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
This thesis examines how Ruth Ware's The Turn of the Key (2019), Floria Sigismondi's The Turning (2020) and Mike Flanagan's The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020) portray the governess as the true victim...Show moreThis thesis examines how Ruth Ware's The Turn of the Key (2019), Floria Sigismondi's The Turning (2020) and Mike Flanagan's The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020) portray the governess as the true victim of the story, instead of the children, as perhaps happens in Henry James's The Turn of the Screw (1898).Show less
