This thesis discusses the origin and evolution of the ''dumb blonde'' stereotype in American cinema from the 1950s onwards and takes a look at why this stereotype does not seem as prevalent in...Show moreThis thesis discusses the origin and evolution of the ''dumb blonde'' stereotype in American cinema from the 1950s onwards and takes a look at why this stereotype does not seem as prevalent in contemporary times anymore.Show less
This thesis explores representations of women in three of William Shakespeare's festive comedies. It demonstrates how temporal transformations and the subversion of gender roles enable female...Show moreThis thesis explores representations of women in three of William Shakespeare's festive comedies. It demonstrates how temporal transformations and the subversion of gender roles enable female characters to assert agency, in defiance of societal norms and pre-determined life courses for women.Show less
This thesis explores intertextuality and palimpsest in adaptation on Shakespeare's Hamlet in the case of Lyndsay Faye's adaptation of Hamlet, The King of Infinite Space, and its context.
This research explores the use of visual metaphors in the novel Twilight. It focuses on identifying the most common metaphors related to sight, how their literal and figurative meanings differ, and...Show moreThis research explores the use of visual metaphors in the novel Twilight. It focuses on identifying the most common metaphors related to sight, how their literal and figurative meanings differ, and if there are recurring patterns in their usage. The study then delves into whether these patterns reflect typical language use and compares them to a larger corpus like COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English). Additionally, it analyses the ‘deliberateness’ of metaphors. The present work will apply Conceptual Metaphor Theory and other metaphor theories to Twilight by Stephanie Meyer (2002). By examining these elements, the research aims to paint a picture of contemporary metaphor use. Deliberate metaphors were found to be less common than non-deliberate ones. There were clear and distinct collocate clusters for some words, but not for all. In those cases the contextual meaning and the grammatical structure of the sentence were needed to indicate metaphoricity. Mostly conventional metaphors were found. This could be explained by Meyer’s younger target demographicShow less
This paper serves as an exploratory study into the causes and effects of rudeness in and on parliamentary discourse. The literature shows that populist speakers use distinct linguistic tactics, and...Show moreThis paper serves as an exploratory study into the causes and effects of rudeness in and on parliamentary discourse. The literature shows that populist speakers use distinct linguistic tactics, and that affective language, such as rudeness, can have polarising effects on speakers and audiences. This research hypothesises that populist speakers are primarily responsible for the increase of rudeness in parliamentary discourse, and that this has a negative effect on the compromising force of debate. This research was conducted by analysing three debates and identifying individual instances of rudeness. These instances were then tagged with their corresponding characteristics in statistical software. The data shows that rudeness is increasingly used in the Dutch Parliament, that it has a polarising effect, and that populist speakers are the most frequent producers of rudeness. The implications of this are that rudeness is a linguistic phenomenon that runs counter to well-functioning democratic debate with a goal of compromise.Show less
This thesis examines the concepts of populism and fascism as fodder for satirical themes in literature and as a device for warning of impending populist and fascist surges. Populism is a group...Show moreThis thesis examines the concepts of populism and fascism as fodder for satirical themes in literature and as a device for warning of impending populist and fascist surges. Populism is a group response to individual grievances and differences, and when compounded by social insecurities like ethnic and cultural insecurity and economic insecurity, can lead to a justification of fascism and the rise of authoritarian leaders. I will demonstrate the relevance of populism and fascism in a comparative literature analysis of Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street (1920) and Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here (1935).Show less
This thesis offers an analysis of some of the lyrics of Andrew Byrne Hozier, also known by his stage name “Hozier'', one of the most popular Irish artists in the current pop music scene. One of the...Show moreThis thesis offers an analysis of some of the lyrics of Andrew Byrne Hozier, also known by his stage name “Hozier'', one of the most popular Irish artists in the current pop music scene. One of the distinguishing features of his work is the many intertextual allusions to myth and literature,. There are three sources from which Hozier draws most of his textual inspiration: ancient mythology, Dante’s Inferno and Irish literature and history. Whilst fans often analyse his texts on websites such as Genius.com, there has not been any large-scale textual analysis of his lyrics in the academic field, which, according to this thesis, has to do with an academic negative bias towards such lyrics. However, Hozier’s intertexual strategies can be seen as bridging the gap between ‘ high’ and ‘ low’ culture. This thesis offers an intertextual anlaysis of some of the lyrics against the abckground of Gramsci’s theory of hegemony, and emply’s Boot’s notion of the difference between poems and lyrics. Chapter 1 considers the presence of classical mythology and Dante in Hozier’s lyrics, with a focus on “Swan Upon Leda”, read here partly as a political comment on the overturning of the Roe vs Wade ruling in the US. But the thesis casts its nets wide and includes connections to famous paintings depicting the myth, to W.B. Yeats and to H.D. The chapter ends with demonstrating the presence of Dante’s Inferno in Hozier’s work. Chapter 2 focuses on the use of Irish language and culture against the background of the decline of knowledge of the language throughout the decades. Here a useful comparison is made between the period of the Celtic Twilight and the modern age, and the theory by Gramsci is used to explain the position of Irish culture vs. British culture.Show less
Through a comparative literature analysis of medieval Arthurian texts and the BBC's Merlin, the following research explores Middle English moral values and Arthurian literary conventions to find...Show moreThrough a comparative literature analysis of medieval Arthurian texts and the BBC's Merlin, the following research explores Middle English moral values and Arthurian literary conventions to find out how these conventions have been translated into modern popular culture and to see what a 21st-century audience finds important in a historical retelling, with an emphasis on the characterization of the main characters and the portrayal of female roles.Show less
This BA thesis focuses on the perception and representation gayspeech as used by the character Kurt Hummel in the TV-series Glee (2009-2015). This has been analyzed by looking into online discourse...Show moreThis BA thesis focuses on the perception and representation gayspeech as used by the character Kurt Hummel in the TV-series Glee (2009-2015). This has been analyzed by looking into online discourse on his speech during the run of the show and how this compares to the gayspeak used by real life people. This thesis also looks at the examples used by these people and how they differ in opinion on the matter. The analysis suggests that the gayspeak used by Kurt Hummel has been made slightly stereotypical and therefore not at all representative of a large part of the male gay community.Show less
