This MA thesis contains analyses of the status of same-sex desire in late medieval Europe and researches how same-sex desire is depicted in three Arthurian stories written during this period: the...Show moreThis MA thesis contains analyses of the status of same-sex desire in late medieval Europe and researches how same-sex desire is depicted in three Arthurian stories written during this period: the Lai de Lanval, the Prose Lancelot and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The thesis examines whether these depictions engage with or react to the socio-historical circumstances around same-sex desire in the late medieval period.Show less
Christine de Pizan was one of the very first female authors in medieval Europe. She produced texts in which women are defended against misogyny. In her treatises Christine makes use of existing...Show moreChristine de Pizan was one of the very first female authors in medieval Europe. She produced texts in which women are defended against misogyny. In her treatises Christine makes use of existing misogynistic texts and uses them in her advantage in order to paint a positive picture of women. In addition she reprimands authors who besmirch the reputation of females. This thesis focuses on the manner in which she defends women against misogyny (which was common in medieval Europe) while she uses contemporary sources containing the very misogynistic ideas she argues against.Show less
Jonathan Edwards’ “Personal Narrative” is a chronological, retrospective account of Edwards’ spiritual life interposed with comments and reflections on his experiences with the Divine. He describes...Show moreJonathan Edwards’ “Personal Narrative” is a chronological, retrospective account of Edwards’ spiritual life interposed with comments and reflections on his experiences with the Divine. He describes multiple powerful, highly emotional encounters as he recounts his religious development from his childhood to the present. It stands as a central text of eighteenth-century spirituality, a touchstone of religious thinking in this period. This thesis argues that concerns with the fallibility of language are central to Jonathan Edwards’ “Personal Narrative” (c.1740), as he struggles adequately to describe spiritual experience in words even as that experience is said to go beyond language, including in its emotional and bodily effects.Show less
This thesis is an analysis of two modernist texts, Virginia Woolf’s 'Mrs. Dalloway' and Jean Rhys’ 'Good Morning, Midnight', as a means of exploring how the contrasting states of solitude and...Show moreThis thesis is an analysis of two modernist texts, Virginia Woolf’s 'Mrs. Dalloway' and Jean Rhys’ 'Good Morning, Midnight', as a means of exploring how the contrasting states of solitude and sociality influence self-concept. As both of these texts engage with concepts of selfhood amid themes of social engagement and social isolation, they make ideal candidates for an investigation of this kind. The intentions of this thesis are, firstly, to show how the texts reveal that perceptions of self can be moulded by these contrasting states of sociality and solitude, and, secondly, to highlight the novels’ depictions of the consequences of each state. Because the perceptions of self these states generate manifest themselves in real-world behaviour and essentially influence self-creation, it is worth considering these consequences as represented by a literary movement which so carefully scrutinised the dichotomies of perception and reality, and self and other. By employing a psychological approach to character analyses of selected figures in the texts, this research will cast light on these characters’ personal relationships with sociality and solitude, consequently revealing how their lives, and their understandings of themselves, are positively and negatively influenced by each.Show less
Because Isle of Dogs is simultaneously an animated picture involving talking animals and a work of socio-political critique, the movie and its central themes can be perceived differently by both...Show moreBecause Isle of Dogs is simultaneously an animated picture involving talking animals and a work of socio-political critique, the movie and its central themes can be perceived differently by both children and adults (Rosenburg). For children, Isle of Dogs tells the tale of a boy’s desperate quest to find his lost dog. For adults, however, themes of imprisonment such as dogs in camps allude to American soldiers in Japanese POW camps, Japanese American citizens in American internment camps, and the large amount of Jewish people in German concentration camps. For many adults watching the film, animals, and the dogs specifically, become allegorical vehicles for historical tenors. Moreover, contemporary political philosophies such as Trumpism are also respectively scrutinized, criticized, and satirized in the film, adding another layer of political allegory to this richly allusive film. In turn, the references to the various events that took place during the Second World War draw out contrasts and parallels with current American politics, emphasizing that history can repeat itself, according to Anderson.Show less
In literature, madness has frequently been used by female writers as a guise, or as Elaine Showalter refers to it, a mask, to express the inexpressible. Using Showalter's term of the 'mask of...Show moreIn literature, madness has frequently been used by female writers as a guise, or as Elaine Showalter refers to it, a mask, to express the inexpressible. Using Showalter's term of the 'mask of madness', this thesis explores the image of madness and its link to self expression in three contemporary novels by female authors. Through a close reading of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway (1925), Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing (1972), and Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects (2006) – novels all featuring protagonists exhibiting signs of mental illness – this thesis examines how the image of madness can feature as a response to oppression, and how it can be used as a tool for societal criticism.Show less
