrival of film. The main analysis in this paper begins in Chapter 2 with a close textual examination of how in the Dream, Shakespeare transformed the traditionally menacing fairies into forces for good. The following chapters analyse three film productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Chapter 3 discusses Reinhardt and Dieterle's 1935 production, which portrays the fairies in the traditional practice of balletic dancers. After the box office failure of the first Shakespeare sound film, the directorial duo avoided risks and went with the conventionally popular stage practices. Peter Hall's 1969 film production, analysed in Chapter 4, depicts half-naked green fairies in a response to Jan Kott's innovative reading. And Michael Hoffman's 1999 Hollywood film, discussed in Chapter 5, reflects the fact that dramatic texts gather a cumulative history, which becomes part of the broader source; I also consider how recording technologies such as DVDs intensified the engagement with earlier works. The interpretation of the Dream and its fairies has undergone a shift in the past century, both in its reading and in its staging of the play. These transformations stress the influence of period and culture on the reading of the play and consequently on the representation of the fairies.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
