Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
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Valeria Luiselli, in her book-length essay, Los niños perdidos, uses an immigration questionnaire to structure her story of the refugee crisis taking place across the US-Mexico border. In Examen de...Show moreValeria Luiselli, in her book-length essay, Los niños perdidos, uses an immigration questionnaire to structure her story of the refugee crisis taking place across the US-Mexico border. In Examen de mi padre, Jorge Volpi uses the schema of his father’s body to structure his “autopsy”—not only of his father but also of the Mexican nation in the depth of an existential crisis. This thesis studies these two pieces of literary non-fiction through the lens of teaching and the interrogative mood in the “Ithaca” episode of James Joyce’s Ulysses. In “Ithaca,” a question and answer structure subverts the Roman Catholic catechism and its drive toward a single truth, as well as the scientific objectivism which the questions and answers themselves mimic stylistically. To what extent does the question and answer structure subvert the scientific and political discourse in Volpi’s essay in 10 lessons and Luiselli’s essay in 40 questions? I borrow from the methodology of secondary language teaching to explore and order the different types of questions and their linguistic relevance to literary style. How do Joyce’s experiences as a language teacher, using the interrogative mood as a teaching method, influence his literary use of interrogatives? The grammatical progression of the interrogative mood serves as an organizing principle for my own research questions. I argue that Luiselli’s use of the interrogative mood, like Joyce’s in “Ithaca” and Volpi’s in Examen de mi padre evades the determinacy and conclusion of an ending as well as any purely objectivist approach to its subject.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
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This thesis aims to shed new light on the intersection between the Gawain cycle and its socio-political environment by focusing primarily on the monsters. By analysing the monsters in the...Show moreThis thesis aims to shed new light on the intersection between the Gawain cycle and its socio-political environment by focusing primarily on the monsters. By analysing the monsters in the narratives as cultural projections of a certain period, this thesis aims to gain insight into the feelings and anxieties that accompanied the tensions between the noble houses during the Wars of the Roses. The monsters in the narratives of the Sir Gawain Cycle challenge the Arthurian Court to reflect on different sides of nobility. As outsiders, or as ‘Others’, they try to warn the knights of the Round Table to change their values and beliefs, and they urge them to live by a type of nobility that is more focused on virtue instead of wealth and status. Each monstrous body presents a different flaw within the ideology of the Round Table, and in turn, comments upon real concerns and anxieties that existed in the late-fifteenth century border region.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
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In this thesis, I seek to analyze the postmodern condition in history from a quantum-philosophical perspective. According to the famous physicist Niels Bohr, (our knowledge of) the quantum object...Show moreIn this thesis, I seek to analyze the postmodern condition in history from a quantum-philosophical perspective. According to the famous physicist Niels Bohr, (our knowledge of) the quantum object cannot be meaningfully separated from the instruments used to interrogate and represent the quantum object. The instrument intervenes into the quantum universe in a way that allows for comprehensible knowledge of the quantum object. In turn, Bohr presents a conception of scientific objectivity that acknowledges and incorporates this meaningful intervention. In my thesis, I present a detailed analysis of Bohr’s interpretation of quantum mechanics, connecting his insights to the issue of subjectivity in history and historiography. I present an interpretative framework, inspired by quantum-philosophical perspectives, which integrates the subjective processes of observing, constructing and writing history into a new conception of historical realism. Like Bohr’s quantum philosophy, this historical realism considers the instruments for observation and representation as inseparable from yet meaningfully constitutive of the historical object.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
open access
this thesis argues that alternative approaches outside of the dominant deconstructive model of trauma theory are in order to more comprehensively represent the (embodied) experience of trauma...Show morethis thesis argues that alternative approaches outside of the dominant deconstructive model of trauma theory are in order to more comprehensively represent the (embodied) experience of trauma amongst women in Western society. In chapter 1 I will start out by tracing the concept of trauma back to its origins. I will pay particular attention to the narratives emanating from the medical discourse surrounding hysteria and trauma, highlighting the paradoxical and problematic conceptualization of the female subject in psychoanalysis. Furthermore, I will show, taking Alias Grace as a case study, how psychoanalysis and the dominant model of trauma theory can be a fruitful epistemological tool when applied to trauma narratives, but also what its limitations are in the face of the female trauma. Chapter 2, then, will further examine the underlying cause of these limitations and the origin of the harmful narratives perpetuated within the trauma theory discourse by exploring the relationship between the phallogocentric nature of Western society and women’s place within it. It will demonstrate why the female experience of trauma warrants additional reflection and that, in some ways, it lies beyond the reaches of the dominant model. And finally, Chapter 3 will propose three alternative approaches that aim at providing a more inclusive account of the female trauma. All three approaches will be characterized by an emphasis on the embodied experience of trauma and treat the female body as a potential site of expression.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
