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
This thesis investigates the reasons for non-compliance with IMF conditionality in PRGF programmes. After describing the main arguements of constructivists and rationalists on the issue of...Show moreThis thesis investigates the reasons for non-compliance with IMF conditionality in PRGF programmes. After describing the main arguements of constructivists and rationalists on the issue of compliance it makes use of two case studies, Kenya and Tanzania, and uses the method of controlled comparison to identify factors that influence the extent of compliance. A comparison of these two case studies shows that ownership over the reform programme, influence of donors, and the lack of consequences in case of non-compliance are important factors in determining the extent of compliance.Regarding the theoretical framework, it concludes that constructivist arguments are better at explaining why countries do not comply with conditions, whereas rationalist arguments explain how this is possible.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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This thesis carries out a linguistic survey of the ANA epigraphic material from Tayma conventionally known as Taymanitc. The following will consist of three main parts. The first part will include...Show moreThis thesis carries out a linguistic survey of the ANA epigraphic material from Tayma conventionally known as Taymanitc. The following will consist of three main parts. The first part will include a general introduction to ANA and the development of our knowledge of Taymanitic; the issue of literacy in the society of Tayma and the significance of writing will be discussed, as well as some theoretical issues concerning phylogenetic linguistic classification. The second part will be a grammatical sketch based on all the attested linguistic features in the Taymanitic corpus. Following the grammatical sketch will be a discussion of the linguistic features of Taymanitic that are relevant to classification in order to establish Taymanitic’s position in the Semitic family tree and within the subgroup of ANA. To make the texts easily accessible and to give insight into the analysis underlying the grammatical sketch, an appendix will be added containing the philological commentaries on the longer narrative texts that formed the basis of the presented grammatical sketch.Show less
An exploration of the possibility of forgiveness and reconciliation through repentance and remorse as portrayed in The Winter's Tale and The Tempest. Moreover, this thesis seeks to demonstrate that...Show moreAn exploration of the possibility of forgiveness and reconciliation through repentance and remorse as portrayed in The Winter's Tale and The Tempest. Moreover, this thesis seeks to demonstrate that these works belong to one of the first to provide us with a unique insight into the evolution of our modern-day concept of interpersonal forgiveness.Show less
Een onderzoek naar metafooradviezen, de Conceptual Metaphor Theory en framing in veelgelezen Nederlandstalige presentatieadviesboeken uit de periode 1980 tot 2013.
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
open access
This thesis focuses on the proficiency in the English language of Hendrik Albert Schultens (1749–1793), a third-generation Dutch scholar in oriental languages of Leiden University who travelled to...Show moreThis thesis focuses on the proficiency in the English language of Hendrik Albert Schultens (1749–1793), a third-generation Dutch scholar in oriental languages of Leiden University who travelled to England in 1772 for scholarly purposes. I reconstructed Schultens's social network and investigated his proficiency in English on two points: his use and non-use of the auxiliary 'do' and his use of participial -ing clauses. The thesis contains an edition of thirty-eight eighteenth-century English letters, both received from Schultens's British acquaintances and sent by Schultens himself, the whole of which was transcribed to serve as the corpus of my thesis. I also reflected on the potential reason for Schultens to be interested in learning the English language when, in eighteenth-century Europe, French and Latin were still the two major languages in international contacts. I believe it to be due to the fact that there were so few scholars working in the field of oriental languages and that he wished to exchange information on an international level. In search of potential peers, he was not only prepared to look overseas, but also to immerse himself into the study of his peers’ language and culture for a better exchange of knowledge. When it comes to Schultens's English, he proved to have obtained the level of a near native when he left England. A remarkable achievement after only nine months. Of course he might have studied the English already in the Netherlands, potentially individually. From