This thesis will discuss how Le Guin has adapted both the standard medieval dragon and the dragons in the narratives of Tolkien and Lewis in her own work, The Books of Earthsea.
This thesis analyzes two American novels as interventions in the cultural memory of slavery. By considering Toni Morrison's seminal novel Beloved (1987) and Nathan Harris's contemporary text The...Show moreThis thesis analyzes two American novels as interventions in the cultural memory of slavery. By considering Toni Morrison's seminal novel Beloved (1987) and Nathan Harris's contemporary text The Sweetness of Water (2021) as documents of cultural memory, this thesis argues that they contribute to an understanding of the history of slavery and reflect cultural changes in how it is remembered publicly.Show less
This study analyses the representation of different ghosts in Anglophone novels taking place during Vietnam’s twentieth-century history and how the novels and ghosts challenge the dominant cultural...Show moreThis study analyses the representation of different ghosts in Anglophone novels taking place during Vietnam’s twentieth-century history and how the novels and ghosts challenge the dominant cultural narratives. Within this thesis, I argue that these ghosts are presented in different manners depending on how the novel challenges the dominant narrative and memory, whether the ghosts and characters in the novel enact the cultural norms in the United States or Vietnam, and which kind of haunting is observable in the novel. Regardless of these factors, the ghosts challenge the dominant collective narrative in a specific imagined community, a collection of communities as a whole, such as the dominant collective memory prevalent in the United States or Vietnam, or on a worldwide scale. The thesis focuses on the following three novels. The first of these novels is She Weeps Each Time You’re Born (Barry 2014), where ghosts are present as metaphysical entities that try to pass on into the afterlife through recounting their deaths whilst simultaneously introducing formerly silenced information and ghosts as unobservable entities where trauma and grief haunt the living. The second novel analysed is On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (Vuong 2020), which presents the intertextual ghosts that serve as metaphors as trauma influences the character’s everyday lives and the family becomes similar to a ghost due to their invisible existence in the United States after immigrating. The third novel is The Mountains Sing (Phan Quế Mai 2020), where a character nicknamed Wicked Ghost is similar to a metaphysical ghost and haunts the neighbourhood and protagonist’s family. Alongside the character nicknamed Wicked Ghost are the unobservable ghosts of trauma and grief which haunt the protagonist and her family, as well as the ghost as a metaphor for the absent presence of historical events institutionally forgotten. These novels discuss events before, during, and after the Vietnam War from the perspective of a Vietnamese author and Vietnamese characters, and all three novels include a variety of ghosts that are either metaphysical or intertextual. Thus far, little research has been done on such novels, as their increased representation is recent. This study then serves as a starting point for other academic research that might surround ghosts’ function in Anglophone literature on conflicts in Vietnam.Show less
In this thesis, I explore depictions of fascism in 1930s American literature. Specifically, I analyse William Faulkner’s Light in August, John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, and Sinclair Lewis’s...Show moreIn this thesis, I explore depictions of fascism in 1930s American literature. Specifically, I analyse William Faulkner’s Light in August, John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, and Sinclair Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here. The former two novels do not explicitly engage with fascism, but aspects of the texts were linked to fascism by their authors. Faulkner retroactively referred to the character Percy Grimm from his book as a fascist, and Steinbeck linked the agriculture sector in California, which features heavily in his novel, to fascism. Lewis engages with fascism directly in It Can’t Happen Here as he envisions a fascist dictatorship in the United States. These texts are relevant today as fascism is not a concept of the past. They can be used to discuss visions of fascism in 1930s American Literature and what fascism may look like in the United States. I use a combination of close reading and the theory provided by Robert O. Paxton in The Anatomy of Fascism, as well as additional sources for necessary historical context to analyse each of the novels. I will argue that while only one of the novels explicitly engages with fascism, all three texts portray fascism to some extent and can be used to identify possible bases of fascist action.Show less
This thesis provides a Jungian perspective on Joyce's representation of Stephen Dedalus' developmental journey to adulthood and his quest to become a successful artist. It analyses the parallels...Show moreThis thesis provides a Jungian perspective on Joyce's representation of Stephen Dedalus' developmental journey to adulthood and his quest to become a successful artist. It analyses the parallels between Joyce's conception of the unconscious mind and Jung's intricate map of the psyche found in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and Ulysses (1922).Show less
This thesis explores the views on gender and gender differences that can be found in three works of Virginia Woolf. The focus is on questions of whether there are differences between men and women,...Show moreThis thesis explores the views on gender and gender differences that can be found in three works of Virginia Woolf. The focus is on questions of whether there are differences between men and women, and if there are, what these differences are and whether they natural or cultural. When reading the works To the Lighthouse, Orlando: A Biography, and A Room of One's Own together, a clear preference for the view that differences between men and women are socially constructed rather than the result of biology can be found.Show less