This thesis will analyse representation of disability in young adult fiction (YA). YA literature is a blooming genre, that could challenge readers' views about controversial topics. However,...Show moreThis thesis will analyse representation of disability in young adult fiction (YA). YA literature is a blooming genre, that could challenge readers' views about controversial topics. However, instead they often reinforce pre-existing stereotypes and literary tropes, upholding portrayals of disability as "other." David Mitchell and Sharon L. Snyder argue in Narrative Prosthesis: Disability and the Dependencies of Discourse, that, even though there are many fictional characters with disabilities, instead of accurate representation, disability is most often used as 'narrative prosthesis', a crutch on which the narrative depends. For example, if Captain Ahab had not lost his leg, his desire to kill Moby Dick - and thus the narrative - would not have existed. Analysing disability representation in YA shows that disability is still mostly used as a narrative device, despite a growing demand for more complex representation. By presenting the reader with marginalised, depressed, cured, dead, unmentioned and villainous disabled characters in the interest of driving the plot, the texts present disability as an encompassing characteristic instead of presenting disabled characters as complex people who happen to have a disability. Disability is a broad term that covers a scope of physical and mental conditions. Some novels, for example Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, include multiple forms and functions of disability, depending on the relation between the author and the disability. This thesis shows that there is a relation between authors' close familiarity with a specific disability and accurate representation, and that authors unfamiliar with their subject matter, often treat disability as a crux around which the story develops. Although, authors can have characters voice views which are not their own, close familiarity seems to avoid certain pitfalls in disability representation occurring in novels by authors less familiar with their subject matter. In other words, there is a link between the extent of authors' knowledge of a disability and its representation by the author. Using Mitchell and Snyder's critical theory of narrative prosthesis, I will analyse Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas and Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo.Show less
This thesis traces the ideal of Anglo-Saxon counsellorship in the Old English biblical poem 'Daniel.' To begin with, the thesis describes the ideal of Anglo-Saxon counsellorship according to a...Show moreThis thesis traces the ideal of Anglo-Saxon counsellorship in the Old English biblical poem 'Daniel.' To begin with, the thesis describes the ideal of Anglo-Saxon counsellorship according to a number of major Anglo-Saxon authors, like Wulfstan and Ælfric. Next, the study connects the Anglo-Saxon ideal of counsellorship to the Old English 'Daniel.' The study shows that the poem's depiction of good counsellors is remarkably similar to the ideal for Anglo-Saxon counsellors as described by the important Anglo-Saxon authors. Both the poem and these authors depict the ideal counsellor as righteous, wise and selfless. Therefore, the thesis argues that the Old English 'Daniel' should be read as a mirror for counsellors.Show less
Due to an increasing public push for multiculturalism in mainstream media, films have (at least since the 1990s) been attempting to give a more positive representation of what is deemed to be a...Show moreDue to an increasing public push for multiculturalism in mainstream media, films have (at least since the 1990s) been attempting to give a more positive representation of what is deemed to be a racial and cultural Other from the target audience’s perspective, and animation films are no exception. Case in point, while the two animated films discussed in this study, The Book of Life (2014) and Coco (2017), are made by different studios, they share a general goal of trying to give such a representation of a racial and cultural Other for a Western target audience. This goal makes these films some of the latest examples in a long trend of American animation aiming to broaden their representation of minority cultures and ethnicities, in response to pressure from various social movements in the 1990s (Palmer 2, 4). Consequently, such animation has increasingly received academic reading, with scholars studying the medium’s role in the representation of racial and cultural Others and multiculturalism in general. This study will add to this budding field by analyzing two contemporary iterations of this representational trend.Show less
William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is, among many other things, a play that subtly criticises the patriarchal society in which it is set, advocating a more equal society instead, and...Show moreWilliam Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is, among many other things, a play that subtly criticises the patriarchal society in which it is set, advocating a more equal society instead, and this interpretation is confirmed and built upon by Henry Purcell and Benjamin Britten in their respective operas based on the play.Show less