his first letter on he mastered the use op auxiliary 'do', despite the fact that a similar periphrastic construction does not exist in Dutch. On the other hand, his first two English letters contain errors in his use of participial -ing, or to be more exact: in his use of 'being'. In Dutch 'zijnde' (the Dutch equivalent of 'being') may be used in subordinate clauses to reduce relative clauses (i.e. to make sentences shorter). In English this type of usage of 'being' does not exist. In his first two letters, Schultens still had to figure this difference out. However, by staying long enough in the country of the goal language and leading an active social life among native speakers of English he evidently managed to get a grip on its right usage after all.Show less
In de huidige maatschappij wordt steeds vaker van mensen gevraagd om een presentatie te geven. Sommige mensen worden onzeker als ze een presentatie moeten geven voor publiek en deze onzekerheid kan...Show moreIn de huidige maatschappij wordt steeds vaker van mensen gevraagd om een presentatie te geven. Sommige mensen worden onzeker als ze een presentatie moeten geven voor publiek en deze onzekerheid kan ze belemmeren in het dagelijks leven. Deze mensen hebben een lichte vorm van speechangst, dat is een soort spreekangst. Specifiek is het de angst die verbonden is aan gesproken communicatie in een specifieke situatie (Dwyer & Baartmans, 2003). Tijdens dit scriptieonderzoek is onderzocht hoe een methode eruitziet die mensen met lichte speechangst in groepssituaties met face-to-facecontact kan helpen om zelfverzekerder te spreken voor publiek en die zo veel mogelijk profiteert van inzichten uit de adviesliteratuur en van presentatieprofessionals en onderbouwd is door wetenschappelijk onderzoek. Om deze methode te kunnen construeren is nagegaan welke oorzaken er zijn voor speechangst, welke methoden er zijn om zelfverzekerder te leren spreken, aan welke kwaliteitscriteria de methode moet voldoen en wat presentatieprofessionals vonden van de eerste versie van de ontwikkelde zogenoemde zelfverzekerdheidsmethode. Het scriptieonderzoek heeft geleid tot de conclusie dat de basis van de zelfverzekerdheidsmethode bestaat uit drie deelmethoden: diepe buikademhaling, vaardigheidstraining en visualisatie. Diepe buikademhaling zorgt voor rust bij de spreker, vaardigheidstraining gaat ervan uit dat sprekers onzeker zijn voor het geven van een presentatie, omdat ze niet alle vaardigheden hebben die ervoor nodig zijn en dat deze onzekerheid vermindert als een spreker de benodigde vaardigheden leert. Tot deze vaardigheden behoren bijvoorbeeld het opbouwen, leren beheersen en uitvoeren van de presentatie. Visualisatie is het laatste onderdeel van de methode. Dit onderdeel laat de spreker zijn presentatie voor zich zien. Hij moet dan bedenken hoe hij naar de locatie van de presentatie toe gaat, hoe hij de presentatie uitvoert, tot een goed einde brengt en hiervoor applaus krijgt. Tijdens visualisatie maakt de spreker in zijn hoofd zijn eigen realistische succesfilm. De zelfverzekerdheidsmethode is geconstrueerd aan de hand van de drie deelmethoden. Een eerste kwaliteitscontrole van de zelfverzekerdheidsmethode heeft plaatsgevonden door deze te laten beoordelen door vier presentatieprofessionals. De commentaren van deze presentatieprofessionals hebben hoofdzakelijk gezorgd voor aanpassingen op drie algemene punten: de duur van alle oefeningen is aangepast, het taalgebruik is volwassener geworden en bij de uitleg van de oefeningen is er meer rekening gehouden met het onverwachte.Show less
In this thesis my research question is to find out how the male gaze influenced the relation between representations of female bodies in video games and sexualisation and weakness. Firstly I look...Show moreIn this thesis my research question is to find out how the male gaze influenced the relation between representations of female bodies in video games and sexualisation and weakness. Firstly I look at what other scholars have written about the representation of female characters in video games and note how objectification and the sexualised representation of women implicitly tends to be associated with the negative role stereotyping and passive gender roles. In questioning this, I take a different approach compared to previous research. Drawing from feminist and gender theories, I analyse three female characters that each depict a different relation between the body, male gaze and power. I show how the two characters who appear to be lesser sexualised, Zelda and Samus, appear to suffer more severely from the male gaze than Bayonetta does. Bayonetta, in turn, can be analysed as a critique towards the male gaze and masculine status. From the analysis I will conclud that it is not exclusively the visual appearance that determines whether a character is portrayed as weak or not, but that the gaze plays an important role as well.Show less
