Adaptations of alternate history scenarios allow for an exploration of contemporary issues and concerns in a distanced yet familiar world. Each chapter of this thesis covers a case study of a...Show moreAdaptations of alternate history scenarios allow for an exploration of contemporary issues and concerns in a distanced yet familiar world. Each chapter of this thesis covers a case study of a recent adaptation of such an alternate history narrative: The Man in the High Castle (2015-2019), The Plot Against America (2020) and Watchmen (2019). These case studies explore how the adaptation revises the original text in order to captivate a contemporary audience and expose present-day issues in America. Through these case studies, this thesis proposes that, rather than functioning as warnings, the alternate America settings in these adaptations function as a reflection of actual America in the late 2010s, which allows for an exploration and critique of American society’s response and susceptibility to ideological and populist movements in times of crisis, and an reconsideration of racial inequality as America’s defining issue.Show less
A Jungian approach to Harry Potter would entail the idea that for the story to be complete, the characters must confront and integrate these many aspects of their psyche. However, as implied by the...Show moreA Jungian approach to Harry Potter would entail the idea that for the story to be complete, the characters must confront and integrate these many aspects of their psyche. However, as implied by the title of this thesis, not every significant character is capable of doing so for a variety of reasons. This thesis will largely concentrate on The Helper, The Villain, and The Hero; namely, Remus Lupin, Voldemort, and Harry Potter. This thesis will examine these characters’ journeys towards wholeness and will explore to what extent they are successful in completing their “quests.” By dividing this thesis into four parts, one for each character, and one for an in-depth literary examination of Jung’s theory of Individuation, this thesis will shed a light on Lupin, Voldemort, and Harry’s Shadow selves. After a comprehensive study of the seven books and an in-depth examination of these three characters, this thesis will conclude that not every character is capable of confronting their Shadow for a number of internal and external reasons. Using the characters of Remus Lupin, Tom Riddle, and Harry Potter, this study asserts that although Remus is incapable of embracing his Shadow Self and Tom is opposed to it, Harry eventually does so. Additionally, this thesis will illustrate that, much as Lily Potter’s love for Harry saved his life, it is love that enables him to embrace his whole Self; his dark and light Persona.Show less
This thesis discusses the concept of cultural identity in relation to three literary works. It argues that Kiran Desai’s novel, The Inheritance of Loss, highlights the postcolonial structure of its...Show moreThis thesis discusses the concept of cultural identity in relation to three literary works. It argues that Kiran Desai’s novel, The Inheritance of Loss, highlights the postcolonial structure of its characters’ identities, Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, The Namesake, focuses on the concept of diaspora identities, as defined by Stuart Hall; her short stories collection, Interpreter of Maladies, on the other hand, centres around the interplay between social and personal identities, as put forward by Margarita Azmitia. Instead of portraying cultural identity as a monolithic construct, all three literary works make a case for the fact that cultural identity is ever-changing and dynamic.Show less
This thesis discusses Virginia Woolf's feminist thought and Joanna Russ's feminist thought and argues the influence Woolf has had on Russ's feminist science fiction writing.
The fictional works of English author and Oxford philologist, J.R.R. Tolkien, have been subjected to many literary and comparative analyses ever since they first came within the purview of academia...Show moreThe fictional works of English author and Oxford philologist, J.R.R. Tolkien, have been subjected to many literary and comparative analyses ever since they first came within the purview of academia. Source criticism (i.e. the analysis of how Tolkien drew inspiration from medieval texts, Catholicism, WWI, etc.) and thematic oppositions, such as light vs. dark, have especially attracted scholarly attention. What has not yet been satisfactorily explored within source criticism and light-dark opposition is Tolkien’s use of the ‘shadow’ as a literary motif in 'The Lord of the Rings' and its possible resonances with Old English conceptions of the shadow. This study combines a close reading, philologically-minded analysis of 'The Lord of the Rings' with a comparative approach centred on the occurrence of shadows in Old English poetic contexts. In so doing, the arguments and evidence brought forth in this study make a strong case for shadow as both a viable literary motif throughout the narrative and as a likely area of borrowing from early medieval Old English poetry.Show less
This thesis assesses the relation between the novelistic work of French author Michel Houellebecq and the theoretical work of French Indologist and esoteric polemicist René Guénon. While this...Show moreThis thesis assesses the relation between the novelistic work of French author Michel Houellebecq and the theoretical work of French Indologist and esoteric polemicist René Guénon. While this relationship has been noticed before, it hasn’t been addressed in a more extensive study. This work questions how the concept of ‘tradition’, which is a key idea in Guénon’s theoretical work, can be interpreted in Houellebecq’s novels, and especially his 2015 novel Soumission. To adequately address this question, the first chapter sets out to explain and contextualize Guénon’s works Introduction to the Study of the Hindu Doctrines (1921) and The Crisis of the Modern World (1927). It explains the most important concepts of Guénon’s work, particularly the semantics of ‘tradition’. The author stresses that ‘tradition’, however a supposedly a-historical notion, is embedded within Guénon’s understanding of History as a gradual disintegration of authentic spirituality. The second chapter investigates how the concept of modernity is represented in several of Houellebecq’s novels. The author uses secondary literature by Van Wesemael, Betty and Sweeney to argue how the representation of modernity throughout Houellebecq’s novels is polyphonic, both progressive and reactionary. Within Houellebecq’s critique of modernity, the third chapter explores how Houellebecq’s novel Soumission fictionally represents Guénon’s idea of tradition. It poses that the representation of traditionalism in Soumission, as an expression of the rejection of modernity that is present throughout Houellebecq’s oeuvre, could be seen as part of a general current of Guénonian influence in Houellebecq’s oeuvre. This influence however, as the thesis concludes, should always be regarded from within the limits of literary representation.Show less