This thesis analyses two Young Adult adaptations of Shakespeare plays (Hannah Capin’s Foul is Fair for The Tragedy of Macbeth and Dot Hutchinson’s A Wounded Name for The Tragedy of Hamlet), and...Show moreThis thesis analyses two Young Adult adaptations of Shakespeare plays (Hannah Capin’s Foul is Fair for The Tragedy of Macbeth and Dot Hutchinson’s A Wounded Name for The Tragedy of Hamlet), and examines how changes in the setting, the characterisation, and the community influence the agency of the female main character.Show less
The history of mankind is intrinsically linked to the history of narrative, since it is in our very being to communicate, and to produce narratives. In earlier times, people sat around the campfire...Show moreThe history of mankind is intrinsically linked to the history of narrative, since it is in our very being to communicate, and to produce narratives. In earlier times, people sat around the campfire or in the banquet hall to partake in the telling and hearing of stories about the world, about gods and higher powers, about heroes or extraordinary events, and so on. In the late 20th century, this oral tradition made a mainstream resurgence of sorts in western culture, with the rise of the (tabletop) Role Playing Game or ‘TTRPG’. These games, while not exact replications of oral tradition, are heavily reliant on its orality and collaborative storytelling elements, and its gameplay owes much to the narrative features and typescenes of oral tradition, especially medieval oral tradition, since the original TTRPG’s were inspired mainly by the medieval period. While scholars such as Walter J. Ong (Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word, 1982) have already discussed oral tradition in detail, its link to the relatively new medium of the TTRPG has yet to be touched upon in scholarship. This thesis will attempt to close this gap to a degree, by investigating to what extent the non-linear narrative structure of the TTRPG Dungeons and Dragons resembles that of medieval oral tradition. First, this thesis will define what exactly constitutes medieval orality, by presenting (among others) Walter J. Ong’s theory pertaining to the “Psychodynamics of Orality,” and illustrating the presence of his characteristics in extant historical sources of medieval oral tradition, such as the Old English Beowulf and the Norse sagas. Second, an overview will be provided of the popular TTRPG Dungeons & Dragons, detailing its content, gameplay mechanics, history, and development. Finally, this thesis will demonstrate the relation between Dungeons & Dragons and medieval orality, by applying Walter J. Ong’s theory on oral characteristics to the TTRPG. In so doing, this thesis will demonstrate that (TT)RPG’s can provide valuable contributions to the scholarly fields wherein the topic is otherwise overlooked.Show less
This thesis explores the themes of family, loss and belonging in Wes Anderson's Rushmore (1998), The Darjeeling Limited (2007), and Moonrise Kingdom (2012). The thesis connects objects and places...Show moreThis thesis explores the themes of family, loss and belonging in Wes Anderson's Rushmore (1998), The Darjeeling Limited (2007), and Moonrise Kingdom (2012). The thesis connects objects and places within these films to the abovementioned themes, and shows parallels between the use of objects in these films and the way in which objects are used in George Eliot's novel The Mill on the Floss (1860) - objects have a multiplicity of functions in both. Key to Anderson's films are relations between characters, and objects and places in the films signify these bonds. In the end, the characters in the films find a place to belong in the other.Show less
This thesis takes three works of prose fiction from the Victorian and Edwardian period that contain animal characters that interact with the human world. The fantastic narratives that will be...Show moreThis thesis takes three works of prose fiction from the Victorian and Edwardian period that contain animal characters that interact with the human world. The fantastic narratives that will be explored are: Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865); Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Books (1894-5); and Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows (1908). Furthermore, it argues that anthropomorphism and zoomorphism act as core elements in these narratives to describe the complex formation of identity in Victorian Britain and to provide an opportunity covertly to criticize issues in the Victorian social class system. Furthermore, the thesis analyses these magical worlds as places where children’s imagination can play with the animal-human divide.Show less
Since the twenty-first century, feminist retellings of myths have become increasingly popular. As an epic, Homer’s The Odyssey brims with female characters. However, mythology is often considered...Show moreSince the twenty-first century, feminist retellings of myths have become increasingly popular. As an epic, Homer’s The Odyssey brims with female characters. However, mythology is often considered to consist of archetypal and universally applicable stories about the nature of the universe and human life, which often leads to the notion that myth is stagnant and unchangeable. As a rising genre, feminist revisionist mythmaking aims to focus on the role of women in myth. By using Hélène Cixous’ essay The Laugh of Medusa and Alicia Ostriker’s definition of feminist revisionist mythmaking, this thesis aims to illustrate how Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad (2005) and Madeline Miller’s Circe (2018) revise and adapt previously marginalised female characters. This thesis will give an analysis of the women in Atwood’s The Penelopiad, focussing on Penelope’s voice and reputation, female rivalry, and the unjust hanging of the maids, followed by an analysis of Miller’s Circe that focusses on Circe’s voice and personal growth, sisterhood, and female sexuality. Both The Penelopiad and Circe confront issues such as gender and justice that are present in The Odyssey as well as present-day society. By focussing on women’s presence in a literary canon that historically seen has been dominated by the male gaze, Atwood and Miller emphasize that these women have survived despite the male-focused dominance and that it is never too late for them to speak up.Show less