Master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (MA)
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The Egyptian fortresses in Lower Nubian for the time of the Middle Kingdom were one of the most impressive ancient Egyptian architectural monuments. Unfortunately, currently most of them are lost...Show moreThe Egyptian fortresses in Lower Nubian for the time of the Middle Kingdom were one of the most impressive ancient Egyptian architectural monuments. Unfortunately, currently most of them are lost under waters of the Aswan High Dam. Therefore any new research is based on the previous archaeological report. This thesis focuses on the architecture of the internal buildings inside the fortresses. Is also brings a new look at the ancient Egyptian fortification through their comparison with the Roman fortification. The Roman fortifications are much more know and better preserved. This comparison was possible thought the similar nature of both ancient armies. The thesis also deals with a smaller fort Wadi al-Hudi, which is often claimed to be a smaller version of the Nubian fortresses.Show less
Bachelor thesis | Nederlandse taal en cultuur (BA)
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Lange tijd leek er een duidelijk verschil te zijn tussen jeugd- en volwassenenliteratuur, maar de afgelopen decennia zijn er steeds meer boeken bijgekomen die lastig in te delen zijn; de grens...Show moreLange tijd leek er een duidelijk verschil te zijn tussen jeugd- en volwassenenliteratuur, maar de afgelopen decennia zijn er steeds meer boeken bijgekomen die lastig in te delen zijn; de grens tussen de twee literaire systemen is aan het vervagen en volgens sommigen is die grens er zelfs helemaal niet meer. Sinds de jaren negentig wordt er meer onderzoek gedaan naar het grensverkeer en jeugdliteratuur in het algemeen. Binnen deze onderzoeken zijn de zogenaamde dubbelpublieksauteurs interessant. Dit zijn schrijvers waarvan zowel boeken voor kinderen als voor volwassenen is verschenen. Onderzoek doen naar dubbelpublieksauteurs binnen het kader van het grensverkeerdebat kan bijvoorbeeld door primaire teksten van dit soort schrijvers met elkaar te vergelijken. Door hun jeugd- en volwassenenliteratuur naast elkaar te leggen kan onderzocht worden welke overeenkomsten en verschillen er eventueel zijn tussen de teksten voor lezers van verschillende leeftijden. Daarbij kunnen ook de werkinterne en werkexterne literatuuropvattingen met elkaar worden vergeleken. Er wordt dan onderzocht of de uitspraken van dubbelpublieksauteurs over literatuur en schrijverschap (werkextern) overeenkomen met de poëtica die uit hun primaire werk spreekt (werkintern). Bart Moeyaert is zo’n dubbelpublieksauteur. De hoofdvraag van deze thesis luidt als volgt: ‘Welke overeenkomsten en verschillen zijn er tussen de werkexterne en werkinterne opvatting van Bart Moeyaert over de grens tussen jeugdliteratuur en volwassenenliteratuur?’Show less
This study concerns the EU's external policies in Bosnia and Herzegovina and their effectiveness. The policies of the EU in Bosnia and Herzegovina since the Dayton Accords in 1995 are analysed from...Show moreThis study concerns the EU's external policies in Bosnia and Herzegovina and their effectiveness. The policies of the EU in Bosnia and Herzegovina since the Dayton Accords in 1995 are analysed from a constructivist point of view, and the effectiveness of these policies is studied. Although the EU has been involved in Bosnia and Herzegovina for almost twenty years, both during the war and afterwards, the goal of Bosnia and Herzegovina becoming at least an EU candidate member state has not yet been reached. The EU has invested millions of euros a year in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but its economy is still very unstable and the unemployment rate has increased. The EU itself has engaged mainly with Bosnian politicians for the responsibility of improving Bosnia's unstable situation. However, at the same time the EU criticises these same politicians for not being able to reform to a society that is divided by ethnicity. With their policies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the EU has only been acting from its own identity and values, and has not taken into consideration the Bosnian history and identity in this process. Due to this, the EU policies on Bosnia and Herzegovina have been ineffective for they only act from a European perspective. In their attempt to make democracy succeed, the EU has enforced democracy on Bosnia and Herzegovina, resulting in a contradiction in terms against the values that the EU stands for. The principle of conditionality that is used by the EU to compel Bosnia and Herzegovina to reform is weakened by this contradiction. That leads to a credibility gap in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which undermines the EU's efforts and further increases the ineffectiveness of their actions.Show less
