An analysis of the liminal as a theme in three British fantasy novels from 1958-1974, centred around young, female characters. The thesis examines Catherine Storr’s Marianne Dreams (1958), Angela...Show moreAn analysis of the liminal as a theme in three British fantasy novels from 1958-1974, centred around young, female characters. The thesis examines Catherine Storr’s Marianne Dreams (1958), Angela Carter’s The Magic Toyshop (1967) and Doris Lessing’s Memoirs of a Survivor (1974). The liminal unveils contemporary ideologies around psychological development and the roles of children and women in society. The thesis evaluates the liminal motifs of each text against contemporary psychological, child development, feminist and literary theorists in order to explore boundaries and to reveal and deconstruct the dominant ideology in society.Show less
This essay will focus on the ways in which the house, and indeed the right to own property, shaped female experience in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1843), The Spoils of Poynton (1897) and Howard’s...Show moreThis essay will focus on the ways in which the house, and indeed the right to own property, shaped female experience in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1843), The Spoils of Poynton (1897) and Howard’s End (1910). The relationship between houses and female power will be explored through three chapters. The first will focus on The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and will examine the relevance of the house as a physical space within women’s lives. The second will look at The Spoils of Poynton in the context of female homelessness, shedding light on the importance of the female home in wielding power, as women without property are left disenfranchised throughout, as well as the precarious nature of female inhabitance of the home. The third and final chapter will examine Howard’s End in light of this. Women, able to take full ownership of the home, are able to exert control over their environment and exercise a relatively high degree of independence. Howard’s End, then, I will examine in terms of legal female ownership of the house and female inheritance. This essay will examine the role of the house in female agency within the novel, and how these novels emerge from, and form part of, the shifting political, social and legal context of the 19th Century.Show less
In this thesis, I am going to interrogate what might be meant by ‘feminism’ in the 1810s, what Austen might have understood by it, what we now understand by it and how we might apply those ideas to...Show moreIn this thesis, I am going to interrogate what might be meant by ‘feminism’ in the 1810s, what Austen might have understood by it, what we now understand by it and how we might apply those ideas to Austen’s fictions. I shall argue that, although Austen uses the rather conservative genre of the courtship novel, or according to Marilyn Butler, the conservative partisan novel, she employs this genre to subversively express her radical ideas (Butler 3). I shall explore the idea that Austen rarely made her views explicit in her work, due to the prejudice that was attached to feminist opinions at the time due to the life story of Mary Wollstonecraft; I shall trace the effect of Wollstonecraft’s biography on Austen in the next chapter. By investigating different aspects of the family in Austen’s novels, I shall demonstrate how Austen did express her ‘feminist’ opinions through her works, albeit subversively. In particular, I shall examine the weakness of authority figures in her novels. The weakness of these authority figures allows Austen’s heroines to exert more power and therefore have a greater sense of their own agency. I shall further argue that Austen employs the weakness of authority figures in her novels to inspire more feminist behaviour in her heroines, who are not the ‘perfect’ image of Georgian femininity but are nevertheless, as is clear to the reader, favoured over the other characters by Austen. I attempt to show that Austen’s ‘feminist’ tendencies can be seen in her praising her heroines beyond all other characters while these are the characters that display the most agency and therefore are seen to possess ‘masculine’ properties.Show less
Research into the representation of the main character Sara in each Western film adaptation created in the twentieth century. The thesis focuses on gender stereotypes and the representation of the...Show moreResearch into the representation of the main character Sara in each Western film adaptation created in the twentieth century. The thesis focuses on gender stereotypes and the representation of the significance of friendship, imagination and intelligence.Show less
This thesis employs queer and psychoanalytic theory in order to analyze three Gothic texts from the Romantic Period: William Godwin's 'Caleb Williams' (1794), Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' (1818),...Show moreThis thesis employs queer and psychoanalytic theory in order to analyze three Gothic texts from the Romantic Period: William Godwin's 'Caleb Williams' (1794), Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' (1818), and James Hogg's 'Justified Sinner' (1824). Through close readings, this thesis argues that the male protagonist's 'double' is a manifestation of his repressed homosexual desires. Do to societal pressure for normative behaviour, the protagonist experiences opposing feelings of desire and homophobia, ultimately causing his isolation and self-hatred.Show less
Although the target audience of Philip Pullman’s trilogy His Dark Materials, consisting of Northern Lights (1995), The Subtle Knife (1997) and The Amber Spyglass (2000) might seem to be children...Show moreAlthough the target audience of Philip Pullman’s trilogy His Dark Materials, consisting of Northern Lights (1995), The Subtle Knife (1997) and The Amber Spyglass (2000) might seem to be children and young adult readers, the books have also attracted numerous adult readers. In this fantasy story Pullman addresses important questions regarding issues such as religion, the existence of God and the function of belief, love, and death. But beyond all these controversial and difficult discussions, this thesis argues that the story itself is best understood as permeated by a sense of loss. In each part of the trilogy, a character ends up losing a loved one, be it a parent, child, sibling, daemon or lover. In the final book, the Authority, Pullman’s vague god figure, is also killed off, resulting in a collapse of religion and the Church as an institution. His two young protagonists, Will and Lyra, travel through the world of the dead and eventually free all the souls trapped there, and these souls dissolve into elementary particles and become part of the physical world. This leads to the question of what really happens after we die, if there is no Heaven, and we simply return to the state that we were created from. This idea completely undermines what we are taught by religions such as Christianity and Islam, that there is a life after death and one will go to heaven or hell depending on their actions and choices of this life. Thus, besides a physical loss caused by death, there is also a loss of faith. Finally, this thesis will argue that through his portrayal of religion, death and love in the trilogy, Pullman presents loss as a defining element of life, and this prevalent sense of loss enables him to redefine the meaning and function of religion, death and love in the 21st century, while also putting forward a new myth that might compensate for such losses.Show less
