This thesis explores the extent to which Middle English Romances's readers could have been familiar with the botanical matters referenced within these tales. The data has been gathered from 6...Show moreThis thesis explores the extent to which Middle English Romances's readers could have been familiar with the botanical matters referenced within these tales. The data has been gathered from 6 Middle English Romances: Lay le Freine, Sir Thopas, The Knight's Tale, Athelston, The Awntyrs off Arthur, and The Romaunt of the Rose. The research also includes explorations of non-romance texts and archaeobotanical results to discuss the presence of botanical matters in multiple facets of the lives of contemporary readers of the Middle English Romances.Show less
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 MA thesis examines the representation of hierarchy in John Milton's 'Paradise Lost' (1667/1674). Much scholarly attention has been devoted to Milton's representations of hierarchy within a...Show moreThis MA thesis examines the representation of hierarchy in John Milton's 'Paradise Lost' (1667/1674). Much scholarly attention has been devoted to Milton's representations of hierarchy within a specific context, such as his representation of gender hierarchies. However, throughout 'Paradise Lost' and his prose works Milton is preoccupied with this theme of hierarchy in a range of different contexts. Moreover, Milton's representations of hierarchical structures are not always straightforward and seem to differ depending on the context. In order to analyse this reoccuring theme, Milton's representations of hierarchy in 'Paradise Lost' and the relevant prose works will be examined within three different contexts, namely politics, gender, and ecology.Show less
This thesis sheds light on Ancrene Wisse and its ties to the medieval bestiary tradition. The thesis focusses on the historical context and textual tradition of the bestiary and compares the...Show moreThis thesis sheds light on Ancrene Wisse and its ties to the medieval bestiary tradition. The thesis focusses on the historical context and textual tradition of the bestiary and compares the findings to Part Four of Ancrene Wisse, which includes the section on the beasts of sin. By comparing the portayal of animals in both Ancrene Wisse and various bestiaries, this thesis explores the extent to which the popular genre of bestiaries might have influenced the form and function of the beasts of sin found in Ancrene Wisse.Show less
With suspended disbelief as opted by Trill, in this thesis, I have examined and revisited Hutchinson and Lanyer’s professions of faith. I have attempted to look at their works from a religious...Show moreWith suspended disbelief as opted by Trill, in this thesis, I have examined and revisited Hutchinson and Lanyer’s professions of faith. I have attempted to look at their works from a religious angle and interpret their motivations to write their texts accordingly. In conclusion, both Lucy Hutchinson in Order and Disorder and Aemilia Lanyer in Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum produced a new Genesis narrative with emphasis on the female presence. In rewriting the Genesis narrative with such an emphasis, they acknowledged the religious suppression of the female gender by the existing patriarchal society and addressed the need for a revival in personal religious experiences for women. To achieve that, they wrote about their own personal religious experiences and the religious experiences of their characters as an example for other women. Both Lucy Hutchinson and Aemilia Lanyer have felt this calling to guide their female readers to a new understanding of submission leading to a personal responsibility for their soul's salvation. Hutchinson and Lanyer have similarly interpreted submission to be a total, personal subjection to God. In Order and Disorder, Hutchinson shows that the notion of Biblical submission does not equal the silencing of the female gender and does not come from a place of authority. Instead, submission comes from a place of humility and servitude towards God and others. In Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum, Lanyer brings down patriarchal hierarchies as she calls her readers to a common subjection to God. In both Hutchinson and Lanyer’s accounts, there is no difference between men and women experiencing God’s grace. Lanyer underlines that both men and women have sinned and that both men and women can receive God’s grace. She uses the image of Christ as the Bridegroom and the Church as His Bride as the epitome of submission to one another. As Christ sacrificed himself for the Church, the Church should submit to Him an each other in return. Hutchinson confirms that submission to Christ results in a servitude towards others and an actively practiced faith. Furthermore, Hutchinson and Lanyer both describe the personal responsibility for women’s religious welfare. As described in the first chapter of this thesis on the Reformation, the religious landscape changed from a collective Christianity to an individual religious experience. As a result of this individualisation of faith, women are called to a personal, religious relationship with Christ. in Order and Disorder and in On