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In deze scriptie onderzoek ik de circulatie van toneel tussen de Republiek en Batavia in de periode 1757-1771 (de jaren waarin in Batavia een schouwburg bestond). Mijn onderzoek laat zien dat de...Show moreIn deze scriptie onderzoek ik de circulatie van toneel tussen de Republiek en Batavia in de periode 1757-1771 (de jaren waarin in Batavia een schouwburg bestond). Mijn onderzoek laat zien dat de Nederlandse toneelcultuur een wereldwijde verspreiding kende in de achttiende eeuw. Het toneel uit de Bataviase schouwburg bedient zich van strategieën om de Nederlandse koloniale macht in Oost-Indië te rechtvaardigen. Opvallend hierbij is dat het kolonialisme niet zoals in de negentiende eeuw mede-verantwoord wordt vanuit een beschavingsideaal. Kolonialisme wordt gerechtvaardigd op economische gronden.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
open access
Dutch Antillean writer Boeli van Leeuwen is strikingly absent in the study of Dutch postcolonial literature, despite his status as one of Dutch' most important Caribbean authors. Till this day,...Show moreDutch Antillean writer Boeli van Leeuwen is strikingly absent in the study of Dutch postcolonial literature, despite his status as one of Dutch' most important Caribbean authors. Till this day, only a few articles have been devoted to Van Leeuwen's oeuvre. In this thesis, I aim to formulate an answer to the question: in what way do Van Leeuwen's novels 'Schilden van leem' en 'Het teken van Jona' generate meaning? Why is it that 'plain facts' are insufficient to tackle these works? In my analysis I am proposing six possible readings that account for Van Leeuwen's novels that are overflowing with meaning. By studying their use of intertextuality, allegory, irony, Relation, metafiction and 'Caribbeanness,' I attempt to make the abundance productive that the reader encounters. In my conclusion I will argue that Van Leeuwen is ultimately reflecting on knowledge itself, since his writing constantly redirects the reader, without allowing a singular interpretation. The multiple voices, languages and traditions brought forth resist the monotonous and unambiguous discourse of the referential readings. Van Leeuwens fictional reality ultimately points towards itself and demonstrates the fiction hiding behind so-called plain facts.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
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Videogame scholar James Paul Gee has wondered on numerous occasions whether videogames have the capacity to inspire “a sort of embodied empathy for complex systems.” In this thesis I take that...Show moreVideogame scholar James Paul Gee has wondered on numerous occasions whether videogames have the capacity to inspire “a sort of embodied empathy for complex systems.” In this thesis I take that question one step further and ask whether they can do so for virtual ecosystems. In other words this thesis explores whether what makes up the environmental orientation of videogames, among other things, is a sense of embodied empathy for the ecosystems they simulate, and from what procedural, narrative, and visual conditions this sense of empathy may be derived. In order to provide a more substantial theoretical ground from which to launch my inquiry, I develop Gee’s understanding of embodiment according to Gordon Calleja’s concept of “incorporation,” which helps me clarify how videogames involve players in ecosystems in ways that are medium-specific. Additionally, I reconceptualize the notion of empathy according to Robert Pogue Harrison’s “garden of care,” from which I distil a particular kind of emotional and ethical response to the environment, one that I conclude features differently in each of the games I single out for analysis: Fate of the World, Waking Mars, and Stardew Valley. This response, which is founded on responsibility and engagement plays an important role in their environmental orientation by establishing a relationship of care between the player and the game environment. The nature of this relationship however, is different in each encounter, depending on the way the game environment manifests itself, and how openly it solicits care.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
open access
The tale of Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) has found its way to a children's audience despite the tensions it elicits around the idea of childhood. After the novel "The Little White Bird" ...Show moreThe tale of Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) has found its way to a children's audience despite the tensions it elicits around the idea of childhood. After the novel "The Little White Bird" (1902), where Peter appears for the first time, and its stage adaptation "Peter Pan" (1904), both explicitly intended for adults, Barrie arrived at his final version for children published in 1911, the novel "Peter and Wendy", through a tormented history of reworkings. My research aims at exploring the significance of Barrie’s constant reshaping of the Peter Pan materials in order to recast the story for a young audience. Moreover, I will investigate as to what extent the ambiguity and instability of the Peter Pan fictions have been tamed in its school and cinema adaptations. These adaptations have deployed strategies to counter Barrie’s rebellious attitude against the didacticism and pedagogic expectations which are conventionally associated with children’s literature. As will become clear in the following, Barrie challenged the traditional barriers between adults and children on many points. Nevertheless, Peter Pan has been singled out to become a cultural icon of children’s literature – hence, my central questions: How, exactly, did Peter Pan grow up into a children’s story? What conflicting discourses and ideologies concerning childhood may be seen to inform Barrie’s different versions of the Peter Pan story?Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