the Principles of Religion, Hutchinson depicts how both she and her character Eve experienced salvation and transitioning from guilt into grace, and from grace into gratitude. In contrast, Lanyer interlaces the experiences of guilt, grace, and gratitude throughout her narrative. She engages the reader by showing that both men and women are subject to sin and need God’s grace. As a result, she depicts the reward of subjecting to God: as His Bride, the Church lives a joyful eternal life in His presence. At last, indeed, this thesis this thesis demonstrates that by writing and publishing their personal religious experiences, Lucy Hutchinson and Aemilia Lanyer guide their female readers to a new understanding of submission leading to a personal responsibility for their soul's salvation. Both Hutchinson and Lanyer present the way to salvation according the Reformed notions of guilt, grace, and gratitude.Show less
By analysing various works set in seventeenth-century Puritan New England, stemming from different periods, this thesis demonstrates that this historical period proves to be a fruitful allegorical...Show moreBy analysing various works set in seventeenth-century Puritan New England, stemming from different periods, this thesis demonstrates that this historical period proves to be a fruitful allegorical vehicle to critically reflect upon contemporary concerns of authoritarianism, and elements of inclusion and exclusion, such as the scapegoating and general position of marginalised groups within American society. It is foregrounded that Robert Eggers’ film The Witch (2015) builds on and continues a tradition in American Gothic fiction by revealing its close intertextual relations to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Gentle Boy” (1832), “The May-Pole of Merry Mount” (1832), “Young Goodman Brown” (1835), and The Scarlet Letter (1850), Arthur Miller’s The Crucible (1953), and Maryse Condé’s I, Tituba (1986). What decisively links these texts together is the centrality of the woods in each narrative as a space outside the restrictions of society, both in the Puritan period and contemporary times.Show less
The plays by Shakespeare have been adapted countless times. However, the original plays are often themselves based on other stories, or historical accounts. The history plays, for example, are...Show moreThe plays by Shakespeare have been adapted countless times. However, the original plays are often themselves based on other stories, or historical accounts. The history plays, for example, are written on the basis of historical accounts. In this sense, they are already adaptations in their own right. This makes any adaptation of one of his plays a double adaptation; an adaptation of an adaptation. This thesis will take this notion as its starting point. It will take a look at how Shakespeare used his sources in Coriolanus, and after analysing this play, two adaptations for the screen will be analysed, Ralph Fiennes 2011 film and Robert LePage’s 2019 stage adaptation. The focus of the analyses will be on which themes are emphasised in a particular adaptation, and how these themes are informed by the times in which the work was created. Fiennes and LePage move the political arena away from the speeches Shakespeare uses in his play. Instead, they create a modernised, media arena becomes the place where politicians fight for control over Rome.Show less
In royal (self-)representation, one recurring symbol is that of the phoenix. Symbolizing eternal life and hermaphroditism, the phoenix is connected to the theories of the body politic and the body...Show moreIn royal (self-)representation, one recurring symbol is that of the phoenix. Symbolizing eternal life and hermaphroditism, the phoenix is connected to the theories of the body politic and the body theatrical. The phoenix was used as a symbol by both male monarchs, such as James VI & I (1566-1625), Louis XIII (1601-1643), and Louis XIV (1638-1715), and female monarchs such as Elizabeth I (1533-1603) and Christina of Sweden (1626-1689). Elizabeth I’s use of the phoenix symbol is generally understood to refer to perpetual renewal and eternity,1 whereas Christina of Sweden’s use of the phoenix symbol is interpreted as a reference to hermaphroditism and the dual-gendered body politic. Scholarship on the French kings connects the phoenix symbolism to contemporary (political) anxieties over monarchial succession. To date, no systematic study has been made of the phoenix symbol as an expression of monarchial succession anxiety in early modern English society. This is curious, since the English monarchy has seen quite a number of problematic successions since the death of Henry VIII in 1547 and throughout the seventeenth century. The last decades of the reign of Elizabeth I, who died childless in 1603, is known to have caused succession anxiety. Therefore, this thesis aims to fill this gap in scholarship by performing a quantitative as well as a qualitative analysis of the occurrence of phoenix symbolism in early modern English literature and art, with an emphasis on the symbol’s use as an expression of succession anxiety. For the study of the occurrence of the phoenix symbol in early modern English literature, the Early English Books Online (EEBO) database has been used. A search on EEBO for the keyword ‘phoenix’ yielded 5810 hits in 2768 records/documents. The search results were manually sorted, excluding documents referring to the Elizabethan frigat ‘Phoenix’ and the Phoenix Theatre in Drury Lane, London. Ultimately, 2474 documents containing phoenix symbolism were identified (listed in Appendix A), of which 270 documents directly refer to either a monarch or to royal succession (listed in Appendix B). These results have been visualized in the graphs depicted throughout this thesis in order to clarify my arguments. For the qualitative analysis the most interesting and noteworthy EEBO search results have been selected for analysis. The quantitative and qualitative analyses presented in this thesis reveal that the phoenix symbol can be considered an expression of anxieties over succession. The phoenix symbol is not only used as a universal symbol of the monarchy, but also often served to specifically invoke the memory of the persona ficta and the (posthumously mythologised) reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Instead of being a general symbol of royalty, the phoenix symbol in early modern English society was often used to signify Queen Elizabeth I or her reign, which was hailed as the Golden Age as part of the rhetoric of nostalgia as well as her posthumous memorial cult. This strong connection to Elizabeth I caused the use of the phoenix symbol to soar in the first half of the seventeenth century. Ironically, this strong connection is also the main reason for the symbol’s downfall at the end of the century. Moreover, the Scientific Revolution and the demythologisation of the monarchy caused royal symbolism in general to lose its significance and its meaning by the start of the eighteenth century. The rise and fall of the phoenix symbol, spanning from the mid-sixteenth until the early eighteenth century, mirrors these socio-political developments.Show less
This thesis analyses how the character and stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle have been adapted in season three and four of the BBC’s Sherlock and how the character of the detective develops...Show moreThis thesis analyses how the character and stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle have been adapted in season three and four of the BBC’s Sherlock and how the character of the detective develops throughout these two seasons. This analysis was performed through the lenses of both Adaptation Theory (Hutcheon, Joyce, Kline) and Character Studies (Eder, Jannadis & Schneider, Redmond), in order to achieve a complete picture as to how the character of Sherlock Holmes was adapted from Doyle’s stories and further developed for the television series. This study, first critically explores the stories and the character of Holmes in Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories and how the detective handles the situations in which he finds himself as well as how he interacts with other characters. The second chapter studies the development of the character of Sherlock throughout both seasons of the series, with an emphasis on season three, as well as explore the cases Sherlock gets involved in, since they are starting to bleed into his personal life. The third chapter focuses on season four of BBC Sherlock, in which the character of Sherlock and his relationships completely overshadow the cases, shifting the series towards the genre of melodrama. The series is compared to the content of Doyle's stories throughout all chapter in order to explore how the creators of the television series adapted the Victorian Holmes to a twenty-first century Sherlock.Show less
This thesis examined Maxine Hong Kingston's three works on Chinese Diaspora life in American, namely The Woman Warrior, China Men, and Tripmaster Monkey. It demonstrates the individual trauma and...Show moreThis thesis examined Maxine Hong Kingston's three works on Chinese Diaspora life in American, namely The Woman Warrior, China Men, and Tripmaster Monkey. It demonstrates the individual trauma and collective traumas Chinese American immigrants endures and also examines the strategies to fight against victimization and the differences between different groups in fighting their trauma. The three works also serve as Kingston's working through her own personal trauma to establish her a mature Chinese American Identity.Show less
A comparative study of the ways in which African American authors Ralph Ellison and Toni Morrison use the classical tradition in their novels Invisible Man and Song of Solomon. The thesis explores...Show moreA comparative study of the ways in which African American authors Ralph Ellison and Toni Morrison use the classical tradition in their novels Invisible Man and Song of Solomon. The thesis explores the texts through the lens of reception theory and considers the potential problems involved in writing about black classicism or 'classica africana.' It finds that both Ellison and Morrison not only comment on the classical tradition but also, through strategic allusion and appropriation, challenge the ideas of cultural purity and literary hierarchy it has historically been used to assert.Show less
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