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La Bible des sept éstaz du monde de Geufroi de Paris fait partie d’une série de « Bibles intégrales », dont l’édition est l’objet des études de l’Équipe de Leyde’, formée en 1962 par Jean-Robert...Show moreLa Bible des sept éstaz du monde de Geufroi de Paris fait partie d’une série de « Bibles intégrales », dont l’édition est l’objet des études de l’Équipe de Leyde’, formée en 1962 par Jean-Robert Smeets † et continuée par Julia C. Szirmai. Dans ce mémoire de master, nous présenterons une édition du texte du Ms. BnF Fr. 1526 fol. 179r-182v, partie du Ms. mentionné par quelques auteurs, qui n’a pas été édité en entier jusqu’ici. Cette sixième partie de la Bible contient une description de l’Antéchrist, traitant la conversion des Juifs et la mort de Antéchrist, ainsi que le Jugement dernier, l’enfer et le paradis. Dans la deuxième partie de notre mémoire, nous essayerons d’apporter quelque lumière sur les sources possibles de cette partie du texte de Geufroi de Paris.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
open access
2018-06-01T00:00:00Z
In this paper I approach the novel Distant Star (1996) by Roberto Bolaño (Chile, 1953-2003) with the goal of rendering visible the reflection and articulation that it undertakes of the fields of...Show moreIn this paper I approach the novel Distant Star (1996) by Roberto Bolaño (Chile, 1953-2003) with the goal of rendering visible the reflection and articulation that it undertakes of the fields of literature/poetics and life/politics. By means of the development of a theoretical and methodological framework mainly influenced by Mieke Bal and Jacques Rancière, I reach the conclusion that the novel offers an original contribution to the problem of political commitment in the Latin American intellectuals of the 20th century. I introduce the concepts of "poetics of juego", "doubling/mirroring" and "menardism".Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
open access
When Sir Thomas Malory wrote Le Morte d’Arthur in the late fifteenth century, he used various sources of Arthurian sources from English and French medieval literature to create his own literary...Show moreWhen Sir Thomas Malory wrote Le Morte d’Arthur in the late fifteenth century, he used various sources of Arthurian sources from English and French medieval literature to create his own literary masterpiece. His work became one of the most well-known works of Arthurian literature, a high chivalric romance full of courtly love, high moral lessons and honourable knightly values. However, this work also contains unexpected passages of comedy and humour unusual for the genre of medieval chivalric romance. In this thesis, I will be analysing this unconventional aspect of Le Morte d’Arthur to discover what function the comedy serves within this literary work. I will provide a close reading of all relevant passages of the original Middle English Text. Then I will be comparing the original text to two modern translations by Dorsay Armstrong and Keith Baines, to discover how this unique element of comedy is rendered in the modern adaptations.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
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This thesis explores the way in which governmental and non-governmental political entities legitimize and deligitimize the use of violence by means of historiography. Through the analysis of...Show moreThis thesis explores the way in which governmental and non-governmental political entities legitimize and deligitimize the use of violence by means of historiography. Through the analysis of various politically motivated violent actions and campaigns this thesis investigates the way in which the use of politically motivated violence can be retroactively (de)legitimized through the use of historical narrative.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
closed access
Starting with his first translation in 1976, Allen Ginsberg has been popular among Turkish readers, and since then many young Turkish poets have considered him and his poetry a great influence....Show moreStarting with his first translation in 1976, Allen Ginsberg has been popular among Turkish readers, and since then many young Turkish poets have considered him and his poetry a great influence. Though his poetry has been translated by different publishing houses in different periods, Ginsberg’s recognition has increased in the early 90s with the establishment of the 6:45 publishing house, which started as an underground press with a particular focus on the Beat Generation writers. In this thesis, I will examine the 1976, 1991 and 2008 translations of "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg as published by different publishing houses, and the tripartite relation between the domestication of the source text, the aim of the translator and the perception of the poet by the reader as the text is manipulated by the translation.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
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This research incorporates my analyses, based on close-readings, of cultural representations of the posthuman, each of which embodies different anxieties and power-relations. I depart from the...Show moreThis research incorporates my analyses, based on close-readings, of cultural representations of the posthuman, each of which embodies different anxieties and power-relations. I depart from the assumption that there are three dominant anxieties represented here: the fear of disembodiment; the fear of a loss of human uniqueness; and a fear of totalitarian control in relation to technology’s dehumanizing potential. By close-reading Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell (1995) I address issues concerning the representation of the female cyborg as disembodied. Philip K. Dick’s Do Android’s Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) and the novel’s adaptation into Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner (1982) are analysed as challenging ideas about human nature and human uniqueness as based on more affective notions such as empathy. The analysis of the game We Happy Few (Compulsion Games, 2016) focuses on how the game thematises concerns about the dehumanizing potential of technologies in relation to notions of control and state-regulation. The aim of this research is to achieve a better understanding of the social and economic influences that shape different representations of humans and posthumans, and to demonstrate how definitions of what it means to be human are produced and represented in order to conceal their inherent fabricated, artificial character. I will demonstrate that fears and anxieties surrounding potential dystopic outcomes of human enhancement are all informed by (a fear of the loss of) power and control, and ideas of inequality and potential social disruption already present in society today.Show less
